L'Heure Bleue

The Seine at L'Heure Bleue

From Camera Lucida, September 1, 2012:

I posted in my previous post an image of the Seine at "L'Heure Bleue" without explaining the meaning of the term.

From Wikipedia:

The blue hour comes from the French expression l'heure bleue, which refers to the period of twilight each morning and evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day.

Wikipedia continues with a more metaphoric meaning:
The phrase is also used to refer to Paris immediately prior to World War I, which was considered to be a time of relative innocence.

The Wikipedia site has other interesting pieces of information, including art, books, films and music which use l'heure bleue.

It is a hard moment to catch. It is not quite light, not quite dark, with a strange sense of stillness. A little like the moment of a full solar eclipse, when the earth seems momentarily to be at a standstill (I have seen a full one in 1991 in Mexico City, of course through safety glasses. One thing that struck me was the birds stopped chirping - I was near a wood - for those brief seconds).

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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