User:ThePromenader

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This user is a Parisian.

This user participates in the WikiProject History of Photography.

I award this The Tireless Contributor Barnstar to ThePromenader for exceptional work, enthousiasm on the Paris related articles and never sacrificing quality. Despite all your troubles, your work has not come unnoticed. Captain scarlet 08:40, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

ThePromenader, I hereby award you the Photographer's Barnstar for your beautiful photo of the Eiffel Tower at night, in spite of its complex copyright status. I hope you will contribute many more photos to Wikipedia in the years to come!--Eloquence* 03:58, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I award this Exceptional Newcomer Award to ThePromenader for exceptional enthusiasm, skill, and boldness beyond his experience. Ian13ID:540053 20:58, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

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Not so new to editing Wikipedia, but not at all new to reading it. Formerly known as Josefu, my present name is closer to what I'm all about. What motivated me into becoming a Wikipedian were a few articles greatly in need of a rewrite. Many of them still have this need, so if you're sharp on anything "Paris", do pitch in.

[edit] Work In Progress

Here are the pages I am working on for the moment, with links to the original article and its "personal sandbox" version:

• Paris - Although much improved from its former state, this article remains a b-class article largely because of an overdose of unsourced statistics and challengable claims. Chasing these down will take some time, so pitch in if you can. I've done a large amount of work on the article already, so since a year I reduced my role there to observation only; I'm quite surprised that there have been absolutely no changes at all to the article since then. Where are the English-speakers with an interest in Paris? Some grammar refinement could help as well.

• Portal:Paris - I was very surprised to see that it doesn't exist. I'm going to need lots of help on this so once the basics (boxes, etc - nothing major) I'll get the word out. Perhaps this was a bit premature because I still don't have a complete idea what or how many "Paris" subjects are out there. I suppose starting this page is a way to group them all, so if you know of something please pitch in! For now I'm still sorting out the category problems.

• Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture (de Paris) - I have a certain affection for abandoned factories and industrial sites (there are many in the inner Paris agglomeration) and I suppose that the "Petite Ceinture" railway falls into this category. Born from 1852, dead (for voyagers) in 1934, there remain still stations, rails and buildings and some machinery along almost its entire former length. I did the whole 32km tour in late 1996 and have almost completely researched its history. Looking for some machinery images (namely engines) for the time being.

• Wikipedia:WikiProject_Paris_Streets - This is a project to make an article for every notable street in Paris - a gargantuan task in reality. Myself I'll be chipping away at a few at a time, every day if I can. Anyone with a working knowledge of French can participate as there's a link to a citable source for all basic information on the project page. You can find the streets existing already in Wiki (named "rue ****" only) here, and the streets done in their 'formatted' version ("rue ****, Paris") here. The infobox is finally done.

• Mines of Paris - Paris' Catacombes ossurary fills only a part of its 340km of underground galeries whose origins are in the stone of many aboveground monuments - they are not one and the same. I am presently working on an article outlining how Paris' mines were created and exploited, and how later they were used and recuperated. This of course will link to the Paris_Catacombs article...

[edit] A bit about myself

Graphic Designer, photographer, "on call" Art Director, French history buff. Amoureux de Paris. I've been living in Paris since 1989 first as a photographer then also (again) as a graphic artist. I've recently "retired" from a more intensive line of work to develop projects with clients of my own. Research on Paris' history took up most of my spare time (as I also love to photograph her) so today I have more than enough to share. In case of doubt my love for books has given me a library enough to back that up. Wiki has proven to be quite a reliable source for some of my research (the pages on French Kings are brilliant), so now that I have more time to spare I thought I'd give some of that back.

I have a website of my own consecrated to Paris' history that you can find here: www.paris-promenades.com, and if you would like to see a bit of my "regular" work you can have a look here.

I work using several computers, and Wiki is quite often on 'research computer' computer #2. In spite of its dual-screen limitations, my intel iMac has become my principal workstation over my g5 - something about the screen (20") is quite agreeable, and since its move to front and centre I've got lots more room for all my documents and note-paper. There is some irony in making entire websites in a pizza-box.

(update 02/2008) I'm working full time from February for a photo rental company (MATPHOT) as an art director/system administrator/web designer. I now have a few more computers, namely the latest iMac and Macbook pro - only the latter is running in Leopard.

[edit] Interests

Photography, graphic design, history, 19th/early 20th century art and architecture, philosophy, exploration (les carrières de Paris particulièrement), maps and basically anything inventive that is useful, incites curiosity or "rings a bell".

