Flowers in front of La Maree Restaurant (C.S., Sanyo HD1A)
Monday, April 23, 2007
The Grand Axis of Paris, 20 April 2007
When I.M. Pei designed he glass pyramid at the center of the Louvre's main courtyard, he was disturbed by the fact that the building itself, and therefore his new structure, were not on the same axis as the Carrousel Arch, the Obelisk in Place de la Concorde, and the Arc de Triomphe. When the axis was first designed, the Tuileries Palace stood as the terminal point, between Concorde and the Louvre, but it was burned to the ground during the Commune in 1871. So Pei had an equestrian statue of Louis XIV from Versailles recast, and placed it as a grace note to mark the end. If you stand at the base, you have an uninterrupted view all the way to Francois Mitterrand's Grande Arche de la Defense, built in the 1980s. It's one of my favorite places in Paris and, oddly, though it is in plain sight very few people seem to notice.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Saint Jacques de Cotdoussan
This picture was taken with natural light at a very slow shutter speed in the tiny hilltop church at the village of Cotdoussan, population 50, in the hills near Lourdes. The figures kneeling below Saint James (Saint Jacques, Santiago) are pilgrims in classical attire, with walking sticks and cloaks. The one on the right also wears the broad had, the small sack for his belongings, and the gourd for drinking waters that people carried along the way.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Cotdoussan goes for the Communists
In the hills above Lourdes, in this town of 50 people with its magnificent little church wonderfully restored thanks to state funds, only one of the 12 presidential candidates has a poster displayed in front of the mairie: the Communist Party's Marie-George Buffet.
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