#CelineWandersAndWondersInParis

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Wednesday Wandering and Wondering - The Silver Photomaton (photobooth) edition

This one is front TaBobine. Not a vintage photo booth per say but still cute. They are designed and manufactured in France.

The photo booths are the culmination of a project carried out since 2014 by 3 friends who are Arts et Métiers and ParisTech engineers: to produce an attractive, reliable machine that will enable millions of people to capture the memory of a specific moment on high-quality glossy paper.

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Wednesday Wandering and Wondering - The Silver Photomaton (photobooth) edition

The glamour one but not a true vintage one like the previous photo-booths I share that are from the FotoAutomat collective which is working to preserve the silver photographic heritage.

Studio Harcourt is a photography studio founded in 1933. It is known in particular for its black-and-white photographs of movie stars and celebrities, but having one's photo taken at Harcourt a few times during one's life was once considered standard by the French upper middle class.

Often imitated but never equaled, the Harcourt style has become a pledge of eternity, an iconographic reference which, over the years, has established itself as an essential signature. A true institution today labeled "Living Heritage Company", the Harcourt label is part of the collective unconscious and continues its quest for timelessness, carving its imprint on the imagination of time. Pictorial memory of the great artistic, cultural and political figures of the 20th century, the legend stands out as obvious, defying the passage of time.

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Wednesday Wandering and Wondering - The Silver Photomaton (photobooth) edition

The one closest to us and hidden in a children clothes store so my kids are not embarrassed when I ask them to take photo with them ;-)

Since 2007, FotoAutomat has been saving, restoring and bringing to life the last silver photomatons in France.

Designed in the 1950s, these photobooths are rare historical pieces, with fewer than fifty still in use worldwide.

The FotoAutomat collective is working to preserve this silver photographic heritage.

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Wednesday Wandering and Wondering - The Silver Photomaton (photobooth) edition

The one tucked in the corner of the Louvre Carrousel.

Not a FotoAutomat (true vintage) but a TaBobine

The photo booths are the culmination of a project carried out since 2014 by 3 friends who are Arts et Métiers and ParisTech engineers: to produce an attractive, reliable machine that will enable millions of people to capture the memory of a specific moment on high-quality glossy paper.

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After visiting Bibliothèque St Genevieve and favorite the Bibliothèque Nationale de France it’s time to have a look at Bibliothèque Mazarine just across from l’académie française.

The Bibliothèque Mazarine, or Mazarin Library, is located within the Palais de l'institut de France. Originally created by Cardinal Mazarin as his personal library in the 17th century, it today has one of the richest collections of rare books and manuscripts in France, and is the oldest public library in the country.

The library today contains about 600,000 volumes. The oldest part of the collection, brought together by Mazarin, contains about 200,000 volumes on all subjects. The more modern collections specialize in French history, particularly religious and literary history of the Middle Ages (12th–15th centuries) and the 16th and 17th centuries. Other specialities are the history of the book and the local and regional history of France.

Among the library's collection of 2,370 incunabula is a Gutenberg Bible known as the Bible Mazarine. The original is kept in a vault, while a facsimile copy is on display in the reading room.

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Wednesday Wandering and Wondering - The Silver Photomaton (photobooth) edition

International edition. After London I found one in Miami… they mentioned that it was inspired by the vintage street photo booths found in Europe

Since 2007, FotoAutomat has been saving, restoring and bringing to life the last silver photomatons in France.

Designed in the 1950s, these photobooths are rare historical pieces, with fewer than fifty still in use worldwide.

The FotoAutomat collective is working to preserve this silver photographic heritage.

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Académie Française.

The place where 40 members known as les immortels ("the immortals") remained responsible for the regulation of French grammar, spelling, and literature.

The Académie is France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language.

The Académie publishes a dictionary of the French language, known as the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, which is regarded as official in France. A special commission composed of several (but not all) of the members of the Académie compiles the work.

The Académie Française, also known as the French Academy, is the principal French council for matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution, it was restored as a division of the Institut de France in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the oldest of the five académies of the institute. The body has the duty of acting as an official authority on the language; it is tasked with publishing an official dictionary of the language.

