Thursday Doors: Chartres (1)
Posted on April 6, 2017
After last week’s detour around redundant shopfronts, we’re back on more familiar ground with the first of a few posts featuring doors from the cathedral city of Chartres. Next week I’ll focus on the cathedral itself, but for now, to maintain some sort of continuity with last week’s post, let’s start with a couple of commercial premises that are obviously still going concerns:
Shutters count, don’t they?
A couple of old doors from the same residential street in the old part of the town:
And this one is obviously a replacement of the original:
Finally for this week, the premises of an Appart’Hotel (for self-catering holidays):
Thursday Doors 6 April 2017
Weekly Photo Challenge: Security
Posted on April 6, 2017
‘Security’ is generally a serious subject, so all the more reason to allow a little levity sometimes when dealing with it.
This sign can be found outside a chandlery (and key-cutting) shop in the town of St-Junien, in the Haute-Vienne département of France.
Macro Moments: Week 35 – Pineapple
Posted on April 5, 2017
It usually comes out of a can, of course, but the surface of a fresh pineapple is fascinating when viewed in close-up.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 105mm f2.8 macro lens. 1/20 at f8 ISO4000. Cropped and edited in Lightroom.
More macro images at Susan Gutterman’s macro challenge here: Macro Moments: Week 35
Tuesdays of Texture: Sculpted Saints
Posted on April 4, 2017
Lots of texture in this detail of a selection of saints to be found at Chartres Cathedral:
More submissions to Narami’s weekly challenge can be found here
I is for iPhone
Posted on March 31, 2017
A close-up of the camera on my iPhone looks almost alien when taken out of context:
Thursday Doors: A Vendre
Posted on March 30, 2017
Something a little different this week…À vendre: For Sale.
Here in rural France there are innumerable properties, both residential and commercial, for sale. Many of these – perhaps even the majority – have been up for sale for many years. And they are, frankly, unsaleable.
When it comes to commercial properties – shops – the economic consequences of improved transport links and the spread of car ownership have left many rural communities with little more than the bare essentials available locally. In our village, for example, there is a boulangerie, a pharmacy, a ‘superette’ and – bizarrely – two hairdressers.
There are also plenty of empty shops optimistically displaying ‘À Vendre’ signs – as they have been for many years, to judge from the distinctly dated style of the shopfronts. Here are a couple of examples:
Of rather more architectural interest is this failed enterprise – hairdresser, parfumerie and purveyor of fishing supplies. Obviously, nothing worked:
Even large towns are proving incapable of supporting smaller local shops, as these two examples from Confolens illustrate:
Normal service will be resumed next week, with some reassuringly knackered doors from the cathedral city of Chartres.
Thursday Doors 29 March 2017
Weekly Photo Challenge: Dense
Posted on March 30, 2017
A densely-packed crowd of tourists shuffle past the Doge’s Palace in Venice. Claustrophobes need not apply.
Tuesdays of Texture: Celtic Cross
Posted on March 29, 2017
This Celtic cross was spotted in a display of ornaments in a garden centre. It’s pre-cast rather than carved, obviously, but nonetheless the texture is interesting.
A contribution to Tuesdays of Texture, hosted by Narami at De Monte Y Mar.
H is for Horse
Posted on March 24, 2017
This striking white horse is one of a group of about half a dozen or so that belongs to one of our neighbours.
Thursday Doors: Confolens (finale)
Posted on March 23, 2017
This is the fourth and final instalment of doors from the French town of Confolens. As last week’s post, which concentrated on gates, ended with a public building (the Hôtel de Ville), here are a couple of others to start us off, beginning with the old church:
while this grand building at the end of the new(er) bridge across the Vienne river, is now an educational establishment:
The carving above the lower left window indicates that this building was put up in 1885, although the door looks more like Art Deco to me:
I was just pleased with the way the light turned out on these doors up in the old town:
And finally, saving the worst (which is to say best) ’til last, is this fine example of a door designed by a committee:
Thursday Doors 23 March 2017
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