Cities with the "Je ne sais quoi" factor.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by biguc

By the way, I owe you for putting New Orleans back on my radar in the 'cities you know you'd love' thread. Best story I've read about the place since A Confederacy of Dunces.

I miss travelling.

Arguably the best compliment I've likely ever received

Originally Posted by edale

I've also found the light in LA to be one of those intangible things that make the place special. Maybe it's because it's almost always sunny, and you get trained to recognize more gradation in light the more you're around it. But I find myself noticing the angle of the sun, tone of the light, and obviously the sunsets and golden hours way more than I did in other cities I've lived.

interesting. I find the light in Miami to be a fantastic thing in which to pay special attention. From what can be starkly, oppresively bright white to the soft, darker moodiness that comes with being in an atmosphere of frequent and often menacingly close-to-the-ground clouds, the light here is a constant wonder to me (wife and friends think I'm weird when I talk about it... I likely talk about it too much for them ).

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Arguably the best compliment I've likely ever received





interesting. I find the light in Miami to be a fantastic thing in which to pay special attention. From what can be starkly, oppresively bright white to the soft, darker moodiness that comes with being in an atmosphere of frequent and often menacingly close-to-the-ground clouds, the light here is a constant wonder to me (wife and friends think I'm weird when I talk about it... I likely talk about it too much for them ).

the photos are early-instagrammed but i love the mid-winter light in south florida and i think these captured that for me. these are (by me) from late december or early january. first one is florida bay camping in the everglades and the second is probably hollywood. of course it was warm like summer but the light was noticeably dimmer.

[Centropolis]

i imagine that theres some great, weird stuff in the northern italian manufacturing belt. some places where there was a little bit of mid twentieth century hustle layer-caked on top of 19th century creamy filling and now the tide has gone out but not too much. a little bit of exposed wreckage and sea-life to ponder

[jd3189]

^^^ Reminds me of that vaporware wave a few years back.

For me, the je ne sais quoi factor is the unique vibe that you get from a city that doesn’t call much attention to itself. Any city can be like that, depending how you encountered it and how much expectation and knowledge of it you had before going there.

As mentioned in the beginning, Montreal did have that effect on me the last time I went. It was a while after I was acquainted with the photo threads here and did not have much of a strong urge to prepare myself for the visit and heighten my expectations. I had close to no expectations. I just wanted to experience the city or ville as it was. I went into local neighborhoods that just had a vibe to them. The mix of European and North American influences was first experienced, not told beforehand.

Puebla, Mexico was the same. Never heard of it or was much aware of it before going and it just took me in.

[jbermingham123]

Just took a stroll through the Cincinnati development thread and looked at a bunch of pictures.. Wow. Ive never been to cincy but judging by the pictures it has something...

some sort of, if you will, "je ne sais quoi"

The grey clouds really bring out the effect

[Manitopiaaa]

Originally Posted by jbermingham123

Just took a stroll through the Cincinnati development thread and looked at a bunch of pictures.. Wow. Ive never been to cincy but judging by the pictures it has something...

some sort of, if you will, "je ne sais quoi"

The grey clouds really bring out the effect

Cincinnati is fabulous. Wonderful people, great food. Stayed for $100 in the Carew Tower and toured the golden halls of the Art Deco masterpiece. American Sign Museum is 100% unfiltered Americana. Over-the-Rhine is one of America's most intact pre-war neighborhoods. Union Terminal, Findlay Market, Roebling Suspension Bridge, PNC Tower, Music Hall. So many underrated landmarks.

There was a lot of urban renewal and blight is still apparent, but I can't wait to go back. I also echo Pittsburgh. What a beauty (in an ugly, slightly decayed way)!

Memphis is another one. Dumpy but proud. Fantastic BBQ and chicken. Beale Street is a great time and the people are so down-to-earth. Crime and blight are huge problems though, but I enjoyed it.

In Europe, it's definitely Lviv for me. In Latin America, it's Valparaiso. In Asia, it's Osaka (though Taipei was also a good surprise).

[Segun]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

Istanbul has this too.



It's not only the Roman stuff, though, but also stuff like the seraglio, which isn't that distant in time but culturally it's completely alien. Can you imagine if, say, the White House had a hall for captive prostitutes attached?

That shit is done off the books now

I did a course on Istanbul in college, fascinating, dreamlike looking place with architecture spanning several eras. Babylon meets Rome. I really want to visit Damascus.

[Segun]

Rome: The renaissance section of the city and the Vatican, despite its touristy Worldwide reputation, is something to behold. There's a creepiness to that level of detail that's hard to explain. I wasn't even high and I felt like I was in a trance-like dream state walking through there. If I could, I'd set a horror movie there, with the statues coming to life.

