An Artful Washing Line

I came across the work of artists Levalet and Philippe Hérard on Rue Veron in the 18th arrondissement of Paris completely by chance. I had decided to get out at Pigalle Metro station, one stop before my usual stop, Abbesses. The walk home is a little further, but it avoids being squashed up with a gazillion other commuters in a giant Metro lift. I wasn't in the mood for that.

I walked towards home along Rue Veron. The first piece of artwork I noticed was this one.

Then this one ...

I then started to look further and realised that there was a washing line of sorts along the whole length of the street, on both sides.

It was getting dark so I wasn't able to take such good photos, so I went back a few days later on a sunny day and took some more. I love the work of these artists. I love the gentle humour, and poetic nostalgia. I love the attention to detail, the artists have even painted shadows on the wall beneath the images which have been stuck on the walls..

Some saucisson sec anybody?

I think a witch may live at No. 26.

Maybe a ghost lives here, only the shadows can be seen.

An elephant.

A flipper. Why not?

A skate board and a brassiere at No. 23.



False teeth (!!!) and some bloomers.

And a bat, of course.



There was an exhibition of Levalet and Hérard's work at the Joël Knafo Art gallery at 21 Rue Veron. I missed the exhibition which is now finished, but I think the washing line will be around for a while.

Enjoy!

A Labour of Love

Look what I saw when I went to our local supermarket this morning. Isn't this lovely?

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.

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 - Spiderman in the 'hood

Today I saw Spiderman scaling an apartment building.

He then made off on his bike.


Back in October I saw Batman.

Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected. No Photoshop allowed!

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

Paper Fruit

My new teaching job is over on the rive Gauche, in the 6th arrondissement. I usually go to work by metro and then walk home part of the way before getting on a Vélib, the Parisian 'Boris Bike', to cycle home. It helps me unwind and it gives me an excuse to walk across the river so I can enjoy long majestic views of Paris...like so.

Last week I passed by St Germain des Prés and was admiring the blossom of a tree on the other side of the road. As I looked more closely I saw that 'things' were hanging from the tree. 

How strange, if I didn't know any better I'd say those things hanging from the tree were books. I crossed the road to get a closer look. Yes. Books!

I zoomed in.

It was only when I got home that I was able to establish the title of the book, 'On n'est jamais mieux que chez les autres.'* (home away from home) by Bakir Zieg. A novel that recounts the funny, joyful and crazy adventures of a young Tunisian man who comes to live in Paris having fled from his home country. The author Bakir Zieg can apparently often be found selling his poems à la sauvette, on the pavements of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which leads me to think that it was probably Zieg who put those books up in that tree.

On a sunny day they looked lovely in that tree.

* I haven't read this book...yet.

Magical Monday - Shadow Monsters

I've been playing with buttons and shadows.

A surprised and ghostly Shadow Monster.


A flying pink-eyed pterodactyl.



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.

A lost Hyena

...

What do you think of me?

I have a rough coat like Africa.

I am craft with dark spots.

Like the bush tufted plains of Africa.

...

(Edwin Morgan 1990)

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.

Magical Monday - Fooling the eye

I love the old fashioned trompes l'œil you see around Paris. This one, just by the Pompidou Centre, made me do a double take. I was fooled for a moment and nearly missed it.

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.

Magical Monday - Visitors from Loch Noodle

MM: week 12
Visitors from Loch Noodle

First I saw one.


And then I saw two!



When the kids saw these photos they both groaned. This is what they think of some of my photo-taking antics.

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.

Magical Monday - Batman is in the 'hood

MM: week 10
Batman is in the 'hood

Imagine my surprise when I came across this young man as I walked down rue Durantin on my way to get the papers.

Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected. No Photoshop allowed!

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

There's an elephant on the loose!

What is this I see before me?


If I didn't know any better I'd think it was an elephant.

Isn't he lovely?! And happy.


The Montmartre Elephant lives lived in Rue Gabrielle,  Paris 18th.

A week later I went to see if the elephant was still there. This is what I found. Sigh.

Beautiful Bollards

Rue de l'Abreuvoir, just north-west of the Sacré Cœur is beautiful. A cobbled road that gently winds up the hill behind the famous white church on La Butte. Here it is in the early morning sun. Quite a far cry from the Haussmannian boulevards in the centre of Paris?

For the past eight years there have been major changes to the traffic circulation round these small Montmartoise roads. On Sundays cars are no longer allowed into the Lepic/Abbesses neighbourhood unless they're there for a reason i.e. their owners live there. They have changed the traffic direction of many of the roads which means that these narrow streets no longer get used as a thoroughfare to cross the hill, La Butte. 

Bollards have been put up everywhere to stop cars parking half on the road, half on the pavement.

I can't believe I'm writing about bollards and traffic. YAWN...Bear with me!

Somebody has been having fun with these street bollards.

They have been very carefully painted. No colour used more than once.



Aren't they lovely?

This is a common form of Parisian street art. These polka dots were added by an after school art club that our kids went to last year. They start them off young.

This is more of a railing than a bollard, but I thought it was worth an entry. A giant silver scoubidou.

And last but not least, les girafes. Somebody has taken a lot of time over these!