The story of the Venetian Museum in Náxos is a fascinating one. Housed in a stone tower that is legacy of the Della Rocca-Barrozi family, the museum was founded and is curated by Nikos Karavias, descendant of the afore-mentioned Franco-Venetian noble houses on his maternal side, and of Cretan rebel against foreign occupiers on his paternal side. If you would like to know a little more of this Franco-Venetian-Greek family, you’d do well to read this article from the Levantian Heritage website.
We went on a guided tour of the tower house, consists of a main living area, a couple of bedrooms (with hidden access to other levels in the tower), a kitchen/dining area, a library/study, a private chapel, as well as a cellar/prison, and a courtyard. We were regaled with tales about different members of the family, pointed out significance of certain objects on display, and of course, treated to the harbour views from the tower. I’ll let the photos take you through parts of our guided visit.
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Paris is greeted by sunshine, going into the second half of the year. Hurrah! Sure, there were intermittent clouds and grey sky this week, but blue is becoming prominent too. A massive dose of sunshine is also due our way in the coming days, so to “celebrate” I’ve been exploring around town a bit more than I have been in the past few weeks. We also hosted a couple of visitors early in the week so they were brought to just about all of the main sights possible within the time constraint.
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1 Jul: The village of Montmartre is undoubtedly busier than usual, but there are still quiet corners to be found. La Maison Rose (i.e. The Pink House) is located right around the corner from the Montmartre Museum and the last vineyard of Montmartre, and the streets nearby could easily take you away from the crowds. A few steps in and you’ll find yourself pretty much on your own, basking in the fact that you’re still in Paris but it feels far, far away from the madding crowd.
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A city-wide trasure hunt – why not?
The Mairie de Paris hosted its 8th edition of Chasse aux Trésors on Saturday 6 July and for once, I was around to play! It is a brilliant initiative to discover Paris better, as each hunt is set to cover the streets, parks, shops and other nooks and corners of participating arrondissements. A total of 13 arrondissements were up for adventures this year, and there were also 2 inter-arrondissement challenges to be had. Intimate knowledge of the arrondissements is not necessary. In fact, it’s even better if you don’t know it well already!
The clue sheets were to be collected between 10am and 1pm, and the hunt completed by 3.30pm. No other time limitation imposed otherwise. Teamed together with Anne and Chloé, we signed up to discover one of the inter-arrondissement trails. We had no idea before hand on where we were going, just that we should retrieve our treasure hunting clues at the Mairie of the 3rd arrondissement. This year, we were to help Erasme recover the name of his long-lost lover, guided by the Oracle. I just want to share some photos from our hunt, and hover over them for descriptions extracted from our clue sheets.
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The island of Naxos is the largest among the Cycladic islands and lies within the heart of the archipelago. With over 60 villages scattered around the island, there are much for visitors to see and to do. However, when you are short in time – in our case, we had mere 2 days – then it’s better to play it smart and stay put in Chóra. Or Hora. Or Náxos town. (Hint: they refer to the same place.)
The ferry from Athens-Piraeus to Naxos takes about 6 hours through the vast Aegean Sea and the first sight that greeted us near the port was the Gate of Apollo, also known as Portara. This large marble gate dated back to approximately 500 BC is the remaining structure of a temple dedicated to Apollo, standing tall but alone on the islet of Palatia. The temple was never completed, but the remnant of what was the intended dimension can be seen. Naxos town from here is also a very pretty sight.
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Santorini is one of the most beautiful islands that I’ve been. After wistfully going through photo albums of several friends who visited this very Cyclades island last year, I decided to push it up high on my priority list as well as into my 101 goals list, which is met by F’s approval. It is a very popular holiday destination, and there are good reasons for it – picturesque villages, friendly locals, ease of communications, delicious food (and wine), fascinating (geological) history, sunny weather, intense sunset – take your pick.
The village of Oia (pronounced “ee-yah”, not “oy-yah”; also written as Ia) is the one spot everyone seem to converge come every evening. There are other view points on the island for beautiful sunset, but between various recommendations (and a good dose of clever tourism marketing I guess), Oia becomes *the* prime sunset-watching spot. We tried to photograph the sunset – something not particularly easy as we attempted to master our new camera – from various points of Oia and not just where everyone goes. It does get uncomfortably crowded with everyone clamouring for the perfect view of the sunset!
