Archive for the 'Man and nature' Category

Lavacourt - first impressions

It is unfrequent to be so pleasantly surprised. On a weekend drive out of Paris I stumbled almost by accident on the hamlet of Lavacourt on the River Seine and its small Restaurant-Bar-Tabac “Chez Charlot”. Immediately opposite lay the village of Vetheuil - a village made timeless by Monet who lived there in the 1880s.

No better invitation could there have been to settle down to a simple lunch of “poulet frites” and a “pichet” of red wine. What else could one ask for?

The village of Vetheuil as seen from the hamlet of Lavacourt (captured by mobile phone).

Vertheuil seen from Lavacourt - taken using a mobile phone

And the same scene rendered timeless by Claude Monet some 120 years earlier (painted in oils!).

Vetheuil in Summer

Here is another of Vetheuil in the Winter. Je pense q’une autre visite s’impose!

Vetheuil in Winter

Find out more about Claude Monet.

A bird in a cage…

A bird in a cage puts all of heaven in a rage

Auguries of Innocence
by William Blake

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.

Continue reading ‘A bird in a cage…’

Leaving the past behind

Leaving the past behind

The hundreds of thousands of reinforced concrete bunkers that dot the Albanian landscape are a sinister reminder of the paranoia of Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship. They will no doubt remain a scare on the landscape for hundreds of years to come.

Continue reading ‘Leaving the past behind’

Alpine views - 10 Km up

The Alps from the air

Porthole on the Alps

Progress…

Paris from the air

Wikipedia entry

Aleppo Pines (Pinus halepensis) at Les Figuières

Les Figuières

Enikoe’s impression of house at Les Figuières

Les Figuières by Enikoe

Rose gardens in Cavillargues

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Poplar trees in Anjou

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Find out more about poplar trees on Wikipedia

Statue with lichen at the “Jardin des plantes”

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Semi-detached in Purley, Surrey

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