I'm still struggling to work on an ancient pc while i wait for my new powerbook. It's somewhat cramping my style and it's one reason I haven't been posting much recently.
As I can't post any new photos, it's a good opportunity to do this tag of '7 things I love' from the lovely Marion at L'inventaire de l'esthétique. I'd love to illustrate these 7 things with photos but this photo grabbed from flickr will have to do for now.

1. Le petit déj outside in a café anywhere in France.

2. Remembering first seeing the northern lights in Lapland. Magical!

3. Living in Europe and having endless possibilities of places to travel to by train. Speaking as a girl who has previously always lived on islands - this is huge.

4. This turquoise colour of the hydro lakes in New Zealand.

5. That fleeting feeling that the world has changed a little, after coming out from seeing a really good film.

6. Being up early in the morning light - especially with a camera.

7. Anticipating and planning a trip somewhere new.

I'll tag Lea, Melanie and Celine.

place du peyrou

In Louis XIV day the Place du Peyrou was the highest point in Montpellier. In fact no building could be higher than the statue of Louis on his horse! It's still has a Versailles like feel about the space, with it's formal avenues of trees and grand statues.
It's also a great place to sit and look out over the roof tops of Montpellier.

grasse

As soon as you get off the train at Grasse you're hit by the heady smell of perfume. This is not surprising, as Grasse is the town central to Patrick Suskind's novel Perfume and is still France's center of the perfume industry. Incidentally, Grasse was the death place of Édith Piaf.

merci

Each time I go to Paris I have a list of places I want to explore. Merci a newly opened concept shop in the branché 3rd arrondisement, was one such place on my list. It's very stylish with lots of branded clothes labels. These brands however, are conceding their profit margin to give to charities in Madagascar. There's a florist, perfumerie, stationery shop and lots of home and kitchenware. The café is also a secondhand book shop with a NYC meets French chic feel about it.

the sweet flypaper of life

Yesterday after I heard that the New York photographer Roy DeCarava had died aged 89, I hunted out my book of his photographs from his retrospective at the The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Looking through the book reminded me the way his images captured so much grace and poetry. He was trained as a painter and printmaker but became known for his photography of African-American Harlem in the 1950s.

cocoon

The recently opened Darwin Centre is the new addition to the Natural History Museum in London, designed by the fabulous Danish architects C.F. Møller. It houses the museum’s collection of 17 million insects and 3 million plants, as well as working laboratories for 220 scientists from all over the world. The design is in the form of a huge organic cocoon, enclosed in a glass covering. The shape is a beautiful metaphor for the protection of these natural treasures.

le corbusier's cabanon

These are images taken from Le Corbusier's cabanon at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin that I talked about in the last post. I'm posting little details of the cabin rather than showing the whole cabin. I was on a tour and the cabin was so tiny that even 4 people inside made it seem very crowded. Everything is still original inside the cabin. The paint is faded and the wood is worn and there is a lovely feel that comes with the patina of age. Le Corbusier and his wife holidayed in this little cabin but always ate at the adjoining restaurant of their friends the Rebutatos. This is very much a summer cabin and I imagine that they spent most of their time outside.