theonlyD800inthehameau
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Thursday Doors: More From Nantes
Posted on May 18, 2017
This is the third instalment of doors from the French city of Nantes (and there will be more…), but this time without a specific theme.
According to TripAdvisor, the top attraction in Nantes is the Botanical Gardens. This is the rather grand greenhouse:
Less exotically, a couple of doors from the immediate environs of the Chateu des Ducs, which was featured last week.
I like the contrast of black door and red shutters in this example:
Speaking of black(ish) doors…
I was drawn by the unusual ‘font’ of the number on this door:
And finally a well-worn old wooden door:
Next week, some rather grander doors (again) – this time from the cathedral.
Thursday Doors 18 May 2017
Thursday Doors: Nantes – Chateau des Ducs
Posted on May 11, 2017
Still in Nantes, this week we feature some of the doors to be found in the Chateau des Ducs, a moated castle in the centre of the city. Although originally medieval, the Chateau was extensively rebuilt in the early nineteenth century after much of it was destroyed in an explosion. Nowadays, it functions as a museum.
It’s still surrounded by a moat, however, and to access this particular door you will need to have the drawbridge down.
There’s no doubt that some of the original character of the Chateau was lost in the rebuilding process, but the doors are still worth a look:
This door is actually a display item inside the museum. The sign dates it to around 1740.
Thursday Doors 11 May 2017
Thursday Doors: Nantes – rue Henri IV
Posted on May 4, 2017
We recently spent a few days in the city of Nantes, in the north-western part of France. While Madame took part in some workshops at a quilting expo, I took myself off with my camera in search of doors (among other things). There were plenty to see.
All the doors in this first instalment are on the same street – rue Henri IV, which runs at right angles to the River Loire. In effect, it marks the eastern boundary of the oldest surviving part of the city. All the buildings are constructed on a grand scale, although some are in better condition than others.
Unsurprisingly, since the street runs up from the river, it’s on a slope, which in terms of doors means that some are going to need steps in front of them:
Now then: do you see the small door in the bottom left of the picture above? Well, although it’s worth a closer look, it isn’t actually a door:
It is, in fact, an art installation, as the accompanying notice explains:
(‘Hétéroclites’ means heterogenous, although it could also be translated as ‘motley’. In art terms, it’s something that is made of different elements, without either unity or harmony. The notice informs that the anonymous artist used various unrelated items and materials – such as the metal pipes that cover wiring etc. on external walls – that are to be found in the street.)
Thursday Doors 4 May 2017
Thursday Doors: Chartres – final instalment
Posted on April 27, 2017
A last set of doors from the cathedral town of Chartres. Most of these are well cared-for, but interesting nonetheless:
I don’t really understand why the railings on this window are on the inside:
More tidy doors:
For the sake of variety, a blue door, slightly tatty:
And, to finish with, a door and an ex-door next to each other:
Thursday Doors 27 April 2017
Thursday Doors: Chartres – Down to earth
Posted on April 20, 2017
After last week’s exploration of the cathedral, we’re back to secular Chartres for the next instalment. However, to ease us back in to less spiritual matters here are a couple of images of doors from the immediate environs of the Cathedral.
These doors are in the gardens immediately surrounding the cathedral itself. I suspect it’s where they keep the lawnmower.
This building houses one of the administrative offices of the cathedral:
And, inevitably, there’s the souvenir shop…
Speaking of shops:
One practical problem for the door-hunter in Chartres is that the street are narrow, even before taking into account the cars that are parked all along them, so it’s not always possible to get a ‘head-on’ view…
…although we do our best.
Thursday Doors 20 April 2017
Thursday Doors: Chartres Cathedral
Posted on April 13, 2017
As promised, this week we feature some of the mightily impressive doors of the great cathedral of Chartres, often said to be the most beautiful cathedral in France and certainly a high point of French Gothic architecture dating from the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.
As you would expect, the principal entrances seek to impress:
As I recall, my second-ever contribution to Thursday Doors was this mouse’s-eye view of one of the main entrances:
It’s worth seeing from the inside too:
This is the entrance to the crypt:
And finally, this qualifies as a door, I think, although technically speaking it’s actually a reredos – a screen that once stood behind the high altar, but is now just propped up against a wall:
Next week we’re back to the usual diet of tatty secular doors.
Thursday Doors 13 April 2017
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
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
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
Thursday Doors: Confolens gates
Posted on March 16, 2017
To leaven the weekly diet of doors, here are a few of the interesting gates that the Charente town of Confolens has to offer, in ascending order of impressiveness.
A symphony in green:
My personal favourite – a study in symmetry:
This grand looking edifice is just behind the church:
And here are the gates of the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall). It was just after taking this photograph that my doorscursion was cut short by an unexpected collision with the pavement outside the Market Hall, in the same square.
Thursday Doors 16 March 2017
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