Scenes of Vintage Paris

It’s hard not to be enamored by the city of Paris – its history, beauty and mystique will inevitably make it one of your most fondly remembered landscapes, one you look back on like a former lover, with regret and awe. Of course the feeling is multiplied in pictures, which in some way may be why it’s magical in the first place, because you ache for its gestalt when you’re not there. Either way, these are the things that bring Paris and her visitors together and it’s why the images like the ones below feel so good to see.

I’ve assembled a small collection of photos and prints to perpetuate the Parisian mythos, photos from around the turn of the century and before, the time period that really defined the feeling you get when you think about the city, be it true or completely fabricated by your dreaded sentimentality.

Adolphe Potemont – Ancien Pont St Michel et quai de marché neuf. Etching circa 1860

Charles Meryon – Le Pont au Change 1854

Albumen print photograph “Birds eye view of Paris” 1860s by photographer “J.D.” In the photo can be seen the Louvre fully enclosed by the soon-to-be-destroyed Tuileries Palace.

Gabriel Loppe – La Tour Eiffel dans le soleil couchant

Petite Palais around 1900

Rue Galande, around 1860

Part of the Paris World’s Fair Exhibit 1900

Photograph by legendary turn of the century Parisian photographer  Eugène Atget.

Some of the Parisian façonnable.

Vintage photographic postcard, 1906, circulated, published by P. Marmuse, Paris, France.

photo credit: postaletrice

photo credit: Lena_J

The Moulin Rouge

And finally, no turn of the century montage would be complete without mention of “La Fomidable” Moulin Rouge, probably the most synonymous icon of the period.

The moulin from Boulevard de Clichy

The back patio of the Moulin Rouge otherwise known as the Jardin de Paris. Beyond the parlor is an enormous stucco elephant, originally constructed for the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889 and moved to the Moulin shortly after. For a single franc gentlemen would access the elephant’s interior by way of a spiral staircase up its leg, where he’d be entertained by belly dancers in a luxurious opium den. Naturally, women were not allowed.

Sadly, the elephant didn’t make the Moulin’s 1906 rebuild and was gone upon its reopening. It did however make a comeback in the eponymous 2001 movie.

Scenes of revelry outside the Moulin Rouge.

For more scenes of vintage Paris take a look at the Belle Epoch Flickr Group.