New topic Photos

[scarface]

Note that I'm probably going to add a few more photos in this topic soon (some photos of Paris, and maybe Grenoble...).

[scarface]

Tonight, here are a few photos for the users of the forum...


A view of Grenoble – from the Bastille (For humbert: There is a Bastille outside Paris, and this one was not demolished)


A view from the terrace of my appartment



In Lyon, at the train station of La-part-Dieu  (The gare de Lyon is actually in Paris).



Maybe some of you know that I left the Ile de France region. I spent practically 15 years of my life over there and I lived in the 11th,16th and th17 arrondissment of Paris and in Sceaux, so I know Paris and the Hauts de Seine pretty well. I'm now discovering the region where I was born. I'm now living in the south of Grenoble. In Sceaux I was spending roughly 45 minutes in my car to go to work each morning and each evening. It wasn't easy but I was actually teleworking a lot. With the current stikes in France (it's not unusual) and the shortages of unleaded gasoline, I'm happy not to be in Ile de France, the region most affect by shortages of gasoline. Grenoble is much smaller than the Paris region so the shortage of gasoline is not a problem here.But  Sceaux was an amazing town and I sometimes regret it. It was very beautiful and very wealthy. I still don't think I will spend all my life here.
I would be glad to see some photos of others users of the forum in this topic. We don't have photos of India or Sweden, I'm sure Vasudev or shadow.97 could post some beautiful photos here. So don't hesitate if you have interesting stuff.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoJVMjYNqkc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9fK6A6CmMo

[scarface]

Tonight, I'm posting  few photos that were not present on the forum. I know that the users of the forum, as well as humbert, aa1234779 and Gulliver like them. Those photos were taken in September 2017 in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.


Inside the romantic Monceau Park.



On the avenue Hoche. You can see some beautiful haussmannian buildings.
Across the street, there is a tramp.



On the place Charles de Gaulle-Etoile. A view of the Arch of Triumph.



A beautiful car in front of the Hotel Royal Monceau on the avenue Hoche.



Here you can see Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky Cathedral. This Church, unveiled in 1861, became a historic monument in 1963. Its building was a logical result of a growing up Russian immigration at the beginning of the 20th century that became more pronounced during the 1917's revolution and under the Bolshevik regime. It's a main Orthodox church of Paris (with the amazing Saint-Serge de Radonège church, in the 19th arrondissement). Discreet, you won't see the Cathedral from the exit of the metro neither from the beginning of the rue Daru, where it stands at the number 12. To enjoy a panoramic and wonderful view, go to rue Pierre le Grand from boulevard de Courcelles. Here, you will distinguish in front of you the neo-byzantine architecture style of the cathedral contrasting with that of the private mansions surrounding it. Admire, among other things, the huge central fresco and the five pyramids and their golden onion-shaped dome.

[humbert]

You're correct that by San Antonio standards the place is extremely expensive. It's not just that. Even if I had the cash, what am I going to do with a property in Crest? Why would I even want to visit the town, let alone move there? If it was in a fun place like Amsterdam, then who knows. 

[scarface]

You're correct that by San Antonio standards the place is extremely expensive. It's not just that. Even if I had the cash, what am I going to do with a property in Crest? Why would I even want to visit the town, let alone move there? If it was in a fun place like Amsterdam, then who knows. 

Actually I sent a mail to humbert to tell him I would be ready to sell this house for 180 000€, or even less to someone I know. But I knew that humbert wouldn't be interested since he lives in the United States.
Don't be mistaken, Crest is not that small. It's a town of 8000 inhabitants, but there is probably a population base of 20 000 inhabitants.
Actually the surroundings of Crest are pretty desert, it's a rural area. But since it's the biggest town of the Drôme valley (Valence is the biggest town of the Drôme department- Note that In French there is another "Valence", a much bigger town located in Spain and known as Valencia),  you can basically find everything in Crest: a movie theather, a public swimming pool, a library (note that in French the word "librairie" means "book shop"), several supermarkets, a dump, several middle and high schools (but no university), tennis and equestrian clubs, football and rugby fields and even a small hospital (if you are very ill you are sent to Valence or Lyon). Actually in Summer, there is a lot of Dutch tourists (but no German), because it's a perfect place for cycling. What's more the highest dungeon of France is in Crest (if you want to see it, search "Tour de Crest".
And every Saturday there is a big market and a lot of visitors who are attracted by the beautiful handicrafts. I went to this market yesterday and I bought artisanal honey.
Finally you might think that this town is isolated. Well, it's true that in winter Crest is a bit empty. it's not as densely populated as Cairo or Jakarta. But if you want to go to Lyon or Paris by train, the train station of Valence TGV is only 42 minutes away. And you don't even need a car since there is a train station in Crest (a small one). If you take the first train at 5.45 am, you will be in Valence TGV at 6.20 am. The first train to Paris is at 6.35 am. And you will be in Paris gare de Lyon before 9am. 

