Two more arcades: Passage des Panoramas and Passage Jouffroy

We stepped out of the first arcade and realized the Passage des Panoramas was just across the street. It is so easy to get lost in the maze of Paris streets. We walked in and instantly I felt a change in space. People brought items out of their stores into the halls of the arcade and the place became a mix between a street market and a living room. Restaurants had "outdoor seating" that they decorated to look as if it might be in a dining room and people walked around it unfazed.

It was around now that I began to pay a lot of attention to the unknowing observer. I was fascinated by the looks of concentration people had on their faces while looking in the windows and in some cases photographing. I took pictures of these people trying to observe them as Benjamin says a flâneur might, paying attention to people in the crowd. Some times people looked right at my camera but had no idea just exactly what I was seeing. Just as I was photographing observers and my friends who were themselves taking pictures without them realizing it, it is exciting that in the end I myself could be being watched in just the same way.

In this arcade more than any of the others I felt a great tension between new and old objects. I was again paying attention to the small details in the floor and the wall but it was in contrast to the posters of films anciens depicting Audrey Hepburn and other classics. These were two different types of history meshing together. Then there was the completely modern like visa stickers on every store that reminded me that we are far gone from a time where pocket change was the only thing you could pay with. Graffiti splattered old wood and people walked around accepting all of this without skipping a beat.

My favorite discovery: A small piece of wall outside a store that had been painted over to look more like brand new marble. It was one of the clearest markers to me that people wished for a look of the olden days without the presence of progress that scuffs and marks can show.