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I seemed to have unintentionally photographed quite a few animals this week. In reviewing them now (at home), I figure, why not make this week’s photos to the theme? Then again, it would have been too easy if I have at least a photo of an animal every day of the week when I didn’t think about it in the first place. As a result, I struggled to pick a favourite one for some of the days, and I also struggled to find at least one photo for some of the days. Saturday’s photo of the day was even a toss up between two different non-living animals – a sculpture or a stuffed head of a cow….
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24 Jun: While F was out snorkelling, I had settled quite nicely at a terrace with a drink and reading on an ebook reader. Out of nowhere, this little friend appeared and started exploring under a number of tables, including ours. It has a friend too, that was a bit more skittish and stayed away from this human. Now that it had my full attention, when it jumped up to perched on a low wall, I knew I had to take a photo.
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The largest cathedral in France (you could put two Notre Dame de Paris in it!) also possesses the tallest nave for a complete cathedral in the country. It stood proud before me on a glorious Wednesday morning when I was in Amiens and yet I was at lost on photographing it with Frédéric’s few-days-old camera. The small manual that I’ve grabbed on my way out of our apartment sat in my bag; I didn’t have the time to consult it page by page, nor the patience to. I would just have to make do somehow.
Amiens Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral which construction began in the 1220 under the instruction of Bishop Evrard de Fouilly, while three architects – Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont, and Renaud de Cormont – oversaw the works. These men are commemorated through an octogonal plate embedded within the floor of the cathedral, enclosed within a labyrinth. Standing at 112.7m in height, its nave stretched an impressive 42.3m, giving it the real meaning (esp back in the 13th century) of reaching for God and the heaven. With multicoloured stained glass and imposing sculptures that recount religious stories to the populace, the cathedral in its entirety was deemed worthy to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
(Hover over photos as usual for captions)
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I must admit, I didn’t know much about Amiens. In fact, even after visiting the capital city of Picardy, I still have much to learn about it. My daytrip happened very much out of coincidence, suggested by Anne when we were chatting one day while I was searching for an interesting place not far from Paris that I could visit. At that point, I’ve been working on getting myself upgraded from the status of Voyageur to Grand Voyageur with the national train company, SNCF, and I was just a couple of train rides short from making it.
Travel time between Paris-St Lazare and Amiens takes just a little over an hour on the inter-city train, and as the train pulled into the station of Amiens, I could spot the one dominant building in the skyline – the Amiens Cathedral. My plan for the day then was to visit the cathedral, the historical centre of Amiens, and the Hortillonnages. I wish there was a walking tour that I could join, but a quick check on the eve of my visit showed that the sole walking tour available for the months of September to June runs only on Saturday afternoons. Visiting on a Wednesday, I was out of luck.
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Summer officially kicked in in the later part of the week but whoever up there who’s supposed to dish out the correct weather condition seems to have missed the memo. We started the week with crazy storm and there were reports that some parts of Ile de France were hit by large pebble-sized hailstones, then we had a bright sunny day, just to get another day of storm, followed by a day torrential rain before clearing up in the afternoon. Trying to fit all the awful weather in before it turned 21 June and really need to get into summer mode?
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17 Jun: Paris plunged into darkness today. There was raging thunderstorm all morning that I was pondering if I should even stay online or shut down the laptop. The lightning could be seen running all the way from the sky down to the earth, and this is not a common sight. Right around 11am, barely a slither of natural light remained and it felt like night. I love this shot because it reminds me of the quality of Impressionism. Peer closely, it’s mostly random water blobs. Step away and perhaps you’ll start to see what I saw in my apartment that memorable moment.
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If anyone tells me right now that he/she will be visiting Giverny, my immediate response is “Call Le Jardin des Plumes, book a table in their restaurant and treat yourself to a wonderful meal”. It may only be a few months old, but at its helm is Chef Joackim Salliot, who interprets the vision of Michelin-starred Chef Eric Guérin, and a warm welcome from the maitresse de maison, Nadia Socheleau, awaits all. Seriously – Just. Do. It.
Tucked hidden away from the main village on rue du Millieu but mere handful few minutes walk away from the Musée des Impressionnismes, the restaurant is part of an elegant boutique hotel surrounded by the calm of the countryside. Few visitors of the village explore beyond rue Claude Monet, so this is, for now, truly off the beaten track.
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