[edit] Favourite Musicians/Music

• Talking Heads - Surtout "Talking Heads '77" and "Fear of Music" (the "Stop Making Sense tour" was my first concert)
• Gary Numan - I grew up with "Replicas"
• Sonic Youth - "Jet Set and No Star" - I love "Bull in the Heather"
• Radiohead - Can't get them out of my head for days every time I listen
• Crosby, Stills & Nash - Carry on, Questions. Brilliant.
• A Gang of Four - early works
• Nirvana - all the same chords down a stop, but still rock n' roll.
• John Coltrane - "My Favourite Things" for me was love at first... er, note.
• Miles Davis - Especially his earlier works, "Round Midnight" and "Sketches of Spain"
• Steve Lacey - "The Condor"
• Chet Baker
• Erik Satie - Best played by Jean-Joël Barbier
• Debussy - "Children's Corner"
• Beethoven - Sonata Nº14, Op. 27/2, Sonata quasi una Fantasia

[edit] Favourite Authors/Books

• Robert M. Pirsig - To tell you the truth I didn't really take to "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" because it concluded with "something that can't be explained". Mr. Pirsig later explained that "something" quite nicely in his second book "Lila," so together these two make quite a sensible pair.
• Richard Bach - Quite contrary to the precedent authour, non? For me every one if his "you can if you want to" theories work just fine when applied to the imagination. In fact I'd say that his theories are the very motor of creation.
• Nietzsche - "Aurore" (French title) was a head-nodder for me at a young age, but beyond his study of human behaviour...
• Ayn Rand - Another young-age head-nodder. I do agree with the "I do, therefore, I am", but objectivism has been (purposely, it seems) cut short of treating anything outside of the individual. We as interactive humans make together a big machine: we cannot pursue activities in the name of self-interest that will drain or destroy it, especially when the same is the source of our livelihood. A sure route to auto-destruction, and a "blank out" of its own (to those familiar with the term).
• Umberto Eco - I'm a big fan.
• Anne Rice - Ditto.
• John Irving - Double Ditto.
• Stephen King - Yes, I know. I began reading him though at around age nine - Loved "It" and the "Different Seasons" novella set. I also loved the "Dark Tower" series until his impatient and uninspired "Wizard and Glass" - at its outset the series was one of the most "contemporary" themes I had read to date. And well written too. Here's hoping he'll drop the Hollywood clique and start dialoguing with his readers once again.

[edit] Favourite Architects

• Victor Horta - The master of Art Nouveau IMHO. Coming a close second is...
• Hector Guimard - Un p'tit "bouche" ici, un p'tit "bouche" par là...
• Frank Lloyd Wright - Still contemporary.
• Le Corbusier - His earlier works
• Gustave Eiffel - Namely for his bridges
• François Mansart - solid solid solid. The "Salle Z" comes to mind, but you'd have to ask me about that one.

[edit] Promenade Gallery

After living here for fifteen years I discovered that I hadn't taken even one touristic photo. So last summer...

[edit] Paris Monuments

the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro	the Arc de Triomphe from the avenue Friedland	View mid-way along the rue Royale towards la place de la Concorde	the Obelisque centrepiece of la place de la Concorde
Montmartre from the centre Georges Pompidou	the place Vendome seen from the rue de la Paix	Tour eiffel nuit jms.jpg the Eiffel tower was here. Gone thanks to the SNTE, the foggy elephant in the Pretty pictures of Paris publishing room.

[edit] Paris Souterrain

I severly doubt anyone will have any use for these but I have other more "classic" images I will upload when they are scanned properly. For the photos below, I put the (my) silhouette in there as a size reference - much in the spirit of Nadar's underground photography.

Val-de-grace stair - red version "sans moi"	The "Radio Room" under the Val-de-Grâce	Twenty metres under the Fermiers-Généraux wall	Galerie PTT - Phone lines
French Flag Fun in the "Shiottes" of the Abri Laval	Long hallway - green version	Long hallway - yellow version	The famous "Salle Z"
Val-de-grace stair - blue version	Val-de-grace stair - red version	Autoportrait

...and here's a few 'normal' clichés without all the light fun. These were scanned from 36mm film ... the colour could use some work.

this is a stone tablet embedded in the foundations of Paris' former fortifications - it commemorates the completion of the city defenses in 1843

one of the largest caverns in Paris' 14e arrondissement

detail of a stair near the Marie de Médecis aqueduct in Paris' 14e arrondissement

A door to a part of the underground mines transformed into a bomb shelter.

[edit] Le Chemin de Fer de Petite Ceinture

I've got tons of these to rescan, so more will appear over time. From an abandoned railway that once ran rings around Paris.

Gare de Charonne-Voyageurs.

view from the rue Brancion bridge to the west: visible to the right are the remains of the quays of the Brancion-Bestiaux slaughterhouses

abandoned junction to the RATP (métro) hangars

under the bridge carrying the rue Raymond Losserand

[edit] Maps & Plans

I'm somewhat of a "mapaholic" - I've made more than a few of them in my time.

Plan of the île-de-France région.

Plan of Paris for Paris Streets Wikiproject infobox.

Demographic plan of 'round Paris, with land-use and urbanisation info.

Editable SVG of the Île-de-France, its eight départements and its 1,281 communes .

[edit] Favorite sayings

"Pride is the belt that can hold your pants up, long after your pants are gone." - Stephen King, "Dreamcatcher"

[edit] Self-aquired Wikiwisdom

12:44, 27 August 2006 (UTC) - solidly-coloured signatures leave a dominant footprint through a talk page: this has the adverse effect of singling out the activities of a single editor over others, and can can become distracting and even annoying to other editors with time.

[edit] WikiSagesse Scrapbook

"Chord-striking" bits of wisdom from Wiki user pages.