Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Doors in Paris

Several years ago Chuck and I bought a watercolor done by a Parisian artist of doors in Paris.  I always have loved it, and I thought it was because it just reminded me of Paris (and it's a technically excellent watercolor).  Now I think it's because it's centered around doors.

Doors, you say;  really?  Yes, Paris has so many beautiful doors, that I am going to show as many as I can in this blog.  Most of these are entrances to apartments.  First of all, most doors are double doors, and the lovely ones are old.


Some combine wood and metal.  Note the faces in the middle of the ones below:



Look closely and you'll see the couple in the door below:


This is a lovely door;  note the carvings in the wood and the metal work in front of the door at the bottom.  However, its special addition is the door knobs.  Look one more photo down.

The one below is probably not what I would want to look at every day!


In contrast, this wrought iron and glass portal has a rather interesting face above it:



Another wrought iron portal with a matching window:


In case you are wondering what is behind these doors, here's a peak.


And here's the door to my own apartment (which does not have a lovely old door but just a modern glass door).  The owner of my apartment is a writer and journalist.  Seems fitting.


Modern apartment doors are like the one below that exist in just about every city:

Finally those lovely old doors don't stay that way without work.  Here's one that has great promise!


And last, but not least, on the Champs-Élysées,  you will find this door, which is the portal to the most over-the-top Abercrombie and Fitch I have ever seen.  The fellow standing just inside the door the day I peaked in was 6 feet plus tall, dark and handsome, and without a shirt (and the kind of physique I've only seen in magazines--no photo of him--sorry!).  The door is wonderful:


Some buildings have intriguing facades like the one below, but that's for another blog!


Autumn in Paris

Paris in the fall has to work a bit to be romantic and/or delightful.  Why?  Well, it rains a lot.  Not buckets of rain very often (or as you say in French, raining ropes:  il tombe des cordes), but it rains several times a week on and off.  Of course, the sun may shine inbetween for part of the day, which is very heartening.  You learn to take an umbrella everywhere.  There are nice small ones sold all over Paris.

So a sunny fall day, especially when it is 20 degrees C (68 degrees F) is pretty special.  These photos were taken today in my favorite park (the Jardin du Luxembourg) at lunchtime.  The flowers are still in bloom but some are a little past peak.




While you can see some colored trees in the scene above, for the most part Paris does not have the autumn colors that I have enjoyed all the years of my life in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.  But it continues to be warm enough to sit in the park.  Parisiennes are generally more determined than I am--they will sit out on what I consider a chilly day with a heavy jacket.  But today I walked in shirt sleeves in the park, and most folks were wearing coats!  Ah, Paris in the fall!