Happy New Year: 2013 - 2014

Gathering Stripes

I sometimes gather themed collections. Off the top of my head some of the collections I've posted in the past include circles, shadows, hearts, chairs and oddities. Today I fancy gathering some stripes. 

It seems I have many many stripes in my photo archives so I've restricted this collection to architectural stripes. First off, here are some photos of the steps at the Trocadéro Esplanade.

Some older, more crooked steps in a courtyard on Rue Durantin, Paris 18.

The steps on the Solférino pedestrian bridge.

Columns make great stripes too. Here are the columns on the southern facade of the Palais de Tokyo.

A column detail on the Rotunda in the Parc Monceau.

More Trocadéro stripes, columns not stairs.

The buttresses holding up the structure of the main amphitheatre at UNESCO, Paris.

Glass louvers on the Barcelona Gerkin.

A striped handrail detail on Solférino Bridge, decorated with love locks.

Railings at the Jardin des Tuileries.

Handrails in our son's primary school. No danger of falling down there!

Bridge railings and shadows on Pont d'Arcole.

A wooden screen in UNESCO's main amphitheatre. 

Polycarbonate magic.

Scaffolding.

Reinforcement cables on the building site of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

Rusty corrugated iron at the Marché aux Puces at St Ouen.

Wood grain on a horse farm in Switzerland.

A modern version of the wooden shingle.

And finally, with a burst of colour, the underside of a bridge in Camden.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Reflecting UNESCO

The other day I took my students on an outing to UNESCO to see some of the interesting architecture within the compound. In architectural terms perhaps the most well known building is the Tadao Ando Meditation Space. But there are also examples of Marcel Breuer and Luigi Nervi's architecture. 

I took many photos of course, but some of my favourite ones are taken in the Japanese Garden of Peace, designed by Isamu Noguchi. It was a freezing but beautifully sunny day and the reflections in the water features were beautiful.

More UNESCO photos can be seen on my Flickr account here.

The Other Side of the Tracks

Last Sunday was the 'dernier roda de l'année' at our kids Capoeira class. This basically means an end of year gathering of the all the capoeirists in Paris in a big dancing circle/wheel/party. When people ask me what capoeira is I reply 'a bit of everything: dance, gymnastics, martial arts and good manners!" Facing each other in their dance/combat at any one time will be people from all different backgrounds, young and old, advanced and beginners, skilled and unskilled, rich and poor, men and women, girls and boys. 

Lots of people are upside down. It's noisy, it's hot, the room is full of energy. 

So much so, that I escaped for a few moments to admire the not-quite full moon rising, and the sun setting over the rail way tracks that lead northwards out of Paris.

The sky slowly got pinker and darker until it was an amazing 'vieux rose'.

The previous evening I had been looking at this view, different, but both beautiful in my books.

Magical Monday - King Kong Sees Red

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.

Snatching a Magical Moment

Yesterday our daughter went on a school outing. My instructions were to pick her up at the Louvre at 19h00. I left the house with plenty of time to spare and decided to get out of the Metro at Concorde and then walk the last stretch. I had been working at my computer all day and quite fancied stretching my legs and getting some fresh air. 

As I popped above ground at Place de la Concorde I was greeted with this vision.

The Jardin des Tuileries was closing so I headed towards Rue de Rivoli. I turned round to admire the view. Lampposts, obelisk and Eiffel Tower vied for attention...

...in the end it was the Eiffel Tower won.

Magical moments like this make so happy that I live in Paris.

Magical Monday - Go, Fetch!

First this dog jumped through the Eiffel Tower and then it started to play fetch with lampposts.

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.

It Was So Nice I Went Up Twice.

Today was beautiful. Clear skies. Cool but not freezing. In the afternoon I had an hour to myself so walked up 'la Butte' and admired the views of Paris. You could see for miles. 

The beautiful winter light fell onto the Sacré Coeur and making it look golden rather than white.

I had to go home before the sun set but decided to come back up the hill later to witness it. I'm glad I did.

The park in front of the Sacré Coeur was still open so I was able to descend the hill while savouring the view and the last of the setting sun.

The manège at the bottom of the stairs was still running.

I resisted the urge to have a go myself and took pictures of it spinning instead.