The Loire Valley and especially Blois
Marie François Sadi Carnot was born on 11th August 1837 in Limoges and died on 25th June 1894. He was president of France from 3rd December 1887 until he was assassinated on 25th June 1894. This impressive statue overlooks the lower part of Angoulême. You can see the bell-tower and dome of the cathedral on …
Continue reading “Postcard from Angoulême – President Sadi Carnot”
The Romanesque cathedral of Saint Peter in Angoulême has a complicated past. It has been renovated several times and it is difficult to know today what it really looked like in the past. It dates from the 12th century but was partly destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562, then rebuilt in 1634. Paul Abadie, a friend of …
This scene is behind Graslin Theatre in Nantes but so far I haven’t found the origin of the statues in the foreground or the people on the balcony watching them. Cette scène se trouve derrière le théâtre Graslin à Nantes mais je n’ai pas encore trouvé ni l’origine des statuts en avant-scène ni les personnages …
Brest is known as one of the rainiest towns in France but today the sun was shining bright! Brest est connue comme l’une des villes la plus pluvieuse en France mais aujourd’hui le soleil brillait !
I took this photo from the car which explains why it is slightly off-centre. The Cirque d’Hiver or Winter Circus in the 11th arrondissement, was opened by the Emperor Napoleon III in 1852 as the Cirque Napoléon (it was renamed in 1870). It is a well-known venue for circuses, exhibitions of dressage, musical concerts and …
The Canal Saint Martin is not an area I know well and we really enjoyed discovering it. We walked along it from Hôpital Saint Louis down to the market at Bastille then rode Velib’ (city) bikes back (with our baguette and oysters) to our starting point. Je ne connais pas bien le quartier du Canal …
This is the beautiful town hall in Nogent sur Marne built in 1870 where we were married in 1998. The merry-go-round is recent though. C’est dans cette belle mairie à Nogent sur Marne construite en 1870 que nous nous sommes mariés en 1998. Le carrousel est plus récent.
The Grey Lady in the rain! La dame grise sous la pluie !
Henri Frick (1849-1919) made his fortune in coke and devoted his later years to building up an incredible collection of high-quality masterpieces which he housed in a buillding that he built as a museum that would be open to the public after his death. Unfortunately he only lived there for five years. You can only photograph …
Continue reading “Postcard from New York – The Frick Collection”
This is Little Italy’s iconic Italian deli which started out as a latteria (dairy store) in 1910. Surprisingly there are not a lot of traffic problems in New York despite the many large cars such as this typically American jeep. Di Palo’s, une institution dans Little Italy, et la meilleure épicerie fine italienne du quartier, a commencé par être une …