Category: Design
Quaintness and other Qualities
I had such a good long meander in the UK in 2014 but the minute I left, I wanted to go back. I spent my teenage years loving British pop music and studying art and wanting to see London galleries, and my whole adulthood reading a lot of British literature and watching UK television and film. I am therefore, through conditioning, disposed to loving London. And I really do, although I think it would be a slog to live here if you weren’t absolutely loaded. I’m just taking in the buzz, the whir, the density and variation in architecture and the quirky names for things and it’s all charming the hell out of me.
Store Fronts
It would be a lifelong project to photograph every beautiful storefront in Paris. There’s loads of great typography, whimsical graphics and slick paint jobs.
This pretty bakery was behind our apartment and once we clued into it, we were there every day.
This “Topless” store sells macaroons and this funny little restaurant with the monk out front…well I don’t know what they’re serving up there!
Amelie Poulton worked here!
Pere Lachaise Cemetery
It was absolutely lovely wandering around Pere Lachaise. We found some of the famous inhabitants, but my favourite was the tomb of the balloonists.
Ceremonial rub and presentation of rose. (Thanks Mara!)
Jardins des Tuileries et Luxembourg
On our way to the Musée d’Orsay we cut through the Tuileries. There were goats! Shaggy “palace” types…you know, unusual homely ones that must be valuable. Handy for keeping the grass trimmed in the ditches?
And green chairs, which are one of my favourite things about Paris parks. Yesterday we nabbed primo spots at the Medici Fountain and pulled up some recliners and comfortable arm chairs for a couple of hours. All very relaxing and it’s one of the few areas where trees were allowed to keep their limbs and grow into natural shapes.
What the French do to trees:
Here is Luxembourg Garden, including a bit of installation art. I do really like this garden, though in getting around, I found it necessary to walk across huge swaths of dusty gravel in the hot sun a couple of times, which I don’t enjoy. The shade is around the perimeter under chestnuts planted in rows and trimmed into submission.
Sparks and Wonder 