Cléo’s Journey

For me, the most fascinating thing about the film Cléo From 5 to 7 is Cléo’s journey through Paris.  She travels on foot, by bus and in a car, her physical journey seeming to mirror her inner odyssey.  Paris, as filmed by Agnès Varda, is very… filmic.  By turns the city shimmers, glowers and frets, but ultimately she is just there: immutable, immovable, a representation of the universal that envelops us all.

 

Map Indicating Locations Used in Film

 

My DVD of the film has an extra feature recreating Cléo’s journey more than 40 years after it was first filmed; again, the action is shown in real time, but this time filmed mainly from the front of a motorcycle.  Other than the closure of one of the cafés and the cinema and the disappearance of an alleyway, very little seems to have changed.  Bigger shop windows in some streets, perhaps, and of course lots more cars.  Otherwise, Paris is still as a beguiling as ever.

So here is Cléo’s route, should you wish to follow it on a map at home or on foot in Paris:

 

58 Rue de Rivoli

Café (now disappeared)

Rue de Rivoli

Chapeux Francine (now disappeared)

Rue de Rivoli

Rue parallèle a la Rue du Pont Neuf

Pont Neuf

Rue Guénégaud

Rue Mazarine

Carrefour de L’odeon

Rue de Condé

Rue de Vaugirard

Rue Guynemer

Rue Vavin

Boulevard Raspail

Carrefour Vavin

Rue Huyghens (Cleo’s apartment)

Rue Delambre

Le Cinéma Delambre

Boulevard Raspail

Place Denfert Rochereau

Avenue René Coty

Parc Montsouris (where Cleo meets Antoine)

Rue Gazan (where they board the bus)

Rue de Rungis

Rue Bobillot

Place d’Italie (where they leave the bus)

Boulevard de l’Hôpital

Hôpital de la Salpetriere

(Location map reproduced courtesy of Google)

About Bobby Seal

Freelance writer, poet and psychogeographer
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