Les Pyrenees

A nice effect that I have discovered with iPhone photography, is that some images end up looking like paintings rather than photos.

Grazing

Paris finale

Compared to tiny Copenhagen, Paris is a huge, dense and vibrant city buzzing with life. How nice that for 5 days, I could clear my mind and fulfill my needs...

...at anytime and anywhere

with the virtual world left behind

À bientôt!

Ignored

Streets of Paris

Grande Mosquée de Paris

The Paris Mosque was built in 1922 to honor the North African countries that had helped France during World War I. A major renovation was completed in 1992.

Made of reinforced concrete, the mosque was decorated with mosaics, wood carvings and wrought iron brought from Morocco. It remains an active place of worship for North Africans living in Paris, especially on Friday, the Muslim holy day, and during the holy month of Ramadan. (Source)

Official website in french.

Wannabe writer

Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris (website)

Sigh

Château de Versailles

When the Château de Versailles was built, Versailles was a country village. Today, it is a suburb about 20km south west of Paris. The Château was originally a hunting lodge, built in 1624, by Louis XIII. It was expanded by Louis XIV at the beginning of 1669. It later became the official residence of the Kings of France and the court, the centre of political power from 1682 until 1790. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but also as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy.

Refusing to wait in line in the cold outside for entrance tickets, we stood gazing at Le Château de Versailles from the outside...

at all the tourists,

posing in front of a fountain I camouflaged into,

and nevertheless, also at some nice old architecture...

and beautiful gardens.

More about the Château de Versailles here.

La Défense

La Grande Arche de la Défense

La Défense was establised in 1951 as the prime high-rise office district of Paris where many of the city's tallest buildings can be found. The initial concept was to have 2 rows of skyscrapers of equal height. In 1964, the approved plan included 20 towers at 25 floors each. But slowly, there was a demand for taller towers and the result is a mix match of cheap buildings of different heights.

The Grande Arche de la Défense (1982-1989) was initiated by the he French president Mitterrand as modern version of the L'Arc de Triomphe. This cube-like design, by Danish architect Otto van Spreckelsen, is a 106 meters (348 ft) concrete, glass and marble white building with the middle part left open. The sides of the cube contain offices.

More about La Défense here and here.

Back to local shopping

I stumbled upon this fabulous store my first day out in Paris. Had to resist myself from walking out with spices, olives, a lamp and a sword. If only character filled local shops such as this one, selling all one may need, could still exist in large numbers in N. America.

If only Walmart never evolved.

La Seine

View from Point Nôtre Dame

A bit of Napoleon

Arc de Triomphe

And the Big Blue Christmas Tree goes "blink, blink blink...."

Tour Eiffel

At the Charles de Gaulle airport, I found my feet walking out of the terminal towards the RER B train into the city. And so what was initially a flight transfer back to Copenhagen, became a 5 day stopover in Paris.

Bienvenue à Paris!

The two Ss

While in the tiny village of Escanecrabe, South France....

I soaked up the warm glow of the Sun and the purity of Snow,

two sensations I miss most during dark danish winter months.

Les Quartiers de Marseille

There are many ethnic neighbourhoods in Marseille which reminded of Toronto, except with a french flare.

The Beauty of Marseille

In Marseille, I had many beautiful moments because of...

Marianne, my beautiful host
Sophie, her beautiful friend

Hosted in a beautiful apartment with a rooftop terrace...

...so beautifully practical for throwing keys down to the road when friends arrive.

In Marseille, amongst so many element of beauty, I easily and always felt fine. As I said all the time while I was there, "Je suis correcte". Merci Marianne, je reviendrai!

Life on the streets

where everyday people are full of expressions...

especially the children!

I love Marseille

Read the following upcoming posts to see why...

Demonstration

Such a peaceful senior citizens demonstration that they even willingly got into police cars.