Magical Monday - Magic with a Football

If you stroll up to the Sacré Coeur during the summer months after midday, you are more than likely to come across some form of street entertainment. Musicians playing to the crowds of tourists sitting on the steps leading down from the front of the Basilica, a puppeteer, a poor soul covered in gold or silver paint, a man playing the drums on a collection of recycled dustbins...etc.

If you're lucky you will come across Iya Traoré, a young 27 year old man who is a magician with a football. Born in Guinea in 1986, Iya Traoré came to Paris with his father in 2000 where he worked at becoming a professional footballer with Paris Saint Germain. This apparently didn't work out for him and instead he devoted his time to practicing his skills with a football. 

He is truly incredible to watch, and every time I see him he has added new tricks to his repertoire. I'm really not sure how he managed to do what he is doing in the below photo, but there you go, he did it in front of my very eyes!

More Iya Traoré photos from this sequence can be found here.

Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected.

More photos from the Magical Mondays series can be found here.

The Best Bunting

Last week we went to a wedding in a small village near Uzès in the south of France. A beautiful provencal village with stone houses crowded together in a tight knit labyrinth of small lanes and roads, roman tiled roofs, stone walls artfully draped in vines and flowers and the constant ring of cicadas reminding you that you're somewhere where the sun shines a lot.

The perfect venue for a wedding.

We arrived the day of the wedding and helped set up the decorations. The bunting looked fabulous against the blue sky.

I became a bit preoccupied with the bunting.

And the setting sun.


And the moon.

Bonsoir.

Pylon Sunset

Our holidays in the south of France in Arles are sadly over. Though coming back to Paris certainly softens the blow, there are worse places to come home to! 

As we approached Paris this evening we were treated to an incredible sunset. Here are a few photos I took from the car. Considering that we were moving at 130km/hour, I think they came out ok.

Bonsoir!

Round and About in Arles

My Other Half and I have been visiting Arles since 1989 when we stumbled upon it by chance while rail-carding around Europe. It is a beautiful city in the south of France just north of the Camargue and south of where the Rhône river forks. It is about 35kms inland from the sea. 

The old city remains unspoilt, a maze of tiny narrow streets like this...

...and roofs like this. I have a soft spot for terracotta Roman roof tiles.

As you stroll around the town when ever you turn a corner there is something lovely to look at.

The small details never disappoint.

As in every city there is street art...

...and delectable decay.

We always go to the beach at Les Saintes Maries de la Mer. A small unpretentious seaside resort with wide sandy beaches that never get as crowded as those further east along the coast.

The first day we were here it was a little stormy but we went to the beach anyway. 

The next day the weather was much better. Apparently it was the perfect conditions for doing this.

Today the sky was like this.

I love this place!

Magical Monday - Madame and Monsieur Shadow

I spotted some more Shadow Monsters at the park yesterday.

Madame (ET).

Monsieur


Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected.

More photos from the Magical Mondays series can be found here.