Salvation and Butterfly

Lately I have realized that I am absolutely okay with not blogging every single day or making it a point to beat myself with worry over missing two or three days of blogging in a row. Now I find happiness in doing it when I truly feel like it. And the readership will come. It may come slow but it will definitely come.

So lately, I have placed trust again.

I still have to blog about 2 more days on France. On my down time, I am working on it.

No rush.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying painting and drawing while Akhil watches hours of endless t.v. :) For some reason I kept staying away from painting. I kept convincing myself that no ofcourse it doesn't make me happy or any such thing! When I am done with a piece, the surge of emotion I have tells me I am convinced falsely. So here's a little stroke of happiness I found over the weekend. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

I am still trying to find my style. It's been many years. I don't feel that I am good or even decent so far. I want to run to the finishing line ofcourse but have to remind myself that this is a process just like all else in this wonderful life of ours.

I gifted this one to a friend of mine for her b'day

France Day 4: Château de Versailles

Day 4 was the last day we were going to spend at Palace Trianon. We wanted to take it easy on this day. Later in the evening we were to catch a train from Paris to the town of Tour.

The day started with just bidding our goodbye to this lovely hotel

A random embossing emerging from a concrete wall. There were no signs of any chocolate stores nearby. Still so beautiful.



Fresh blue cheese salad



Salmon pizza for lunch?



Salmon Pizza for lunch!



Entrance to Palace of Versailles.
The unbelievably gorgeous château of Louis XIV.



This royal palace stated the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV







This is where the King and his subjects prayed. To prevent the nobles from establishing regional power, the King introduced a strict court rule of etiquette with elaborate ceremonies and exacted procedures. This included morning prayers at this church inside the palace of Versailles to assert personal and absolute rule. Part of these rituals were his highness's 'rising in the morning' where the king was awakened by offerings of holy water and a thorough medical check-up.







I found his shoes and the heels fascinating.



Beautiful flooring



Exquisite and grandeur doorways



Marble floors



Ceiling



Hall of Mirrors - one of the most famous rooms in the world



Room-divider



Louis XIV's bedroom



The queen had a bed chamber too that I couldn't photograph properly. Here's a really eerie detail. The queen had to give birth publicly in her chamber to prove the legitimacy of the heir!











Hercules Drawing Room (18th century ballroom)







Restorations constantly happen (See far behind Akhil)


Garden





Château de Versailles gardens















Depiction of hunting dog. The Château was originally built as a hunting lodge. The extensions and embellishments were additions to the palace years later when Louis XIV wanted to escape the revolutions against the monarchy without appearing to have given power.



Beautiful statues like this are aligned on both sides of the garden as seen in the next image.



This is a stunning view in person



Yes. That boy is sleeping at Château de Versailles. No words. :)















End of Versailles Palace



Love this sign!



Yummy chocolate mousse! And ofcourse HOT CHOCOLATE!!! MY FAV!

France Day 3: Musée du Louvre, Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, Jardin du Luxembourg, Tour Eiffel

Pls. note that you can click on the pictures to see a larger view.

Who doesn't know the Louvre Museum. Our third day was even more fantastic! We mixed it up with a bit of museums, visiting a really cute square called place du Tertre. And ofcourse this day too was packed with tons of street-walking. I think I am really proud of the fact that A and I got to know the streets so well. They are the arteries of Paris.

Louvre - It was a surreal feeling to read Davinci Code by Dan Brown and visit these inverted pyramids



Tour Eiffel



Us in Jardin du Luxembourg



Jardin du Luxembourg



I thought that everything-I mean everything-in Paris from street signs to ads, from chairs to hoarding signages, from restaurant signs to metro maps, everything was just beautiful!



Basilique du Sacré-Coeur
Church of the Sacred Heart offers the most beautiful and stunning views of Paris. You can see the people sitting on it's steps soaking in anything they can on a rather cloudy day.



Front facade of Basilique du Sacré-Coeur



This artist named Paris drew a modern water color portrait of yours truly. He was quite demanding on how I should frame his work of art. I shall follow his directions loyally. :)



I saw so many beautiful bouquets of sweeping flowers and plants bursting out of pretty pottery on every street corner, hanging outside every window, bordering every restaurant and pretty much randomly appearing wherever my eyes went. Apparently the towns and streets of France are constantly competing with each other on how they can look more beautiful with their flora and foliage than the next town. Wow! What a healthy competition!



Mime with an umbrella. They aren't immune to the weather either. :)



This is the square I mentioned above, place du Tertre. It was full of artists waiting for tourists. They were all so relaxed however. I felt that time moved so slow in this square. There was an underlying harmony being created by all these artists. You have to be there to feel it. And look at her cute hairstyle!



