Paris Parfait

Queen's Day celebrations

It has been an eventful Queen's Day for us and our guests from Michigan, beginning early this morning in Amsterdam and continuing in the little fishing port of Volendam and then the charming village of Edam, famed for its cheese.  These lads posing for pictures wore touches of orange in tribute to the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange.

A shop window filled with Queen's Day kitsch.

A giant paper flower.

Rather quiet street scenes in Edam at day's end.

Edam's Town Hall, built in 1737.

Dutch flags were flying all over the Netherlands.

Boats in Edam.

Boats in Volendam.

Back soon with more photos; for now, hostess duties await.

Sunday morning

A swan coming around a bend in the canal...

...and gliding away, après un petit déjeuner chez moi.

An unexpected discovery in our garden. (As always, click photos to view detail).

A profusion of pink lilies...

...and pale pink and white blossoms against a backdrop of a weeping willow on the opposite bank of the canal.

A moment of calm (with the boat still on the deck, awaiting warmer temperatures).

Unusual purple and blue hortensia (hydrangeas), a gift from dinner guests last weekend.

 

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday, whatever the weather!

P.S. Have you read Frank Rich's alarming piece the Sugar Daddies, the old, conservative white guys who are trying to buy the American election??!!

The art of display

Artful displays at Sophie Pretelat's antiques shop in the Loire Valley, France.

Sophie - who lives in a magnificent chateau filled with fantastic and rare collections - has a real talent for arranging seemingly disparate objects into intriguing tableaus. I am lucky to have purchased some treasures from Sophie's antique shop, as well as her stands at brocantes at Bastille and Saint-Sulpice.

One of the eye candy books waiting in my "must read soon" pile is Creative Display by Geraldine James. The book is packed with ideas to mix it up a bit, with items both precious and sentimental.

Another book in my mailbox this week is blogger Nichole Robertson's Paris in Color. It is filled with whimsical themed photographs that will make you long to wander the city's streets at leisure, soaking up every beautiful detail.

John Baxter's The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris is also awaiting my attention. More about this book later; I'm hoping to catch up with all these delightful echoes of Paris soon.

The yogurt maker

In a remote area in Bani Hamida Mountain in Jordan, this woman was making yogurt in front of her house. She beckoned us over to watch, as she shaped the yogurt into balls. The yogurt is then be left to dry in the sun. Later, bits are broken off and used in meals - particularly in mansaf, Jordan's much-loved national dish.

I once was with a Jordan Television crew at an army outpost in the desert. Lunch - in my honour, as the only female present - was a giant platter of mansaf. Everyone dug in, using their hands. Thankfully, an army officer handed me a spoon.

Something about these pictures (above and below) reminds me of Johannes Vermeer's painting The Milkmaid.

If you visit Jordan, be sure to try mansaf for at least one meal!

On the surface

This swan appears serene while gliding on the canal...

...but when the swan turns up at my deck wanting food, he angrily hisses if he doesn't get his way. The Mallards follow at a safe distance, hoping for leftovers.

These creatures remind me of certain American politicians: on the surface, they try to portray a kindly countenace, denying a "war on women." But behind the scenes, they engage in concerted efforts to dismantle 60 years of hard-fought reproductive rights. This week the Republican National Committee chairman laughingly dismissed such talk as "like a war on caterpillars."

Yet actions speak louder than words. In the past year alone, legislators in 39 states have introduced nearly 500 bills to strip, suppress or deny women's long-established reproductive rights and erode basic civil liberties. Read more here about conservative lawmakers' numerous brazen attempts to defund women's healthcare and undermine equality in the workplace.

Bizarrely, conservative male Republicans seem determined to unravel women's reproductive choices and workplace rights, while decrying government intervention into people's lives!

An unlikely makeover

When I noticed the house on the Dutch realtor's website, a dirty white brick wall screamed out at me. My initial reaction was to find out if the wall could come down. When I saw the house in person, that idea was reinforced; the wall was horrid and dated. But we bought the house and there were so many cosmetic improvements needed, (thankfully, the house is structurally sound) the building work involved in knocking down the wall seemed like a tedious process, not to mention an unnecessary expense. And after moving twice in one year, we really didn't want to spend weeks living amidst construction chaos.

