Postcards from the Road

Sunday, 8 August 2010

Vogue Living

If Toul had been designed by Vogue Living, it would look like this.

Toul,

France

© postcards from the road

Disneyland

If Walt Disney had designed Toul as a stage set, it would look like this.

Toul, France

Toul as cities go is a bit old. Old enough to be completely fortified and for one of the cathedrals to have been commenced in it's fourth iteration in the 12th century and time enough for every last skerrick of living plant like thing to have vanished from within the bounds of its walls. This wasn't noticeable at first as everything was in its ancient context, but the main square, which is actually a circle, has a monster fountain and garden as its focal point, and buried deep within the flowers are clusters of vegetables and fruit growing, cleverly trellised upon mock fruit boxes.

Is this an exhibition of the plenty that surrounds the city, or a mocking comment on the tragic results of the siege of 1870?

I don't know, but it's beautifully done, and worth a postcard.

Toul

After midnight

I'm sure I could have improved this photograph if I'd taken the time to ... well adjust the exposure setting for starters, but although it's barely visible, as we wandered down the back streets of Toul, I couldn't help but wonder how they set the louvres in the shutter in parallel with the footpath and the road pavement.

Toul

France

Why I need a tripod

When I see something I want to take a photograph of at ten o'clock at night, it's just too hard to keep the camera still by hand.

I just loved the warmth from below and the icy blue from the apartment above. It made me wonder if the bloke running the shop would be game to go upstairs when he finished work!

There's one in every crowd

As we wandered through the streets of Nancy, we talked about how the street scapes had a consistency of proportion and texture and colour without the need for any heavy handed planning legislation, it just happened.

And then someone comes along who wants to be different. Where we come from, you'd need a planning permit to plant red flowers in a window box.

© postcards from the road

Patisserie

Because I love the textures, and I can't get a handle on the weird perspective, and the lettering is really cool.

I'd have bought my baguette from there the day I took this photo if they hadn't been closed for lunch.

Nancy

New Lace

If you are far too cool to have lace curtains, and you happen to have a whole swag of little white dots lying around, well....

Nancy

The upside of travel.

As we chugged through the backwaters of Nancy, he was painting the window reveals and she was telling him what to paint. They stopped to stare as though we were the only bright blue fibreglass boat with the roof open they had seen driving down their river today.

Nancy.

A thing of beauty.

Beauty in the streets of Sommerviller.

Salt Mines

The salt processing plants at Dombasie-sur-Meurthe could pass for a cluster of ski resorts were it not for the conveyors and general give away industrial clutter below the first level.

Cannabis in Nancy

Entering Nancy, I wondered if the person who masterminded this stunning witticism was in his or her right mind at the time.

I am not sure how they matched the paint colour to match the sky, but they gave it a good go anyway.

Sommerviller

It's been a while since we wandered for the purpose of taking photographs, so here are a couple of windows on the world of Sommerviller which I hope is in Lorraine in France.

Motorway Bridge

Somewhere across a French Motorway, there's a footbridge connecting the fuel sales part with the food part on the other side of six lanes of traffic wooshing by at 130 kph.

This is what it looks like.

Underneath the Arches

I'm sure a lot of "dreaming dreams of you" goes on underneath the arches on the Bournemouth Prominade.

Bournemouth

A 60p view of Bournemouth.

For as little as 60p one can walk out on the Bournemouth pier from whence this view becomes apparent.

Bournemouth

Helter Skelter

"Price's Giant Helter Skelter" proclaims the sign. "Take a Joy Ride for fun". While it did indeed look like it could indeed have been fun, in the absence of anyone small to enjoy it with, we were content to simply watch this time.

Bournemouth Pier

Greetings from Bournemouth

It's rather a different beach from those that I am used to photographing each day, but when all is said and done, a beach is a beach, and there's nothing like the sounds of the water and children playing mixed with the smells of tanning lotion and fish and chips to let one know one is alive on a summer's day!