So currently I’m on a train from Brussels to Rotterdam. Thought I’d write a quick entry before I forget. I’m not too sure where I left off last, and which holes I haven’t filled. Since arriving in Paris from Bern, its been OK – great place to finish off the France section. So the day after my last entry – I turned up to the Eiffel Tower at about… 8:30 am. The lines weren’t so bad – maybe 30 people in front of me. There were 3 lines. Of course, I ended up in the line which was walking only. 670 steps to the second floor. Quite hard in the beginning, but it gets easier once you pass 200 steps. Then an elevator all the way to the top. It was great when I got there since not too many people had reached the top yet, so I was able to walk around freely enough. The view is quite nice. There weren’t too many people walking about either since it was sprinkling. Grabbed a few shots up there before heading back down.
Then walked over to the Arc De Triomphe. Who knew there was an underground passage way to get there. I just navigated through the 5 lanes of traffic. It wasn’t that busy when I was there. Walked again, up the few hundred stairs to get to the top. Love the wide angle – I hope the shots turn out alright – just being able to fit 3 streets in at a time makes the image look sweet. Went back to the hostel to grab Nick, before heading back out to the Arc De Triomphe and walk down the Champs Elysees, then into the Lourve. There were no lines, so it was a quick walk in. It was a great place to escape the rain. The place is huge, and most people say it’d take at least half a day, if not two to see the whole lot. Notre Dame was next, then the Pantheon and then Centre Pompidou – which looks… kinda crap. Maybe I just don’t appreciate it, or the whole thing didn’t fit in one shot.
The next day, headed off to Lisses / Evry Courcouronnes to meet Rhys – basically the greatest parkour practitioner in Australia. He was… late, quite late, but once he arrived, everything started to look like what you’d see in videos. As we were walking to Lisses from Evry, I spoted a few things, one main one being the Dame Du Lac. Its a whole lot smaller than it looks in videos but its still at a crazy height once you stand at the foot of it. Getting to Lisses, you can see the stairs which David Belle descends from one to the other, and a small training quad which many videos and photos have been shot. Unfortunately I didn’t catch Rhys on those stairs, but grabbed some at the quad. Around the corner is a famous set of red/brown stairs, yellow/orange walls. I grabbed shots of this, but no action shots. The school where the roof gaps were just a bit further down. A rock right next to a 6 foot fence which many people jump straight over. Rhys showed me a local training route which the locals often do. Its a square park with rocks and trees around the boundary of the park. The aim it to not touch the floor, and if you do then to start again. The jumps get longer and harder, and climbing the trees is necessary. We hit the Dame Du Lac next, and that thing is amazing. As we got in, Rhys couldn’t help himself, and scaled it as fast as any other person I’ve seen. Its an impressive structure , in my eyes, built for nothing else but parkour – maybe rockclimbing in the early stages but its intention was to be a piece of artwork. I unfortunately didn’t scale it all the way to the top, but I did climb it.
A short walk back to Evry and we found a common playground in most videos shot in Evry. Here there were locals and guys from everywhere else there, practicing. It was great to see kids there, giving it a go, and wanting to. The other people there are all helpful, and its a great thing to see, something thats lacking in Australia. Watching Rhys progress is one of the most inspirational things you could ever see. He just tries and tries, there was a cat precision he has wanted to land for a while which he has seen last time, but wasn’t able to do it, and this time, after a few attempts, nailed it. Once is never.
Then it was to see the man power jump. The jump only 3 people (could be wrong about that) have done – David Belle being one of them. It was… not as big as I thought it was. Its a decent drop at 4 metres, the length would be about… 4 metres also. There was no way to get up there unless I hung off the outside of the stair case, so my shots of it are only from the ground.
It was a brilliant day, and the weather was great, I just hope the photos turn out looking amazing. Chilled out dinner last night. Met one of Nicks friends for lunch today before heading onto our train. I think there’ll be over a weeks worth of processing time for all my photos. I’ve been shooting RAW for the whole of yesterday, and quite a few more times in RAW.
France was pretty cool, Lisses definately topped it off for me. Just passed through Brussels, which we’ll be coming back to. So its Rotterdam for a night, and then Amsterdam for 3 before heading back into Brussels for 3 and then I’ll be off into London. I’ll be visiting the attractions on one day, one other day I’ll head off to Cambridge to check out the Parkour scene there because I’ve been told there will be quite impressive people showing up there. Also a bunch of Aussie guys will be there as well.
Written by Milton Lai