Author:visionarymarketing
At no. 38 rue Boulard in the 14th district of Paris, a huge porch gives access to the villa Louvat. Behind that beautiful art nouveau stone archway is a sort of corridor. This leads to an inner square in which a large number of cars are parked. These add nothing to the elegance of that place. Villa Louvat, rue Boulard, Paris 14th district At the end of this corridor and after this small square, there are workshops on both sides. It […]
Is Paris burning? It’s certainly not burning hot at the moment except maybe for the strikes. There is something about France which is incomprehensible to most people around the world. I assure you, you are not alone, a lot of people are confused around here as well. There has been major political and social upheaval in the streets for years on end. Possibly since the revolution but even way before. Disclosure: in order to give the (false) impression of a […]
Today’s post is about Portland, Oregon and Portlanders. I vaguely remember promising one of my readers, ages ago, that I would post my pictures of Portland. I never had a chance to do so. Except once when posting something about postmodern architecture. We went to the Pacific North-West in 2016. Ages ago it seems. Covid-19 did this to us while we stopped travelling for nearly three years. As a result all our memories appear to be far older than they […]
I fished the following pictures of the Paris 13 th district out of my archive. In October 2013, street artists from all over the world were asked to decorate 36 apartments in a 1960s block of flats due to be demolished in the 13th district of Paris. Immediately after that, Real Estate developers replaced this graceless building with another even more graceless modern glass and concrete shoebox. Nearly 10 years later, I decided to revive this old blog post with a […]
Romanesque churches are ubiquitous in the Pyrenees. Here a few pictures from Saint Bertrand de Comminges a bit further from the Ariège in the piedmont. Romanesque churches in Saint Bertrand de Comminges Two Romanesque churches for the price of one There are two main Romanesque churches in Saint Bertrand de Comminges. Here’s the main one seen from Saint-Just de Valcabrère (the old mediaeval church). As the tourist office states, Romanesque churches also include some gothic elements. The ancient city, then home to the exile […]
Wind turbines are often the subject of heated discussions between those in favour and those against. I do not particularly want to jump into that debate but I thought that spending a bit of time trying to understand how things really work might be useful to me and maybe some of my readers. Wind Turbines and the Industrial Age This is an account of our latest visit to Le Havre and its harbour, last July 3 years after our 2019 […]
The 36 views of the Eiffel Tower is a series of wooden engravings. Well-famed engraver Henri Rivière sketched and printed them in the 19th century. These pictures show various areas of the French capital from which one could catch a glimpse of the famous iron lady. Above picture: from the pont Mirabeau and its beautiful 1910 steel railings. 36 Views of the Eiffel Tower Henri Rivière, a lover of Japanese prints, was inspired by the most famous of the Japanese […]
When preparing this post, I researched Chateau de Terride in Mirepoix with duck duck go. I realised that quite a few chateaux in the south-west of France bear that name. It’s a shame, because this particular château is in no way like all the others I have found on the Internet. Chateau de Terride in Mirepoix Chateau de Terride is quite derelict. As I researched its history, I discovered that French TV celebrity Stephane Bern had launched an initiative with the Ministry […]
Bagatelle is a chateau well hidden in the Bois de Boulogne where you can find flowers and especially roses, gardens and the Sphinx of Bagatelle. The sphinx of bagatelle is a novel by Romanian Princess Marthe Bibesco (aka Martha Bibescu). The book is a bit hard to find, though. Etonians might get it from the school’s library. It can also be bought from AbeBooks. The original French version doesn’t seem to have survived the test of time. “In 1775, the Count […]
The Clematis, amongst the flowers of Bagatelle, are my favourites. Here are my two best macro shots. There are approximately 300 species of that flower, which is part of ‘the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae’. Clematis – Bagatelle – Paris – May 2022 ‘Their garden hybrids have been popular amongst gardeners, [3] beginning with Clematis × jackmanii, a garden standby since 1862; more hybrid cultivars are being produced constantly. They are mainly of Chinese and Japanese origin. Most of us know these species as clematis in […]
