A Journalist’s Paris: One Week Behind the Scenes

At Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, the electronic walkway to baggage claim is uniquely elevated. Visitors are led through a glass tunnel to reach the baggage carousels on an upper level.
The line to enter the Church of Notre Dame extends to the corner of the street. People may wait up to two hours to enter.
Though the building looks unremarkable, many tourists stop to look at it. This is the building that served as the inspiration for Disney’s animated film, Ratatouille. The price to dine on the top floor of this restaurant, called La Tour d’Argent, begins at $300.
A woman sells fish in St. Denis Market.
Apple trees in the Luxembourg Gardens. The metal bars demonstrate the “French need to dominate nature, and have the fruit grow in an artificial direction,” says Alan Riding, former New York Times Cultural correspondent.
A date in the depths of Shakespeare and Company bookstore in the sixth arrondissement.
4 a.m: a man waits to sell his fish in Rungis market.
Cow heads and stomach.
Blood lines the floor of a meat shop in Rungis.
Cow’s stomach lining.
A worker cuts cows into the slices his customers have ordered.
A bridge in the nineteenth arrondissement.
Graffiti in the nineteenth arrondissement.
Notre Dame by night.