The Mother Swan was laying eggs

Down by the river Seine

And 7 cygnets were newly hatched

When I was passing by

No ugly ducklings, but fluffy balls

So cute, so beautiful they were

But only Mother Nature could produce

Such perfect creatures in this crazy world

AUTUMN VIBES

Golden October

October arrives and starts to paint
He selects with care his colours:
Red, orange, yellow or bright coral
All luminous are his favourite hues
With his magic brush he creates
This wonderful golden landscape,
A fascinating world of beauty that
Makes us partly sad and partly happy.

Paris, 26 October 2020

 

November

October’s gone and left behind
A golden carpet on the ground.
Wet November’s chilly winds
Blow dead leaves at my door.

I see them dancing in the air
Those glittering golden leaves;
The last hurrah before the winter
Before the year’s end.

They give me hope that this will pass
The bleak season is not forever.
And spring will come, and birds will sing
And this nasty sickness will be over.

Paris, 3 November 2020

DEAUVILLE

Hôtel Barrière Le Normandy

XY - Philippe Valensi

Stay Safe in Deauville

Beach Ride

The Beach - Then and Now

Life's a Beach - Expo Martin Parr

 

Deauville hasn't changed one bit; more subdued maybe, but still popular and alluring.

A breath of fresh air - litteraly, at a time of anxiety and uncertainty. Walking on the beach - without a mask - and you almost forget that the year is 2020 and there is more trouble ahead. You just feel happy to be alive.

Richelieu - the Ideal City

Cardinal Richelieu

The notorious cardinal wasn’t as evil as he was presented in the Three Musketeers.  He founded the “ideal city” that bears his name to this day, in his fiefdom in the Loire Valley. His magnificent chateau however has long gone. The bi-annual festival “Cape et épée” (Cape and sword), held there, takes us back to the time of the musketeers.

Richelieu City Centre

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Festival Cape et Epée (July 2018)

Festival Cape et Epée (July 2018)

SERDICA

                                                               
After extensive excavation work in connection with the tunnels for a metro line, parts of Decumanus Maximus and Cardo Maximus, at their intersection, are once again exposed to the elements, just a few metres beneath the street level, showing us the open heart of Roman Serdica.

Cardo Maximus (the main north-south thoroughfare of the Roman city), which was the main shopping street

Decumanus Maximus (the east-west orientated thoroughfare)

Roman remains

Roman remains

Roman remains

The Eastern city gate

Serdica (present day Sofia) was founded at the dawn of time around thermal mineral springs at the foothills of a mountain. It had quite a chequered history and has been part of three empires during its life.

Find out more in The City That Does Not Age:

https://www.amazon.com/City-That-Does-Not-Age/dp/0955687535/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487589437&sr=1-1&keywords=%22the+city+that+does+not+age%22

MOTHER'S DAY

What to do when you forget to send a Mother’s Day card to your Mum?

Imagine this scenario:

London, England. It’s 8:00 pm on a Saturday and you see somewhere – Internet, TV, a newspaper or a magazine that the following day is Mothering Sunday; a day that falls on a different date each year (just like Easter with which it is connected) but for the English it usually happens sometime in March. A busy and sometimes scatterbrained male like me can easily overlook such an important date and find himself in the dog house. You see, I say “male”, because the female part of the population has the rather annoying habit to watch out for such things like birthdays and stuff. Anyway! To someone like me, an English male who has had a stressful week at work, who has had to do overtime on Saturday and who then finds himself in the above stated awkward situation, I’ll give the following piece of advice: just follow the steps below:

·         Don’t panic!

·         Take a few deep breaths!

·         Get out your credit card!

·         Go on the online florist site!

·         Order a bunch of flowers and send them to Mum!

Job done.

New York New York

A visit to the great city – a few very intense and overwhelming days - too much to see, too much to do, but it’s worth it! It’s big, it’s majestic, it’s on a different scale; high-rise towers soaring to the skies, busy arteries cutting across the city in a perpendicular fashion and one large oasis in the middle of it – Central Park, my favourite place!

View from above

The Statue of Liberty

Central Park

Manhattan - View from One World Observatory

Manhattan - View from the Empire State Building 

Rockefeller Center