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Wednesday Wandering and Wondering - The Silver Photomaton (photobooth) edition

The international one - I came upon this one in London

Since 2007, FotoAutomat has been saving, restoring and bringing to life the last silver photomatons in France.

Designed in the 1950s, these photobooths are rare historical pieces, with fewer than fifty still in use worldwide.

The FotoAutomat collective is working to preserve this silver photographic heritage.

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Wednesday Wandering and Wondering - The Silver Photomaton (photobooth) edition.

The one found by all the Instagram influencers when walking around Montmartre. On the weekend there is usually a long queue.

Since 2007, FotoAutomat has been saving, restoring and bringing to life the last silver photomatons in France.

Designed in the 1950s, these photobooths are rare historical pieces, with fewer than fifty still in use worldwide.

The FotoAutomat collective is working to preserve this silver photographic heritage.

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Wednesday Wandering and Wondering - The old “Photomaton” (photobooth)

Since 2007, FotoAutomat has been saving, restoring and bringing to life the last silver photomatons in France.

Designed in the 1950s, these photobooths are rare historical pieces, with fewer than fifty still in use worldwide.

The FotoAutomat collective is working to preserve this silver photographic heritage.

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Wednesday Wanderings and Wonderings - Journées Européenne du Patrimoine* Edition.

Écoles des Mines de Paris at the Hôtel de Vendôme in Jardin du Luxembourg.

I visited this one as a nod to hubby since he wasn’t in Paris. Found out afterwards he had visited it on a previous Journée du Patrimoine. Oh well.

For those of you who don’t know us IRL, hubby and I met at Colorado School of Mines…. He was there studying, I was there partying (just to be clear 😂). Would we have met if he had gone to this “School of Mines”? What I can tell you is that the buildings in Paris are beautiful, and you can feel the history walking thru the corridors. I’m not saying that the one in Colorado doesn’t hold lots of history (I remember students who had their dads and granddads going to the school) but I don’t remember the beautiful buildings. I do remember it was across the street from The Coors Brewery. So there’s that in their corner 😂😂

And now the history blah blah:

Mines Paris – PSL, officially École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris (until May 2022 Mines ParisTech, also known as École des mines de Paris, ENSMP, Mines de Paris, les Mines, or Paris School of Mines), is a French grande école and a constituent college of PSL Research University. It was originally established in 1783 by King Louis XVI. The school disappeared at the beginning of the French Revolution but was re-established by decree of the Committee of Public Safety in 1794. It moved to Savoie, after a decree of the consuls in 1802. After the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, the school moved to the Hôtel de Vendôme (in the 6th arrondissement in Paris' Jardin du Luxembourg). From the 1960s onwards, it created research laboratories in Fontainebleau, Évry, and Sophia Antipolis (Nice).

* European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, Europe: a common heritage. The annual programme offers opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, many of which are not normally accessible to the public.

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Wednesday Wanderings and Wonderings - Journées Européenne du Patrimoine* Edition.

La Tour Chicago.

If I’m being honest I wanted to go visit La Cour des Comptes (Court of Auditors) not only because it’s a very nice building but the main reason was to be able to see one of the first skyscrapers in the capital built fireproof and invisible from the street: Chicago Tower.

Its name comes from its architectural inspiration. With its ten floors on the surface (two in the basement), the Chicago Tower is one of the first skyscrapers of the capital. It was built in 1898 in non-combustible materials to house the archives of the Court of Auditors in the most secure way possible. In 2009, it was transformed into an office tower.

One very small skyscraper indeed.

NB: there’s a high limit of 37m/121ft (about 12 floors) for all construction in Paris intra muros (it was put in place in 1977 until 2010 and got reinstated again last year)

* European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, Europe: a common heritage. The annual programme offers opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, many of which are not normally accessible to the public.

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Wednesday Wandering And Wondering - Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève.

