Magical Monday - A Dog and a Tower

Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical, unexpected or just plain daft. Unless otherwise mentioned, no Photoshop involved.

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

Parc Monceau First Thing in the Morning

Every couple of weeks I go for a post-school-drop-off walk with a friend. We usually walk to and around Parc Monceau. Even before reaching the park we are treated to the odd beautiful view. Thus.

While we walk and chat, we get overtaken by joggers shuffling or pounding past us. I prefer our way. 

The other morning when we went the sun was just rising above the trees. 

Oily reflections.

The seagulls were frolicking in the water.

Or, in some cases...not frolicking in the water. This is how I would look if somebody suggested I go for a morning swim.

For more Parc Monceau photos please click here.

Magical Monday - A Green Eyed Face, in a Place

Rue Durantin, Paris 75018.

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

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

Paris, you're so beautiful!

After I had finished visiting the Palais de Tokyo the other day I walked down towards the river as I knew the sun would be setting soon. I headed towards the Passerelle Debilly, a metal footbridge bridge built for  the l'Exposition Universal de 1900. It was first built opposite Avenue Albert de Mun, just by the Palais de Chaillot. It was later moved Eastwards towards the Palais de Tokyo.

Also built for a similar World fair was the Eiffel Tower of course.

Similar structural techniques were used to build the Debilly footbridge as were used to build the Tower.

As the sun set, the light reflected off the Eiffel Tower.


I headed back to the metro along the river side. These seagulls caught my eye, hunkering down from the cold and wind.


Apparently oblivious to the reflection of the Dame de Fer on the glass boat they had chosen as their resting point.


Paris, you're so beautiful!

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

The Story Behind the Remembrance Poppy can be found here.

Paris poppies can be found ->  'Paris Poppies' 

Magical Monday - Firemen at work

The firemen in these parts are very strong.

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

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

Reflecting the Palais de Tokyo

The Palais de Tokyo is an art gallery in Paris' 16th arrondissement dedicated to modern and contemporary art. It was built in 1937 for the International exhibition dedicated to art and technology. It was conceived as a gallery for the modern-art collections of both the French state and the city of Paris. The monumental stone-clad building is composed of two wings. The Eastern wing is home to the Modern Art Museum of Paris, the western, state-owned wing, has had a more troubled past.

Superceded in its' original purpose by the Centre Pompidou in 1976, it fulfilled a number of roles until, in the early 1990s, the culture ministry decided to install a cinema museum under its roof. €12.2 million were spent gutting the interior only for the project to be dropped following a change of government in 1997. The structurally weakened building envelope/shell stood abandoned until in 1999 the ministry announced it would become home – provisionally – to a ‘centre for contemporary creation’.

I was there last week visiting the Philippe Parreno exhibition, as part of my research for a lesson I planned to give to my students. It was dusk when I came out of the museum. The light and reflections, in the formal pond to the south of the museum were beautiful.

Throw in a few leaves and the reflections look even better.

Then add some flood lighting.

As a final touch add 1 x No. Eiffel Tower.

Hello Paris. You're so beautiful!

Magical Monday - Out On the Loose in Paris

We went to the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes the other day. Little did I expect to see a giant rabbit gambling across the path as we left.

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.

Fifty Shades of Red

So many beautiful reds at this time of year. 

The Montmartre vineyard.

An apartment block overlooking the Saint Vincent Cemetery. Looking up.

Looking down.

Zooming in.

Perfect red berries.

A perfect raspberry macaron.