Familiar places. By Alice COLLINET & Floriska POTTIER

A place to relax

A place to meet

We took the first photo in September at the Jardin Lecoq in Clermont-Ferrand. We chose this format because it shows a large parc, a landscape. The picture brings out the colours of Nature. When we took this picture, we heard the ducks, the fountains in the lake, people talking. The weather was warm and windy. When we are in Lecoq garden, we feel calm. In the foreground, a few ducks and a swan swim on the lake. There are water droplets. In the background, there is a hedge around the lake and several trees. In front of the hedge, there is a little house for the ducks and the swans. The title of this picture is, for obvious reasons: A place to relax. Lecoq garden was originally a botanical garden, created in 1780 by the aptly named Father Delarbre. In the nineteenth century, the garden was redesigned by landscape architect Paul Lavenne. It was named after Henri Lecoq, a local botanist.

We took the second photo on Thursday, September 17th, 2015. It is a view of the Place de Jaude, the biggest square in Clermont-Ferrand. We chose a black and white photo to give a sad atmosphere. The photo was taken in the morning so there weren’t many people in the street. Nevertheless, it wasn’t very quiet: we heard car horns and the roar of engines. The excavations for the construction of Fond de Jaude (1978), the Carré Jaude I (1995) and the Jaude Square II (2009-2010) showed up archeological evidence that Jaude was already an urbanized area in Roman times. It began to be embellished in the 17th century. In the nineteenth century, the square became a promenade for locals. On the east side of the square, an art gallery was built in 1812 and was transformed to accommodate a large theater in 1894. Two monuments were erected: the statue of General Desaix, in 1848, and the equestrian statue of Vercingetorix in 1903. The "Café de Paris", the "Café Riche", the "Grand Lyon café" and the "Café de l’Univers" opened in the first half of the 19th century. The title for this photo is A place to meet, because many people come here every day with their family or friends to shop, go to a café or restaurant, to a movie or even a show (at the opera house).

The common title of the pictures is Familiar places. Our photos show that, in a town, there are places which remain important to the inhabitants. They change a little over time, but their function remains essentially the same: places to meet, relax, exchange. They act as points of reference (landmarks) in time and space for the people; it is only if you know these places well that you can say you are socially integrated...