I put a map of the Drôme department below. This map is a bit deceptive because it's not a density map. It shows the population of the towns. Basically you have 3 big towns in the Department, Valence, Montélimar and Romans on the Isère river in the north of the department. Roughly 80% of the population is located in the Rhone Valley, a strip of land of 5 kms along the Rhone river  (if you include Romans). The Rhone valley, which is the frontier between Drôme and Ardèche is the main population centre. In France the Rhone valley is also the second population center after the Paris region with towns such as Lyon, Avignon and Marseille (in the delta of the Rhone). This map is a bit deceptive because you could think that the east of the department is populated (after all you can see orange and yellow colors) and yet it's very mountainous and extremely sparsely populated. When you have 500 inhabitants in a town of 30 km², the population density is pretty low. In fact in the towns in the east of the department it's even hard to sell a house because it's isolated. It's not the case in Crest, which is both a population centre and not too far from Valence.

[scarface]

Today, I'm going to show you a few photos of the Business district of La Défense.
Then I'm going to discuss its future in the exceptional conference below.














La Défense questions the future of office towers, between telework, climate crisis and energy tensions.

A rather special meeting was held in la Défense at the end of November, organized by the public establishment Paris La Défense (PLD). The title of the event - the "States General of the Transformation of the Towers" set the tone. The priority, even the urgency, is the existing. The hunt for carbon disrupts the established order. In subtext, it is also the very future of the urban project of the "glorious thirties" that is at stake - teleworking, the climate crisis and tensions over energy having made the future of the vertical world more uncertain than ever. The conference focused on office towers, of those of the first, second and third generations. From the towers of La Défense (Hauts-de-Seine), to the skyscrapers of Chicago and Sydney. But of the Hekla tower, the latest addition to the Parisian business district, the one whose inauguration was taking place the next day, Thursday, December 1, and marked the arrival of the architect Jean Nouvel on this slab, no word.
The specialists of the office towers assure it: if there must remain only one business district, it will be it, the largest in Europe, soon served by four transport lines. EY, a big name in consulting, is moving, but the years 2021 and 2022 remain great vintages, insists the president of the real estate consulting group CBRE, Grégoire de la Ferté: respectively 220,000 m2 and 200,000 m2 of transactions, "largely above the ten-year average, at 140,000 m2".

Nevertheless, the words are there: "This is not the first time that La Défense has experienced a crisis, it has gone through a dozen since its creation", says Pierre-Yves Guice, the director general of the establishment. audience. But there, "the model is shaken in its financial foundations, its uses, its sustainability, and we are not equipped to resolve these issues". When, yesterday, freeing up square meters, connecting new subways, deregulating and building higher made it possible to weather the storms, today, "we can't do that anymore," he explains. Because there is no more land - we are coming "to the end of the historical development of the district". Public money, nothing more. Hence the file on the table, and the exhortation to find, in six months, concrete solutions.

The message is addressed to the owners, who each weigh several billion euros and are asked, for once, to play collectively. Some are known. But since La Défense is also the kingdom of financialized real estate, others are more difficult to reach. There is a starting postulate. The figure does not appear in any report, but the public establishment estimates that 1 million square meters of offices, or a quarter of the park, presents a "risk of technical and energy obsolescence" in the decade to come.

These are towers built before the 2000s that have not yet been renovated. They no longer meet market standards (large, bright, high ceilings) or environmental standards. And the tertiary decree which obliges to reduce energy consumption by 40% before 2030, 50% by 2040 and 60% before 2050 for any area greater than 1,000 m2 is catching up with them head on.

