[LordWanker]

Source: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/index.jsp

Arc de Triomphe off the Champs-Elysées


Rue Chanoinesse


View up Seine east of Notre Dame de Paris


73 Quai de la Tournelle at Quai de Montebello


Barge in Seine


Toward Hotel de Ville from Pont de l'Arche feche


View north from Pont Neuf


Corner of Blvd St Michel & Blvd St. Germain


Corner of Blvd St. Michel at Rue Soufflot


Rue Valette


Rue de la Montagne Ste. Geneviere


Rue Descartes


Rue du Havre

 

[Tewder]

Lovely photos. They show a Paris that was actually far more 'French' back in the days before mass immigration, corporate globalization, urban gentrification and the internet. If you look you can actually see berets on heads and citroens in the street... I'd wager you could probably also find a french restaurant in the Latin Quarter.

 

[LordWanker]

Those photos came from Charles W. Cushman's collection and also source for the old New York City thread. There will be months of enjoyment going through that site.

 

[Minato ku]

Lovely photos. They show a Paris that was actually far more 'French' back in the days before mass immigration

I should destroy a myth, the mass immigration beguin a way before the WW2, infact France had a higher ratio of foreigner in 1930's than today.
Unlike other european countries, in the 19th and early 20th century, France had a positive migration rate. (more people arriving in France than people lefting it).
It is due at the fact that France is first country to see a demographic decline in the world (very few birth). We needed people from other countries.
Thanks to immigration, the population of France didn't decline but it barely grow, if France had the demographic of England, it would be well over 100 million inhabitants.

In the 1960's Paris metro area was about 15% foreign born, the biggest change is not having immigrant but from where come immigrant.
Even if it already had a signifiant carribean or african community, looking better the picture we see some black people in the picture.
The immigrant population was strongly european, from southern and eastern europe (Italian, polish, spanish...etc).
What begin after the WW2 is the mass non european immigration.

What I mostly see in these pictures is that Paris is not as gentrified as now.
Many of the Latin district was still working class when today even a upper middle class familly cannot afford an appartement.

A video of paris metro in the end of the 1950's.
[video=youtube;wy7lNJ7jrYg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy7lNJ7jrYg[/video]

 

[Urban Shocker]

In August 1963, on my first visit to Paris as a ten year old Dauphin, we stayed at the Bel Air on Rue Rampon - which I believe is still there, though I hope to God it has been renovated since. Touristy then, of course, but a working city as well - I still have some little snaps I took of a girl with orange permed hair, about my age, who posed for me on the steps of Montmartre.

 

[Minato ku]

I would not like a poor ghetto Paris but I think that many districts of inner Paris are today too wealthy, too clean. I like the mix.
Anyway Paris is still a working city, where people live even if some districts (like Montmartre, Ile de la Cité...) are too much overun by tourist.

 

[jn_12]

Many of those look somewhat familiar as when we were in Paris a couple years ago we stayed in the Latin Quarter on Rue Thenard right around the corner from Rue Valette. It's a great little area, especially for a couple students (and we had a great hotel as well... Hotel du College de France... only like 80€/night when we stayed there). I think what's most interesting about those pictures is that many of them aren't the image of Haussmann Paris we're used to. I think it's easy to forget that the boulevards are sometimes a lot different from the side streets, and you're likely to see a mishmash of styles and building sizes on many side roads.

Thanks for posting these.