Think you've got problems ?

There's good news and bad news.

Bad news : there are only about 30 white lions left in the World.

Good news : 4 white lions cubs were born this week in a French zoo.

Twist of Fate : one of the reason the white lions are so few is that they can't hide and are immediately spotted by their preys...

Travel in Time

(c) Roger Viollet

Have you ever been to this fantastic city ?

Here is another clue

(c) Keystone France

Yes it is Paris, at the time of the 1900 World's Fair !

A wonderful city, where sewing is taken very seriously

(c) Roger Viollet

(c) 2007 Walter Limot/akg-images

("We replace bad heads" - in French it also means "we replace the sulking")

One of these days

Pictures by : http://www.gapingvoid.com/

At the moment I'm doing this utterly boring job in a big company. A one letter a day job (which I manage to mess up). I didn't think such jobs still existed. On my floor all offices are marked "boss of something". However it is quite well paid. So, some days I spend my days on the internet... Today was one of these days. After a while, surfing from one terrific website to another, to one creative blog to another, I had my first anxiety attack for months ; what the heck was I doing or not doing whith my life whilst more important things were happening all over the world ?

When I came back home, a child was howling ad lib on the subway "nooo, don't dooo thaaat". The child seemed to be on the verge of a major crisis. It lasted for ages. I began to feel very nervous. Then I began to feel nevous about my nervosity. Then the woman next to me shut her book and looked up, tearful, and went out. Another woman took her place, and very soon she had compulsive facial twitching. I had to shut my eyes in order not to scream "Can somebody do something about that chiiiild" (probably an echo to my repressed urge to sing "everybody dance now" in the face of all the dark suits this morning) . I thought about Corine Sombrun's last book about her shamanic experiences ; she says she can sense the energies flowing out of people, especially in the subway... Then a woman said something on the other end of the subway carriage, and the child finally calmed down. Then it was my turn to get out... I went to the local "Mercerie" which was about to shut, to buy a few ribbons. The elderly cashier was er special, and when I felt I had to tell about the child incident to apologize for my edginess, she replied "yeah, kids don't get enough slaps these days, don't they"... What a day !...

Work in progress

This little one is taking me very long to complete...

I have another project ; I am participating in
Robin Atkins Bead Journal Project

Week-end in Normandy

A few weeks ago we went to Dieppe. Normandy was enchanting, as all the fruit trees were in bloom. We came across the beautiful Gardens of Moutiers in Varengeville, which is also a shrine for the only Arts & Crafts house in France, designed by Edwin Landseer Lutyens.

Click here to find out more about this architect, considered by many as the greatest english architect of the 20th Century, and who worked on the plans of New Delhi, where he built the Viceroy's house :

http://www.answers.com/topic/edwin-lutyens


Also, in the village, is a church for which famous painter Georges Braque designed stained panels. Unfortunately the panels were being repaired, which gave the bizarre impression that a spring cleaning was going on...

More on this lovely Varengeville Church.

The Braque stained pannel The Jesse Tree.

René Lalique

From top to bottom : Brooch, Four peacocks on a branch (Hakone, Japan) - Hat pin, Wasp and Scabiosa stellata (Copenhaguen) - Tiara, Prunus branch (Lisbon)

Quess what I've done today ? I went to visit the exposition on René Lalique, the master jeweler. There were lots of flowers, insects and mythical beasts turned into exquisite jewellery to be seen. A pure delight !

The show lasts until 29th July 2007 in Paris and you can learn more about Lalique on the following websites :

http://www.museeduluxembourg.fr/Oeuvres.asp
http://www.cristallalique.fr/v1/index.htm
http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/nucleos.asp?nuc=a11&lang=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Lalique
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hod_1991.164.htm
http://www.connaissancedesarts.fr/photos/lalique/05_vase_cygnes.html

A day in the life (Election day)

Woke up from a nightmare.
My youngest daughter brought us breakfast in bed ; milk and biscuits.
We knew odds were against our champion so we didn't hurry to get up and decided to make the most of this day. Went to vote. I agreed to help with the countings of the vote at the end of the day whereupon I was asked to leave my ID Card with a stranger until the end of the vote (!).

Then we went to a restaurant near the Beaubourg museum.Next to the fountain decorated by Nicky de Saint-Phalle, saw a guy playing the didgeridoo, for the puzzlement and delight of tourists hanging by.


Then two police cars pulled in this pedestrian area and asked the musician what he was doing. I'm playing music said the guy. When the police left he told the crowd that it was the second time the police was stopping by today...

We then went to visit the new exposition at the Beaubourg Museum of Modern Art, stopping to hug a few young people with "free hugs" signs. Met a friend by chance. Saw a really nice piece by El Anatsui, a Ghanean artist ; a coat made of metal findings.


When we went out, in the hall an artist was drawing hearts with texts on a very long paper. Soon 7 dark suits came to enquire whether the artist had an authorization from the Museum Direction to do that ; he didn't and had to pack his stuff...

Tonight, the former Minister of Police Forces, the man who sends the police to arrest illegal immigrants at their children's school, the man who said 1968 only brought us disaster, the man who has decided not to have a ministry of art & culture, has been elected as the new French President. Welcome in the France of Tomorrow...