Guess the City

My guess is Marseilles but I don't have enough time to trawl the streets around the migrant / public housing in La Castellane. Looking at the original the trees might be too green tho.

Doesn't look UK to me, and the building looks too shoddy to be most places in Western Europe.

The German city of Freiburg is currently no slouch in the shoddiness stakes.

Wie sehr hassen Sie Menschen?

„Projektentwickler:innen“ und Architekt:innen in Freiburg: Ja. pic.twitter.com/RfOg2kXViB

— Mockingjens 🏳️‍🌈 (@platatoe) July 10, 2022

I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be in Belgium

the street lamp looks quite distinctive but how do you start googling that, there's like 2 billion different street lamp designs in the world

It was the pavement and foliage which did look UK to me

you're right, i was looking on my phone and the paving stones didn't look offset, but yep that could be uk paving. still think the building's too shoddy.

if you look at the reflection on the window to the right (as we see) of the front door you can make out some stuff, theres a car here i can't quite make out the model

What is that metal loop sticking out of the wall to the right of the door?

Any clues in the figurines in the lefthand window?

What is that metal loop sticking out of the wall to the right of the door?

A boot scraper?

human, giraffe, snake?/cat?/??, camel - just decorative stuff, no?

xp

- reflected car feels like it could be Peugeot or Mercedes?
- yeah, boot scraper
- figurines: maybe someone from Africa lives there? or someone who likes the continent

yeah that can be misleading. Like, if you looked inside my window and saw a horrendous amount of computer coding books you might be completely wrong thinking I'm sort of genius.

In the reflection I thought it might be a park opposite with some kind of structure in it resembling a pyramid of metal framework. Assuming a lot there though.

The general style of building doesn't look British - purpose-built flats aren't common outside London. And yet there appears to be zebra crossing on the road to the left. The streetlamp looks distinctive, but Google Lens is (typically) useless at recognising it. I see the building is number 3.

It looks like a typical French-style HLM, very much like the headline image:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HLM

The way that the windows are cut in two by the gutter is odd, though. You have to wonder about the interior layout. Why aren't there windows on the second and third floors? Even if it was a stairwell you'd expect windows. And if it is a stairwell it can't be much fun for the people living in the rooms at the ground floor. When they have a wank they're just a couple of feet away from people walking by on the street. That must be disconcerting. I would be worried about the postman knocking on the window to deliver a parcel. Or what if the light is on at night, and you're backlit?

my approach has been trying to find an identical lamppost which has been unsuccessful so far

reflected car is likely to be the photo car right? so not necessarily representative of the local cars

you can see the photo car in the door reflection yes, but in the window to the right is another car

Was getting hits on similar-ish lighting around Bratislava and Ostrava. The lack of AC kept me further North.

A built-in boot scraper makes me think it either dates from a time when horses were prevalent, or it's a muddy climate.

From the undoubtedly uneven selection of boot scraper pictures in Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Door_scrapers), metal loops attached to buildings are not as commons as ones attached to the ground. For what it's worth, most of the metal loop pictures came from Germany and France.

Thought I'd found the lamppost style in Frankfurt but wasn't confident enough it was right.

I think the key might be in that bit of a cardboard box to our left of the front door. I can't get a clear enough resolution to see what it is.

I've found inconclusive evidence that that exact kind of streetlight exists in Braga, Portugal.

I've now found definitive evidence, but I've also found this:

https://www.lighting.philips.com.eg/prof/outdoor-luminaires/road-and-urban-lighting/road-and-street/metronomis/metronomis-malmoe/910502140518_EU/product

So highly doubtful Braga is the only place that has them!

excellent sleuthing!

excellent sleuthing!

all credit to yandex - actually google image search found the philips page.

https://i.ibb.co/FVB9s2q/dogs.png

bloop ii

One way street?

The cars look fairly new, and there's a handicapped parking space (I've never seen one designated like that in the US), so maybe southern Europe?

I suspect the orange-backed traffic signs will be the important clue.

Actually strike "southern," I guess it could be northern too.

learning in my search that some european countries don't seem to have handicapped parking spaces at all. i wont name any names

the orange signs appear to be belgian in nature

They do, yes, but the handicapped space with the blue line, the special type of ground floor window, the mandatory rose bush for everyone, I wouldn't immediately know where to place those in Belgium

the TV distribution thing with the cable running to it on every house does feel Belgian again too though

found some similar looking streets in bruges but the houses were too big and nice, think it must be a smaller city if this is in the city and not a suburb

Maybe stating the obvious as a new player, but my hopes of Luxembourg (based on money for fancy new lights) is dashed by the plates on the cars. Netherlands is out too.

i wasn't able to find the orange signs in any neighboring country even right near the belgium border so i think everything else is ruled out

plot twist: cherry blossom is receiving these pics from a hacked phone and we are racing to locate an international arms smuggler

I'm keeping an eye out for people with more than two arms

the houses are too uniform for Belgium IMO. I'm thinking it might be somewhere Nordic or Scandi, so a less pretty part of Odense or Tampere, perhaps.

Definitely think it's Belgium, as I've seen handicapped parking spaces there that are marked liked that (in Brussels?)

https://passelemessage.be/plm-2020/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/poubelle-sur-stationnement-pmr-1024x1000.jpg

residential areas by one and the same architect are a thing in Belgium, all houses looking the same

"sociale woonwijk"

I stand corrected! Well it's a flat bit of Belgium, so that excludes Liege and surrounds, but apart from that I have no idea

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8673753,4.3037469,3a,75y,30.41h,89.98t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVbkeVRjIjjnm8Wq5ankvkw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Ontwikkelingstraat, Brussels I think.

I actually recognised this one, although I've never been, because I came across pics of a similar street nearby, the rue de la Cite Moderne, in a book about modernist housing estates.

nice work!

wow! great!

I don't think I have the google maps chops (or the time) to find the first pic though.

several blocks look like that in that neighborhood yes

3 Initiatiefplein
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yrkJ3UgJkdtARJ2j9

the milk box says Melk lait, duh

oh, it's the Everyday brand - I don't go to that supermarket though (Colruyt's private label/home brand)

Outstanding!