This is a hard place to get a tour of. Once I got in I realized why. They only take 5 people per day. But our guide was a delight and extremely knowledgeable. I really wanted to see the reading room Salle Labrouste. Bibliothèque Nationale de France is still my favorite but I have a few more on my list to visit.

Sainte-Geneviève Library (is a university library of the universities of Paris, administered by the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University located across the Panthéon.

It is based on the collection of the Abbey of St Genevieve, which was founded in the 6th century by Clovis I. The collection of the library was saved from destruction during the French Revolution. A new reading room for the library, with an innovative iron frame supporting the roof, was built between 1838 and 1851 by architect Henri Labrouste. The library contains around 2 million documents, and currently is the principal inter-university library for the different universities of Paris.

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Wednesday Wanderings and Wonderings - Basilica Cathedral of Saint Denis.

A couple months ago, I took a little trip in the suburbs with a friend and it just happened that it was Fete de la ville de Saint Denis so entrance fee was waived.

La Basilique-cathédrale de Saint-Denis is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance historically and architecturally as its choir, completed in 1144, is widely considered the first structure to employ all of the elements of Gothic architecture.

The basilica became a place of pilgrimage and a necropolis containing the tombs of the kings of France, including nearly every king from the 10th century to Louis XVIII in the 19th century. Henry IV of France came to Saint-Denis formally to renounce his Protestant faith and become a Catholic. The queens of France were crowned at Saint-Denis, and the regalia, including the sword used for crowning the kings and the royal sceptre, were kept at Saint-Denis between coronations.

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Wednesday Wanderings and Wonderings - Journées Européenne du Patrimoine* Edition.

Ministère de la Justice at Hotel Bourvallais on Place Vendôme.

The gorgeous office and meeting rooms used by all the Ministers of the justice department. Play we got to see the different Seals and the history of them.

The Ministry of Justice, founded in 1790, is a ministerial department of the Government of France, also known in French as la Chancellerie. It is headed by the Minister of Justice, also known as the Keeper of the Seals, a member of the Council of Ministers. The French Ministry of Justice prepares laws and regulations in a wide range of areas and guarantees the proper functioning of the judiciary (courts and tribunals). It also defines and implements public policies relating to justice: access to law and justice, combating domestic violence, etc.

Since the Fifth Republic, after sealing the Constitution of October 4, 1958, it became common practice to seal some constitutional modifications. It was last used in March during a public ceremony on International Women's Day for an amendment enshrining abortion rights into the French constitution. [Ed. note: Right women have since 1975 in France] France is the first nation to guarantee the right to an abortion in its national charter. According to Macron, this decision was spurred by the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision to rescind long-held abortion protections. Last year, Macron pledged to protect the right to abortions in France following the U.S. decision.

* European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, Europe: a common heritage. The annual programme offers opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, many of which are not normally accessible to the public.

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Wednesday Wanderings and Wonderings - Journées Européenne du Patrimoine* Edition.

Got to visit the beautiful building of La Cour des Comptes (Cour of Audit) and learn about the ins and outs of the institution.

The Cour des Comptes ("Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 and 1958 French constitutions made it the Court's duty to assist the Cabinet and Parliament in regulating government spending. The Court thus combines functions of a court of exchequer, comptroller general's office, and auditor general's office in common-law countries. It is also a Grand Corps of the French State and mainly recruits among the best-ranked students graduating from the Ecole nationale d'administration.

*European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, Europe: a common heritage. The annual programme offers opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, many of which are not normally accessible to the public. It aims to widen access and foster care for architectural and environmental heritage. The event began in France in 1984, with La Journée portes ouvertes dans les monuments historiques, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture. In 1985, in Granada, at the 2nd European Conference of Ministers responsible for Architectural Heritage, the French Minister of Culture proposed that the project be internationalised under the Council of Europe. The Netherlands held their first Open Monumentendag in 1987. Sweden and the Republic of Ireland joined in 1989, as well as Belgium and Scotland in 1990. In 1991 these events were united as European Heritage Days at the initiative of the Council of Europe, supported by the EU. By 2010, 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention had joined the EHDs.