Week 3: Gare du Nord

Special treat for me this week as I got to be the one behind the camera with joy of a roommate (also known as Josie) stepping in as the one what dresses up and prances about. For her modelling debut, Jose and I headed to the Gare du Nord – one of Paris’s international train stations and reportedly one of the busiest in Europe. Built between 1861-1864, at the height of the Second Empire, this is a really beautiful old building and very very Paris. Its facade is decorated with statues representing each of the major cities it serves and it is  here where you arrive if you’re coming in to Paris on the Eurostar.

Despite its practicality (it is linked to the bus, metro and RER networks, is right next to a taxi rank and sits on a direct line to Charles De Gaulle airport) and 19^th-century charm, lots of people hate the Gare du Nord because as soon as you set foot out of the entrance you are likely to be accosted by a host of beggars – if you are unfortunate enough to look even vaguely like a tourist. I’ve found the best way to combat this is to walk quickly and look sulky, so now you know. Although the Gare du Nord has featured in a host of films –such as The Bourne Identity and Ultimatum, Ocean’s Twelve and...Mr Bean’s Holiday – it was an altogether different type of drama which caught my attention as I was researching the place.

In 1927 the American heiress Alice de Janzé shot her lover Raymond de Trafford in the Gare du Nord before turning the gun on herself. Alice had married the French Compte de Janzé in 1921 and they moved to Kenya a few years later and joined the Happy Valley set – a group of wealthy white ex-pats who led a wildly hedonistic existence and pretty much all had affairs with each other. This is where Alice – who was extremely beautiful, constantly well-dressed, and enormously popular with men – met Raymond. After leaving the poor old Compte to be with Raymond, Alice had hoped they would get married and so was understandably upset when he informed her they couldn’t and that he was leaving. Turns out that all she had to do was pull a trigger a couple of times to convince him and in 1932 the couple got married...only to split up 3 months later and eventually divorce. Upon reflection, she’s probably not the greatest of role models but I can’t resist a crazy romantic, or a determined, well-dressed woman or...anyone who lived in the 20s.

Alice on trial for attempted murder
(NOT MY PHOTO - wikipedia.com)

Necklaces and Bracelets - mine and model's own,
Earrings - Accessorize

This all being the case, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that this week’s shoot has a strong 20s leaning, which works remarkably well with the mid-19^th century architecture of the station. Now, I don’t really have the right hair for kiss-curls or the right figure for anything drop-waisted but, luckily for me, I just so happen to live with a 1920s ideal woman. Enter Josie – with her short dark hair and general lissom-of-limb-ness, joy of a roommate is a dead-ringer for Alice herself – just look!

Alice de Janzé (née Silverthorne)
(NOT MY PHOTO - lucindaville.blogspot.com)

Gloves - model's own

To try to keep things as authentic as possible, I decided to keep the outfit as monochrome as possible to mimic the few photos I could find of Alice. I added the belt to the oversized man-jumper (Josie’s words, not mine) to give the impression of a drop waist and a cloche cap will make pretty much anyone look like an extra from Some Like it Hot.

Skirt - H&M

Hat - Marks&Spencer

Shoes - Charity shop (originally from Tesco, who'd a thunk?!)

I wanted to find a fake pearl-handled revolver to use (like the one Alice shot her man with) but not only is that an inconveniently specific item to find, but I figured that waving a gun around probably wouldn’t go down too well in a large, international railway terminus... So I sacrificed my artistic license and instead diverted my attention towards making my consistently-smiley flatmate look sullen. And conflicted. And....as if she was about to kill someone. I think she did rather well, check out that pout.

Faux fur collar - H&M

Jumper - Charity Shop

To be honest it was mostly just refreshing to be on the other side of the camera – in fact, at points it was refreshing bordering on arctic (railway termini have the tendency to be somewhat draughty) but at least we were more or less inside this week! The only downside to being inside (if you see what I mean) is that there tend to be a lot of people inside places. And there were a lot of people. Luckily enough every single one of them seemed to be in a rush and paid very little attention to the art being created in their midst. We could probably have shot someone ourselves without them noticing... I’ll leave you with that slightly disturbing thought. See you next week!