[MolsonExport]

I was surprised when I came across this (Castel Nuovo, 1279 AD) in Naples. Except for that white section between the battlement towers, it looks like something you would see in the UK or France, but not in Southern Italy.


tiquets

Later I found out it was built by Charles I of Anjou.

[biguc]

Naples is great. Walking around at night there are heaps of garbage everywhere and little kids ripping around on motorcycles. It's like Deathwish 3; you start thinking you'll be wasting creeps with a browning off your balcony tomorrow. But overnight the garbage turns into food stalls and the speeding motorcycles turn into scooters stuck in crowds.

At least the nicer parts. Some areas just stay sketchy. I need to go there alone sometime so I don't have to look at castles and piazzas, just be drunk and see how gritty it gets.

[MolsonExport]

same here. I was bogged down with my family and my venture into the Spanish Quarter was cut short (and only happened as my wife got distracted shopping and asked me to take the kids for an hour....great father that I am, I walked with my kids deep into the Spanish Quarter right off of the main shopping street. just for the thrill).

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8414...7i16384!8i8192

[mousquet]

Je ne sais quoi...

So, for instance, this is an old seaside resort in Northern France, Mers-les-Bains that was developed during what they call Belle Époque, an era that spans from 1870 to 1914 (WWI).
The town was built by the French upper middle class and wealthy in various styles, most noticeably Art Nouveau back then.
I'll quickly explain what the video says to you guys.

• Video Link

The guy on his bike is Nicolas. He's what they call a "régisseur". The owners of a dozen of townhouses in the village pay him to watch their properties, manage maintenance and make sure everything is ok for the tourists renting their properties or for themselves.
Nicolas says the town feels great cause it's full of various northern styles, mostly from Picardy and Normandy. There's a lot of brick and woodwork, along with mosaics and ceramics as ornaments.

Lots of bow windows imported from England in the 1870s.
Ornaments are typical of Art Nouveau, mostly made up of plants, sometimes of animals.
It looks like some sort of Disney village, except it's all way older, original and genuine, then it looks much better.

1:30 Old-school shutters from Picardy... Not super convenient. In modern apartments, you only push a button to open shutters.

Local weather is like that of San Francisco, very changing and frustrating. You get a bit of sunshine, then it rains 5 minutes later. That's why we Parisians would rather go south for vacations.
I've never been to this town by the way, but it looks pretty. I saw some pictures by a member of the French forum.

2:35 This woman with gray hair is a craftswoman specialized in ceramics. Nicolas needs her because the owner of the house they're watching wants ornaments totally refurbished.
3:08 some bits of the facade were damaged by time and weather.

3:33 You see that piece of ceramic that was replaced by some gross do-it-yourself? That's wrong. The original needs to be reproduced by specialized crafsmen.

Those homes are not cheap to maintain, but the entire area that contains some 600 such townhouses is registered to the national heritage, so owners have to submit to related requirements.

5:00 More Art Nouveau... There's some ongoing refurbishment to that one too.

That's about it. Typical bourgeois homes from Northern France. You'd find this style from Normandy to regions neighboring Germany, in Lorraine and Alsace.

It must be pleasant in the summer, though. You definitely can rent a home like this for a couple of weeks if you will, but the sea might be kinda cold compared to what you get in southern France.

[MolsonExport]

northern france near belgium looks quite different. Architecturally, more like Flanders (I guess because it is French Flanders). e.g., Lille, Dunkerque, Roubaix.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

northern france near belgium looks quite different. Architecturally, more like Flanders (I guess because it is French Flanders). e.g., Lille, Dunkerque, Roubaix.

That's about it, but this is a bit special in that some Italianate style would get up there earlier than it did in northernmost Flanders, like those ceramic and mosaic details to the facades, that I explicitly mentioned. That was like some sort of local fantasy to liven up their houses.
I think that's the fascinating thing about an old luxury resort like that one. You won't find the same to the historic fabric of the Netherlands or Flanders in Belgium. It's really a blend mimicking various old styles down there in northern France. I guess the Dutch and the Belgians were not well off enough to get that kind of stuff back then yet. But today, they are way better off on average anyway.

As for the extensive use of brick, it ended up fashionable, but the older bourgeoisie and nobleness would like limestone masonry better.
Some regions don't have any limestone reserve in their subsoil, then they would opt for brick.
That's the difference between Toulouse and Bordeaux, both southern towns for instance. The Toulouse area has no limestone underground, then they had to import some when they built their old town. That said, their warm, ancient Italian-style brick is genuine and pretty, very original. It's not the same feel as the Flemish brick. You'd feel like you're in Siena or something when you're in Toulouse's old town.
It's not the same brick or texture as the Flemish stuff.