I arrived late last night for a long weekend in Stockholm to visit Åsa who I haven’t seen for ages. Not only that, Matt also made a special trip down from Uppsala for the day and it was years I last saw him, at Iowa! We explored the Kungliga Djurgården (the Royal Game Park) and its nature trails, lunched at the organic café of Rosendals Trädgård (Rosendal’s Garden), and on Matt’s suggestion, went to Thielska Galleriet (Thielska Gallery) which I fell in love with immediately.
This museum is housed in what was originally a private residence to a banker, Ernest Thiel, and the collection of Scandinavian art within was his private collection, many of which the pieces were courtesy of his friends who are great artists including Edvard Munch, Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors and Eugène Jansson. The room photographed here is that of Munch’s collection.
What I love most about this museum is the use of the concept of minimalism to display the arts very effectively. As a result, one does not feel overwhelmed by too many pieces of work at any given space, yet the thread of theme which links one work to another remains. In addition, each display hall is spacious and filled with plenty of natural light. It just feels so — fresh. I don’t know how else to describe it. All I can say is, I was a very very happy bunny :D
I never quite get nymphs, sirens and water spirits straight. I’ve seen the terms used interchangeably in some writings, while other sources portray them as distinct creatures, albeits water/sea related. Who’s right and who’s wrong? However, I do think of nymphs and sirens as creatures with seductive nature, so I would deduce this sculpture to be a water spirit if anything. Just look at it – she’s so young and carefree!
Pont Alexandre III is undoubtedly the most elaborately decorated and opulent bridge of Paris. This water spirit is only a small component to the bridge which spans River Seine to link Les Invalides on the left bank to both Grand Palais and Petit Palais on the right bank. From gold-gilded statues to Art Nouveau lamps to bronze sculptures, this bridge is, and will always be, a wow factor to all visitors to Paris.
Ps: yup, French wiki confirmed this is a water spirit (génie).
I should really make some effort to go to the 12th, 17th and 19th arrondissements. I’ve just realised that I have not posted anything from these quarters. An oversight, yes, but they are also a teensie wee bit out of the way for me. Realistically it would be ideal for me to check them out at weekends, but as you can see, I was away last weekend (to Strasbourg) and I’ll be away again this weekend (to Stockholm). Tricky.
For today though, I’m being lazy and all you’re getting is the interior of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. And not even a particularly good shot either (sorry!). As you can see, dim light condition equals questionable crispness. Perhaps it doesn’t help either that I put the setting on like a gazillion times of zooming, but given the height of the cathedral…
Today, a quick photo, still of River Seine, but from the east end of the city. Yup, the complete other side from where I was yesterday. And like the majority of Parisian neighbourhoods close to the périphérique, there are also plenty of modern buildings here and busy quayside with various docked vessels of varying sizes. I wonder how much trades are taking place along this part of River Seine?
It has been a while since I play around with the different modes of the camera so here’s the return of the miniature. I really am not making enough effort to get to know my camera well. I’m still struggling to handle the manual mode, especially at places where it’s dark/dim or during the night. The response time is extremely slow for most part, which is something I’ve not experiences in the past with the manual mode of my previous Ixus. I can only deduce I’m doing something wrong, since there’s more control settings on this camera and in correlation, it should means I could work it better. Now, if only I know where my manual CD is.
Visitors to Paris tend to stay within the central area of the city – let’s face it, there are so much to do one need not venture further out in any case – and as a result, perhaps the only tall buildings they would have noticed are Tour Montparnasse and those at La Défense (and you can spot them right from Champs-Élysées). Otherwise, Parisian architecture seems rarely topping the sixth or seventh storey in height, much less constructed with plenty of steels, metals and glasses.
Down by Port de Javel, standing on Pont du Garigliano, one may not recognise Paris if not for the Tour Eiffel which stands beyond the horizon of tall modern buildings. It is still quite pretty here, with less human traffic (at least that was the case when I was out there this evening) and the feeling that the dynamism of Paris is something that I would need a lot of time to fully understand. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I would be able to find time somehow to soak all the knowledge in.
