Dahlia Concert in Paris

While in Paris in June, my friend Tara and I went to a concert of the group Dahlia. The music was really cool and we had a great time! What I liked the most was that in some songs one of the guys played the cello - loved it! Also took a short video with my camera but the file is so big that I don't think it's a good idea to upload...

Check out their official website at www.dahlia-music.com.

Paris: Random Photos

The photo above shows something that still quite fascinates me - it's part of the street cleaning system in Paris. I've only noticed this in Paris so far. The street cleaning people let water flow next to the sidewalks (coming out of the little box in the middle of the photo), flushing away the dirt they swept off the sidewalks. Very effective!

Paris: Sainte Chapelle

Sam from Montchauvet recommended to visit the Sainte Chapelle on the Ile de la Cité while we're in Paris and we did. It's an amazing small chapel built 1248 by Louis IX. With wonderful decorations and stunning windows on the second floor. The first floor which you see in the two photos above was meant for the kings servants. The upper floor with the great windows was only meant for the kings and his family. Louis IX had built this chapel to accommodatee relics like the "crown of thorns" he had acquired in 1239. The crown and most of the other relics got lost during the revolution.

Paris: Restaurant "Je thé... me"

My friend Tara had discovered this wonderful little restaurant that I'd like to share with you or at least recommend to you as well. We had lunch there and it was amazing!! The couple running this restaurant is really lovely and very attending. At the end, the chef even came out himself to pose for this photo.

Just a few expressions of the food we had: these were our entrees (1st: I think it was crab meat with zucchini in a light cream sauce; 2nd: onion tarte in a great sauce that I'm sure had a little bit of red wine in it as well); unfortunately, I forgot to write down the descriptions in french - just reading them is usually already half the fun - needless to say that it was gorgeous!! My mum always taught me that a cook who knows how makes good sauces from scratch really knows his/her profession. I'd definitely say that this is the case here ;). Extremely yummy!!!


Adress: "Je thé... me", 4, rue d'Alleray, 75015 Paris

Paris: Musée d'Orsay

The building that hosts the Musée d'Orsay is a former train station turned into a museum in 1986, after it was neary demolished. The museum mainly shows art from the time between 1848-1914 and you can look at art pieces from Rodin, Manet, Renoir or Gauguin to name a few. I just took a few photos of some lesser known artists since those are not seen that often.



Liked the way the different kinds of marble were used in this sculpture. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the artist's name.


The grand clock on one side of the hall is amazing to look at. I first thought about turning this shot into black and white but then decided to leave it in color. I think you can get the "train station" feeling even like this. :)

I really like the style this artist (Henri Edmons Cross) used: colorful and the brush strokes looked like little mosaics.

The next two images are taken from the same painting (the one on the left is just a close-up of the right one).













There was also an area that showed paintings in dark rooms. At first I was a bit irritated but then I noticed how the colors start to "shine" or "glow" for themselves. It gave them some kind of depth which I thought was really fascinating.

A photo that (I'm sure) has been taken a million times before - the museum's cafeteria is right behind the large clock you can see from the outside. I just love the way it's integrated into this room!


And also worth visiting is the outside terrace from where you have a nice view down to the Seine and over to the Louvre and the rest to the city.

Paris: Cafés

I really enjoyed Paris' coffee culture. There are so many places to have a coffee, there's a café at nearly every street corner and even in the middle of the parks which is great! This is just one of the places we stopped by. Inside it was divided into two floors and even had a small tabacco shop there too.

Paris: Jardins du Luxembourg

On one afternoon we got ourselves some strawberries and cherries at a supermarket and went to the park Jardins du Luxembourg. It's a wonderful park where I could have sat for hours chatting and enjoying the nice weather and do some people watching at the same time :). The park is quite large (about 25 hectare) and next to the statues and fountains it even has tennis courts, a riding school and a bee keeping in there.





Close to one of the gates was this installation with blue sand, bamboos and photos. I'm not sure what the title was, but it certainly looked interesting and was fascinating to the kids who liked to play with the unusual colored sand.



Outside the park on the surrounding fence was a photo exhibition of underwater world photos. Very fascinating and great photos!

CDP Meeting

While I was in Paris I also managed to meet up with some of the other City Daily Photo bloggers: Eric from Paris (who started the City Daily Photo blogs), Sam from Montchauvet (whom I had met in Wiesbaden before) and Andrea from Bazainville.

Since it was relatively easy to find, we decided to meet at the Café Le Deux Magots in the Saint Germain district (where we took the first photo, together with the waiter with the fascinating "mustache" ;) ). Afterwards we had dinner at a close-by restaurant that seems to be known by the locals quite well. Unfortunately, I forgot the name and didn't take photos (I hope one of the others did) - they only had one dish on the menu which is meat (beef) with a different sauce everytime, french fries and a salad as an entree. Really yummy!

It was wonderful to meet them all in person and I had a great time! After a while of blogging and commenting, I felt that I already knew them a bit but of course it's still different to meet them in person. They are really fun people with fascinating backgrounds! It's great to meet so many new people through these blogs - so whenever you're in the area of Wiesbaden, Frankfurt or the Rheingau please let me know!

Paris by night

I'm back from my short trip to Paris where I went to meet up with my friend Tara, whom I had not seen for over 2 1/2 years. It's been really special to see her again and catch up, especially with such a wonderful surrounding :)!!! We had a great time and, although I was there only for three days, we managed to see and do a lot during that time (as you will see in my next posts where I'm gonna show you some of the pictures I took).