our building

Built in the late 1700s with limestone stacked walls and timber ceilings. The interior steps, up 6 levels, are a beautiful dark limestone, curved smooth with age and wear, showing oysters and ammonites.

hardware

The hand-shaped doorknockers seem to be all just a little different, some very slender, some chubby, others with wedding rings, others with frilly sleeves.

Door and shutter detail next door to our building on Montee du Chemin Neuf.
Door handle on the corner of rue de Capucins and rue Saint-Polycarpe.
Window lock and missing doorknob on rue Tramassac. I walk by these every day on the way to the boulangerie.



I have recently been obsessed with the smaller things, possibly because of seeing so much on a grand scale in so short a time.

Moustiers Sainte Marie

Moustiers Sainte Marie in Provence. Look in the valley between the limestone outcrops, just to the left of the shadow- the Notre Dame de Beauvoir. Up the stone steps trail to the Notre Dame de Beauvoir in Moustiers Sainte Marie. Quite the hike for Messe, but a stunning construction achievement for the 8th century monks who lived in caves nearby.
The interior of the Notre Dame de Beauvoir.

Gordes

Another Provence village built up from the rock base on top of a hill. We have visited here a few times over the last 10 or so years. The village is showing signs of an invasion of "wealth". Walls of stone have spread along most roads leading into Gordes, hiding the private estates. The new buildings fit well visually, but it's all a facade of engineered stone.

Roussillon

The village Roussillion is set on top of a vast ochre deposit that has been mined since the Romans occupied the area, and most likely since the Neolithic. The building colors are intense in places, and beautifully faded in others. Next time I will plan to be here to take a workshop at the conservatorie des ochres, shown on the left.
L'église Saint-Michel de Roussillon - passageway between streets

The village built over ochre.

sculptural politics

Bush as warhead

trompe l'oeil

Bibliothèque de la cité Lyon has over 200 trompe l'oeil paintings across the city.
La Fresque des Lyonnais celebres, this wall mural shows celebrities from Lyon. On the right is the creator of Guignol, an infamous witty puppet created by a peddlar turned dentist in 1797 to attract more customers. On the "balcony" is Antoine de Saint Exupéry and his creation la Petit Prince.