The Walks

Between 2006 and 2007, I did a dozen written walks in Paris. I wrote a word or drew a picture on a photocopy of a Paris map, following the streets layout, then I went wandering, guided by my pre-filled map.

Writing « Maintenant » (Now) took me 3 hours and a half. « Ohé » took 2 hours 35. There was the word « Amour » (Love) that I sent to Jean-Luc Duez who then scribbled this word on the Parisian sidewalks. There also was « La marche aux cailloux » (the pebbles walk) made at dusk and at night, from the waiting room of the Paris courthouse to the Pierre Loti alley. To do it, I spread 250 (paper) pebbles along the way leading to a small house. The « Spiral » started from my place, in Mûriers street in the 20th arrondissement in Paris, to end at the Saint Jacques tower in the center of Paris.

It took me 7 hours to do it: the 7/9th by foot, 2/9^th on the bus (it was the only hybrid walk I did). I ended this project by drawing two crosses across the map, to mark the end of this project. (Almost the end, since I did the word « Truc » (Thing) when I was looking for « Something to do in the 7^th arrondissement » for Paris Décalé (Unusual Paris) (Lonely Planet, 2009). In 2009 too, this time with my boyfriend, we wrote the word « Applatir » (Flatten) in Lisbon, the city with the 7 hills.)