If there were no trees or ground in the way here, this small neighborhood would be right up in middle left of this photo, just behind the tops of those trees. It s about 220 metres away from the camera, in any case. In the morning, the area around the basilica is spotless, freshly cleaned by Parisian sanitation workers. By evening, it is littered with beer bottles and broken glass, courtesy of these tourists. The cycle repeats the following day.
People sitting on the steps also seem to feel a compulsion to sing and play the guitar.
The songs you ll hear most often are Let It Be , Hey Jude and Hotel California , the only English-language songs that most French street artists seem to have mastered. In the photograph, you are looking northwest. The time is late afternoon, on a day late in the spring with a clear sky. I have a picture of the view from the steps of the basilica, if you are interested in seeing that. Photographed on June 18, 2000.