The Sacré Coeur in Green

The celebrating of St. Patrick's Day has well and truly arrived in Paris!

The Colosseum in Rome is apparently green too. 

More information can be found here, on the Irish Toursim website.

Magical Monday - A Beautiful Bouquiniste

Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical, unexpected or just plain daft. In this Magical Monday, exceptionally, I used Photoshop. The lips come from a pair of lips I saw painted on a pavement near where I live.

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

Long winter shadows

Last week I spent a few days in Oxford visiting my parents. I was brought up in Oxford. As a teenager I considered Oxford to be such a boring, dull place to live. It was only once I'd left, and returned as an adult, that I fully began to appreciate what a beautiful city it is.

On the first day I was there last week we went for a walk around Christchurch Meadows, a large area of pasture land in the centre of Oxford that belongs to Christchurch College. We walked into town first, the sky was cloudless. As we approached the town centre we saw Magdalen Tower.

We walked around Christchurch meadows along the river. The grass banks, the gravel path and the puddles were striped with breathtaking shadows and reflections. 

The colours were so intense.


Trees like this...


...created vertiginous reflections like this.

As we walked along the river Isis (the river Thames is called the river Isis in Oxford), we saw a family of swans. Their feathers were puffed up. I'm not sure if this was to keep them warm or to serve as sails, either way they looked wonderful.

Chantilly in green

We have family staying at the moment so are enjoying being tourists at home. On Monday we went to Chantilly a town 40kms north of Paris. We went there back in May. During that visit we went to the Musée Vivant du Cheval (the Living Museum of the Horse). This time we went to see the Château and its' gardens. The Château was built in 1560 for the Duc of Montmorency whose father worked in the household of Louis XII. The Château is not that big, but looks enchanting, built in a creamy yellow sandstone with a scalloped slate roof, surrounded by a large moat. Here is a view as you approach from the Musée Vivant du Cheval.

The gardens are beautifully kept, they were laid out for the most part by André Le Nôtre. Unfortunately we didn't leave enough time to visit all of the gardens, but we did see part of them, including a brilliant labyrinth that the kids enjoyed charging around. The gardens are beautifully kept and very green, with water ways, small areas of woodland, a jardin anglais and much more. For this post I've gathered together a series of green themed photos I took in the gardens. 

Here is a wrought iron bridge crossing a waterway. It cast some lovely shadows....

...and even better reflections.

There were plenty of fish.

A few birds. Here's one in a cage.

I love living in Paris. I love big cities. But sometimes to get out into the countryside and enjoy bigger skies and more greenery is just what the soul needs. 

Spring green

A month or so ago I was looking for spring, and then a few weeks later I found blooms galore. It occurred to me that I shouldn't only be taking photos of spring flowers, but I should also be gathering some 'spring green'. The intense, bright, fresh, yellow-green that we are being treated to so much of at the moment.

We went to the Parc André-Citroën in the 15th the other day and they have coloured themed gardens. One of the colours was green, le jardin vert.






There was plenty of green at the Porte de Montmartre food market the other morning. I bought some of this coriander.


Parc Monceau is a riot of intense colours at the moment with signs of new growth everywhere.


This tree looked fabulous with the bright green against the silvery tree trunk.


The leaves on this tree in the Marais were just opening out, I love the contrast of green against blue.


At Parc de Bercy it was hard to tell which were the greenest, the trees or the pond.


A mallard duck waddles in green in the Square des Batignolles.


Here are some green grass glasses at the Parc Floral.


In Donegal in Ireland you find this intense green in the middle of summer.




Some people take this spring green business so seriously they like to match their bicycle lock, with their bike, with spring green.


Some animals like to be spring green too...with a touch of red, not to overkill.

Le Bois de Boulogne

We had gorgeous weather this Saturday, temperatures went up to a heady 23°C. In honour of this delight we went to the Bois de Boulogne to try and make the most of it. I learnt recently that it's pretty easy to get there by metro to Porte Dauphine, line 2. From there it's just a short walk to get into the Bois, admittedly crossing a few busy roads, but it's really not so bad. Once your in, you get the feeling you're in the country side, especially if you manage to edit out the distant hum of traffic. My daughter suggested brightly "I know, we just need to imagine that the hum of cars is actually the roar of a nearby river...et voila!" So that's what we did. Here's the first part of our walk before you get to the lake. The leaves are just opening and there is an intense green glow wherever you look.

Green, with extra green, and added portions of green.

The trees are still flowering. These flowers smell of honey.

Once we got to the lake we enjoyed the reflections. And more green.

Occasionally we saw a burst of pink.

If you want to feed the ducks this is the way to do it, rather than bread give them little patches of seeded grass.

And in case you get nostalgic for Paris, don't worry, you can still get your fix.