Porte de Charenton
The walk from the Porte de Charenton has the unique distinction of being along the same named road from the edge of the city to the centre. I have always been obsessed by the idea of the edge of the city, where it begins, where it ends, and it is a delight to have the certainty provided by the Rue de Charenton.
We began to walk in the fog of a winter morning on the outskirts of the city and ended in full sunlight of the Place de la Bastille, after slight contortions of the obliques of following our named road, as ever in Paris, where roads have been layered on older roads, and obscure spurs lead out from conglomerations of roads in circuses. Nonetheless, Rue de Charenton represents a more or less straight line through the city, an idealised notion for the walks we have invented.SC
notes from an urban hibernation 