Place Vendôme

Paris is a city of 1000 faces. At the same time it can be quiet and bustling, familiar and anonymous, modern and ancient, spacious and tight. The great part of the centre is definitely monumental, projected (mainly during the Haussmann's rebuildings) as a scene of a mundane spectacle. It was (and still is) impossible to pass the boulvards without being seen or noticed and without seeing everybody around you. It's a strange sensation of being in the centre of attention without any possibility of hiding.
That's why the flaneurie born in Paris, as an escape from the theatre-made centre to the suburb. In these savage zones the high-born flaneur could get lost in the crowd strolling and observing, looking at and not being noticed. He was a stranger there but at the same time he had the power of a unilateral glance.
One of these monumental spaces in Paris is Place Vendôme projected in 1699 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart. This vast space seems to be open while it's closed from each side by tipical Parisian "hôtels". One feel free but the limits of this freedom are clearly marked.

Agata Chrzanowska, Place Vendôme, August 2009.