So rather than knock down the wall or try to mask it with art, I decided to make it a feature. I chose a teal blue inspired by the Rijksmuseum (much to the dismay of the painter, who clearly thought I was mad). The teal matches the William Morris Strawberry Thief fabric in the Arts & Crafts chair. I hung the circa 1830 French gilt mercury glass mirror and pushed the Napoleon III glass-fronted bookcase (bought from the grandson of a professor, who had it in his office at the Sorbonne) against the wall. Then I put the 1930s table in front of the mirror and topped it with glass scientific specimen globes to reflect more light. The arrangement of antique globes containing various curiosities are a winking nod to Miss Havisham's table in the latest BBC production of Great Expectations. A Napoleon III "bamboo" stool and a matching stand (holding an antique Buddha head) complete the grouping.

The rest of the room is a mixture of modern design and influences from the Middle East and Andalucia, Spain. It's an eclectic combination, which seems to work.

In case you didn't notice, the perfectionist in me is compelled to point out a pair of eyeglasses on the table that should not have been in the photograph. But in my bid to quell these annoying perfectionist tendencies, I am posting this photo, rather than take a more "perfect" one.

The ceiling is painted a pale blush pink, which helps "warm" the space in the winter. The pendant lights (of which there are six) are from Italy. The wool rug is handmade by the Bani Hamida Women's Weaving Project in Jordan. I'm looking for a different rug for this spot; ultimately the Bani Hamida rug will move either to my office or the guest room.

Stay tuned for more house "makeover" photos... Bon weekend!

One wall

Work-in-progress, my home office.

The bookcase contains language and photography books, an antique book press and my iPod. Vintage American typewriters from the 1940s and 1920s rest on an alphabet chest handmade by Luke Ellis of Kent & London. On the wall is an original Henri Cartier-Bresson photo of boats in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris (my old neighbourhood); a Mucha Art Nouveau alphabet drawing from 1901 and an oil on wood painting of nightfall over Santa Fe by Greg Moon of Taos, New Mexico. The 1950s Tolix stool is French and the Louis Poulsen suspension light is from Denmark. The colour-block tiles belonged to the house's previous owners; am still searching for a rug. The door leads to a balcony overlooking the garden and canal.

Aging beauty in the city that inspired Les Miserables

The 10th-century St. Saulve Abbey in the charming medieval city of Montreuil-sur-Mer, France. Read some of my previous posts about this walled city that inspired Victor Hugo's book Les Miserables here,  here,  here,  here and here.

Vignettes

Vignettes from my home office space, the Netherlands.

As always, click photos to enlarge.

Happy Easter

St. Saulve Abbey, Montreuil-sur-Mer, France.

18th-century statue of Jesus Christ, St. Saulve Abbey.

Wishing you and yours a joyous Easter!

Waiting...

Restoration underway at Reales Alcazares de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain.

 

Hello, dear friends and gentle readers! Despite my lengthy absence from the blogosphere, I haven't forgotten about you. While our house isn't nearly as grand as the Alcazar Palace in Sevilla, it has its own simple charm (and some antique tiles from Sevilla are part of our decor). For weeks I've been preoccupied with improvements and repairs. Waiting for tradesmen and builders to work their magic has been a slow and frustrating process, with delay heaped upon delay and a couple of incidents involving less-than-stellar workmanship. 

After our professional painter carelessly splattered paint on our home office floors (which two hours of scrubbing wouldn't remove, requiring rugs to mask the damage), we've decided to paint the guest room, the top floor and the stairwells ourselves. Also, we're tasked with touching-up several spots the painter failed to notice. Louis Poulsen lights from Denmark arrived two weeks ago, but the too-busy electrician has cancelled three appointments; hopefully the job will be accomplished next week!

But life is not all home-improvement drudgery. David and I are enjoying the birds (including a grey heron!), ducks and swans that frequent "our" canal and the lovely flowers and trees blooming in our garden. Hard to believe we're in a city, yet surrounded by nature. The winter snowstorm caused extensive damage to two palm trees from Northern China, so amateur-like, I've been trying to salvage what's left.  I've read at least five books (and promptly recycled them, in a bid for more space; less clutter). Slowly, but surely the house is starting to feel like a home.

Meanwhile, we're long overdue for a trip to London to see family and American friends arrive for a visit later this month. I'm hoping to get back to a regular blogging schedule, starting next week. Watch this space for photographs of our new abode.

Wishing you and yours a very happy, healthy Easter weekend!

A frequent visitor glides by our garden.