View from steps when we were on our way to Basilique du Sacré-Coeur on a cloudy day.



Musician relaxing, smoking, singing, strumming.



These are houses.



Leading up to place du Tertre, I noticed this type of artwork pop up on walls of shops.



Here too!



This is what I am talking about. Look at the signage!



So cute



Love the yellow seats



I decided to take a pic of their ads. They have huge real estate on metro walls. I found their marketing ads particularly enormous.



Exactly like NY Metro! I am sure the designer/agency was the same.



The tables were small. The chairs smaller. And no one seems to mind eating on a busy street. It's all good.



Who needs orange cones when you have stark black office chairs? C'mon people!



Yes this is true. The streets are that small. You can walk on it. You can sit alongside a wall on it. You can drive your motorcycle on it. Or your bicycle on it. You can do anything in the world.



A's espresso at Restaurant du Musée d'Orsay



I hate coffee ice cream with a passion. I hate pistachio ice cream even more fervently. But there is one country in this entire world where I will happily gulp it down, licking the spoon and plate until they exist no more! That is France!



White fish with mashed potatoes at Restaurant du Musée d'Orsay



Yumm - fish with polenta.



Musée d'Orsay



Musée d'Orsay



Musée d'Orsay



This is a humongous clock at Musée d'Orsay. When I say humongous I mean that in my life I have never seen a clock this big and this ornate.







Louvre (outside)



Louvre (inside)



Louvre (inside)



Louvre (inside)



Louvre (inside)



Imitation in Louvre (inside)



Louvre (inside)



Louvre (inside)



Bakery!



Louvre (outside)



Coming out of the backdoor of Louvre







Through a window



Okay. I love her socks here.

France Day 2: Place St. Michel, Square du Vert Galant, Pont Neuf, Cathédral de Notre-Dame, Quartier Latin, Arc de Triomphe, Allard Bistro

Pls. note that you can click on the pictures to see a larger view.

Versailles Cafe

Started out with some hot chocolate, hot coffee and tartine (baguette) with butter.



Their hot chocolate is so different from ours. The milk tasted different too!



These cafe tables are really really small. Some even scaled to just about 24X24 in.


Place St. Michel

St.Michel square was built in the memory of an ancient chapel that used to exist here.



St.Michel fighting the dragon



Monster spouting water. These were beautiful to look at.





Square du Vert Galant

At the western tip of Ile de la Cité, Square du Vert Galant is a little garden dedicated to Henry IV who was also known as 'Lusty Gallant'. I had no idea of this at the time when I kissed Akhil.


Pont Neuf
Oldest bridge of Paris dating from 1578. Trust the Bridge.

Look at the size relationship with the man in the bright blue umbrella.



I loved the signs.



Walk along the Seine River



I saw so much graffiti during my train rides and couldn't photograph them since we were always moving. I was happy to find this scrawled on our walk alongside the river. This is obviously an uprising art of rash and rebellious budding youngsters and it secretly juxtaposes with the traditional art history that Paris offers all around openly.



We walked everywhere on these. These lovely cobble stones are all around.







Husband and wife on the Seine



These feet took us a long way. I want to thank them. :)


Cathédral de Notre-Dame
The building of this gothic cathedral church began in the 1200's.

Notre-Dame means 'our lady' in french



Western facade depicting a rose with Mary and Jesus in it's center



entryway doors



door detail



this is some serious carving



sunlit cathedral with illuminated depictions of saints and god



these are not your typical stained glass windows





Métro
After Moscow, Paris is the 2nd busiest Métro of the world.
The station architecture resonates Art Noeveau. The signs are simply fab!





Inside the métro, musicians entertain passer-by



The faint art on these tiles were truly one-of-a-kind. The picture exactly represents how faded the art looked. It was probably an intended style.





Quartier Latin Latin Square
The bohemian square once had a very different feel to it with artists and hippies buzzing around. It was an intellectual center. Now it's lined with food of the world, book stores, filled with students and tourists.




Okay, I found the stop signs really fascinating. Look at how tiny they are. And the little man is ridiculously hilarious!



This is called lovely marketing. I felt like drinking coca-cola after seeing this.


Arc de Triomphe
This is a french monument commemorating soldiers who fought for France, especially the Napoleonic war and WWII.





View from the top of Arc de triomphe after climbing 284 steps. This is just one of the many avenues extending from the Arc de triomphe—revealing the famous Champs-Élysées that is bursting and bubbling with high-end luxury stores, cinemas and cafés. From a panaromic viewpoint, it appears star-shaped spurring tentacle like avenues.


Allard Bistro
A 1900's bistro





Duck with olives. I don't need to elaborate on this deliciousness.



Raw Salmon with potatoes



what happened to it afterwards...



French Bread

Hope you enjoyed and will come back for Day 3! :)