I quite like walking around the Marais quarter, which is lively and bustling but also attracts a certain kind of fashionable crowd (not that I am one of them – and I doubt I could afford to be one either), making it an interesting people-watching neighbourhood. More importantly, the quarter did not undergo a Haussmann “re-looking” (a casual French term for makeover apparently) and therefore plenty of interesting architecture to check out too.
Hôtel particulier is one of the features which I think of as a link to the romantic past of the streets here, thanks to the favours bestowed by the royalties and the peers of French court once upon a time. The grand urban mansions usually come with entrance courts and gardens, and if you could cast your imagination a little back, if only back to the days where Impressionist artists could cast paintings of garden strolls in Victorian dresses and suits, the gardens would be just perfect for socials and interludes in between attending various soirées that one had been invited too.
Today, a number of these hôtel particulier have been converted into administrative buildings as well as museum spaces. Some of these are free to visit (e.g. Musée Cognacq-Jay, Musée Carnavalet, la maison de Victor Hugo) so there is no excuse to not get acquainted with the idea of grand Parisian townhouses. I should revisit them too. It has been a while.
The seat of major EU institutions are in Strasbourg, among them the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. The buildings are modern, mostly glass and steel, which is quite a contrast to the quaint city centre area of Strasbourg, where Alsatian architecture (often feels Germanic) dominates. Of course, the city has been in both the hands of French and German over the centuries, so it’s natural that the influence from both cultures can be deeply felt.
Outside the European Parliament, this sculpture above drawn me to it. From afar, I initially thought it was the figure of strong protecting the weak, or a mother holding a child. Upon closer inspection though, it was more like entertwining embrace of a couple, encased in a loose heart shape. Designed Ludmilla Tcherina, this is a strong imagery of Europe that has a heart.
The Strasbourg Cathedral is one seriously impressive structure. Its height tall beyond anything that I’ve ever seen, standing majestically at 142m into the sky, it took over 400 years to construct this Romanesque/Gothic cathedral which is lavishly adorned with stone figures. It does get rather overwhelming, so I zoomed the camera in and photographed this small part of rose carvings instead. And instantly loving it.
The weather in Strasbourg this weekend is not quite like what I’ve gotten used to in Paris in the past few weeks (read: sunny) and is everchanging. One moment, it’s warm and sunny, and the next windy and chill-inducing. I was out for lunch today with my friends, sitting at the outdoor restaurant at Place du Marché Gayot, which was very pleasant until we started to shiver and wished we wore something else that were not shorts, mini-tees, skirt and sandals. We skipped desserts in favour of bulking up our outer-wears…
I have a lot of kiwis to eat. Last week, at the market, I bagged a small basket of about a dozen kiwis which come at le petit prix of €2. Awesome! Sure they don’t all look pretty and perfectly oval, but does it really matter how they look?
Among the many, I’ve found this, which sliced to a natural heart shape. Isn’t it cute? I have another which sliced to resemble mitochondria, the power house in every single cell of our body. I debated which to post, but thought I’d skip the geeky kiwi (I can’t help it if I notice the shape – I am a biologist) and go with the heart-warming option. ;)
A new series of sculpted installation (made from rusty steel) has just been peppered along Ports de Paris which opened today. Such serendipitious coincidence that I went awandering near Parc André Citroën and came across a few of them. I haven’t time to check all of them out though. Accordingly they could be found along River Seine running from the park to the Eiffel Tower.
Created by Edgardo Carmona, the pieces by the quay-side gates of the park include the artistics (carnival musician, bike juggler, ribbon gymnast), the day-to-day (umbrella blown with the wind) and the amusing (man with beer – after a late night out maybe – and dog, both peeing to a lamp post). I wonder what else are installed upriver from here.
