These are images illustrating a paper on 'Les Escaliers de Paris' for the 'Paris en Images' conference, 24-25 May 2012. For details of the conference see here: Paris en Images

   

  

(With thanks to Piet Schreuders and Furore, where you will find the missing red balloon.)

 

These stairs appear in two Gaumont comedies, one from 1913 and the other from about the same period. The shot of Onésime and the pelican features in the documentary about Jean Durand in the Gaumont box featuring his films (Le Cinéma premier vol.2), but the film is not identified there.

This is likely to be somewhere near the Gaumont factory and studios,in Belleville.

We see two flights of twenty steps, and the third is probably of the same length, making this a substantial stairway. It doesn't seem to match any stairway in Paris today.