Christmas Lights 2009

A general collection of Christmas pretties

Autumn Colour

I missed the best of the Autumn colours because I was busy doing other things, then last week's heavy rain and wind took most of the best leaves. But there are still some lovely ones. The first group is Bois de Vincennes.

The one below is a street near mine.

The two below are near my Metro (Bastille)

The Bastille monument in the distance (above).

The one below - place des Vosges around the corner from my place.

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche occurs on the first Saturday night of October each year, running through the night - a huge cultural fair all over Paris. It was the idea of the mayor several years ago. Some other European cities have now adopted the idea. Each year it grows in size, diversity, artistic boundary-pushing and community and business involvement. These are just a few photos of last night's features.The flowers are fresh

On Pont St Louis

Spiderman under public control

Animated movie

Synthetic 'crystals' in Notre Dame Cathedral

Artwork on the walls and bridges

And a closer look

A final polish for the huge 'astral' disco ball to be suspended in Jardin de Luxembourg yesterday afternoon. It had moving lights projected onto it all night.

Design Heaven

I'm going to gather here all the images that fit the concept of design heaven.
Bathtime, anyone?
At this shoe shop on Rue du Faubourg St Honoré (below), even the door handle fits in!
These shoes (below) have me feeling almost orgasmic. The problem is last time I went into this shop 'just to try on - nothing else', the very skilled salesman got me a beauty when he said, 'Madame, you look so elegant in those boots; not many women can wear heels that high with such dignity and grace.' Within seconds he had my credit card in his hand.

Relaxing around Paris

This is the latest thing on Pont Saint-Louis. A gang of people have set up folding chairs on the bridge, and offer a free 10-minute massage for a tip.

Journées du Patrimoine

This is the weekend that thousands of publicly-owned buildings normally closed to the public fling open their doors on the third weekend in September.

(Above) Real gold on display at the headquarters of la Banque de France
(Below) One of the grand rooms in la Banque de France

(Below) Sarko's office in Palais de l'Elysée

Visited the Palais de l'Elysée on Saturday and the Banque de France on Sunday. Also went to the Prefecture de Police on Sunday but the museum was quite ordinary.

This is the weekend that Nicolas and Carla kindly move out of the Elysée Palace and let the public wander through (only certain areas, of course!). I was there at 07:45 but still had to queue for three hours to get in. It was worth it because it really is a magnificent building.

The Salle des Fêtes is extraordinary; the place settings and the length of the tablecloth are measured to the millimetre. It takes two hours to set it up. There was a big screen in the garden while we waited to get in, with a video showing how everything happens to keep things running like clockwork.

Settling In

Now that I have broadband, phone and TV, I feel as if I'm part of the world again. The majority of the challenges of paperasserie are behind me. Having unpacked and succeeded in fitting everything in to the apartment, I feel good in my space. Now it's a matter of adjusting my sleeping patterns to fit in with the night life of the street!

The photos are of my new geraniums, that I had made up and delivered by a garden centre, and the view from my kitchen. Also some unusual flowers I saw in the Jardin de Luxembourg this afternoon, in the place where crocuses bloom in Spring. One of the charms of Paris is the incidental friendly conversations that arise, like the one today when I was taking this photo and a woman stopped to discuss how strange it was that these flowers look like Spring flowers, but here they are bursting out at the end of Summer: a beautiful surprise, as she said. We agreed their shape reminds us of waterlilies, but neither of us has seen them before.

I must allocate time to learn about layout of this blog!