The other fact is that demolishing to rebuild is no longer possible. "In this post-carbon future, we will have to give up new high-rise construction," warns Raphaël Ménard, president of Architecture Recherche Engagement Post-Carbon (AREP), the largest architecture agency in France. So it's about taking care of those 4 million m2 – "10 million tonnes of CO2", "2 million m3 of concrete" – already there.
A speech that suits Emmanuelle Baboulin, the director of the Icade property company, owner of three towers in La Défense. The restructuring of Eqho, the former headquarters of IBM, has cut energy consumption in half. But the sums at stake are considerable. Rehabilitation costs as much, if not more, than new (3,000 to 4,000 euros per square meter).

Inevitably, the question of the "use" of the buildings arises. Should office towers continue to be filled with office? Introduce housing, services? "The great advantage, with what has been happening for three years – the Covid, the climate, inflation – is that no one disputes the need to re-examine the way of making the city, notes Pierre-Yves Guice. The office no longer offers the same profitability, it is more uncertain. With mixed projects, we pool the risk. »

The director of PLD admits to having no idea of the outcome of these exchanges. One thing is certain, "it will not be a program that will tell the future of La Défense ten or twenty years from now". "Directive planning would be a misinterpretation, when you don't see six months ahead. At least he hopes that the subject of the future of office real estate is essential in the public debate. And, with it, the need to find viable new software for the business district.

[scarface]

Tonight, I'm going to show you another photo.
Look carefully at the photo below.




Vasudev and aa1234779 must have noticed the snow-covered mountain range in the background. They certainly didn't know that the Ile de France region was so mountainous.
Actually, this photo was taken on the boulevard Joseh Vallier in Grenoble and the mountain range is called Belledonne, in the Dauphiné Alps in southeast France. The southern end of the range forms the eastern wall of the mountains that surround the city of Grenoble.  I'm sure that the sight of the snow-covered mountains make you feel better.
 
If you have read some books of Stendhal, you probably know the quote "At the end of every street is a mountain". This quote is referring to Grenoble, of course.
Nicknamed "capital of the Alps", Grenoble seems crowned by the snow-capped peaks that surround it. In the 19th century, the writer Stendhal was born in this impressive natural setting. All his life, he maintained an ambivalent relationship with his hometown. Stendhal left Grenoble to Paris to become a writer indeed. In the novel "The life of Henry Brulard", he has an almost visceral aversion to it. In "Memoirs of a Tourist", he ends up reconciling with it. 
Stendhal's Novel 'The Red and the Black' is one of the most profound works in world literature for the past 200 years and remains surprisingly modern to this day. The author managed to show from the inside a condition of the French society in its structural development, in interaction of social strata and controlling groups.

[scarface]

Tonight, new photos are available on the forum.

Look carefully at the photos below.


If humbert is looking at this photo, he must be thinking that it's a photo taken between Vegas and San Francisco, with the peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background. Actually, this photo was taken between Sassenage and Grenoble. As far as the mountains are concernred I think it's Belledonne, but I'm not sure.



On the Bvd Marechal Foch, in Grenoble.


Here you can see the fortress of the Bastille in the background, on the hill.






Maybe some of you have discovered the museum of Saint Etienne here: https://www.nomaher.com/forum/index.php?topic=2283.msg34449#msg34449
I have to add more comments though.
I think I should visit the museum of Grenoble too, some users could be interested.

[humbert]

The pics of the road. Did you take them while you were driving or what? What car do you have?

You mentioned the Bastille. Didn't you say that was destroyed during the French Revolution? Or is this something else?

[scarface]

The pics of the road. Did you take them while you were driving or what?
You mentioned the Bastille. Didn't you say that was destroyed during the French Revolution? Or is this something else?

Yes I took them while I was driving. It's a urban highway, and in the suburbs of Grenoble, the speed limit is 70 km/h. As you can see, there is the beginning of a traffic jam too.
The Bastille Was destroyed in Paris indeed, But there is another fortress known as the Bastille in Grenoble.

What car do you have?

A recent Nissan car.