"Nature, According to Disney" -photography assignment

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the attractive Phoebus remarks, "Hmm... leave town for a couple of decades and they change everything!" Paris, like any other big city, is a place of metamorphosis and reconstruction. Many thanks to Haussmann's city-wide overhaul, Paris has a layout that is very practical. And, in the spirit of urban progress, the city is continually becoming more efficient. But what is the price of any industrial progress? As Walt Disney once commented, "You can't just let nature run wild."

When I am lucky enough to find a piece of untamed landscape in Paris, I still have a hard time shaking the "big city feeling." The sounds of car horns honking and metro trains rumbling underground are audible from almost anywhere. Disneyland is one of the most fabricated and heavily planned places on earth... and yet, it was at EuroDisney that I finally felt removed from city life. As I was searching for Thunder Mountain Railroad, I found myself in a comfortable rural setting where the air felt clean. And you know what? Sans rides, I would have paid forty euros just to see 'nature' again. I think it's time for me to visit the countryside.