Paris

Ah, Paris. It’s the first time I’d been back in just over a year, and it was glorious. Old friends, lots of drinks, sunshine galore. What more could anyone ask for?

We stayed in a hotel in St Cloud with its own rooftop bar, within walking distance of our old quartier, and since I have my new camera, I wanted to play tourist to the hilt – my husband generously forbore from complaining (and I shall choose to pretend that he enjoyed it really!)

I also sorted out a couple of Questions about The Future that I’d been worrying about (thanks again E, you’re a genius!) and had an overall amazing weekend. So, please to enjoy some of the many photos I took:

French flag

Passy

Boat by the river Seine

Eiffel Tower and the river Seine

Eiffel Tower with the sun behind it

Leg of the Eiffel Tower

Trocadero

Arc de triomphe

Charity Velib bicycles

People learning to dance on the Champs-Elysees

Church near the Pantheon

Dancers in the bandstand – place Luxembourg

Couple waltzing in Luxembourg gardens

Couple doing a waltz from 1914

Couple dancing a waltz in the Luxembourg bandstand

1914 ladies dancing

Trees in Luxembourg gardens

Senat building

Pink flower against a blue sky – Luxembourg gardens

Wooden boats for racing on the pond in Luxembourg gardens

Wooden sailing boat

Hungry gull

Obelisk in Place de la Concorde

Fountain in place de la Concorde

Fountain in place de la Concorde

Gate to the Tuileries gardens

Summer in the Tuileries gardens

People sitting by a fountain in the Tuileries gardens

Fountain in the Tuileries gardens

Black crow in the Tuileries gardens

Red and yellow flowers in the Tuileries gardens

Purple flower in the Tuileries gardens

St Georges

Paris vineyard – Montmartre

Walking up to place du Tertre

Sacre Coeur

People staging a wedding on the steps of the Sacre Coeur

People staging a wedding on the steps of the Sacre Coeur – close-up

Spiky purple flowers in the rooftop garden

Evening sky from our rooftop bar

Purple flowers in the rooftop garden

Spring in Brussels!

Over the last couple of weeks, spring has slowly but surely been making its presence felt. (Well, up until this morning, anyway, when it was almost arctic – at least the afternoon improved…) It is glorious, and I am going to love Brussels in the summer time, I can just tell.

Here are some photos from a couple of weeks ago, just as winter was beginning to turn into spring. The flowers are even more alive now, and if the weather holds this weekend, a fresh set of pretty pictures will make its way blogwards!

The Atomium, Brussels

The Atomium is one of Brussels most recognisable landmarks. Built for the 1958 World’s Fair (the same event that, in earlier years, brought us the Eiffel Tower and Crystal Palace), this space-age structure should have been an obvious choice to become the focus of tourist tack, much like the Eiffel Tower has for Paris. Instead of Mannekin Pis, which is utterly underwhelming. (World’s fairs do still take place, I discovered in the course of writing this article, and the next one will be Expo 2015 in Milan.)

Anyway, we went to go and visit the Atomium last week, and it was surprisingly good. From the outside, it is clear that this was intended to be The Future when it was built, and as these things go, it’s pretty good. You buy your tickets at the ticket office (the queue was about 2 minutes long when we went, but I suspect in the summer it’s busier) and then go through security. Be warned that a giant yellow soft toy will come up behind you and hug you while a man presumably working for the Atomium takes your photo. You don’t have to buy the picture, but they take them of everyone. (Apart from my husband, who somehow managed to escape…)

The inside is a museum to Expo 58 and tells you all about the design and construction of the Atomium, and the stalls at the expo, in one sphere (I think – maybe two) with a separate sphere holding a restaurant and giving panoramic views over Brussels and the surrounding area. The lift to go to the top was the fastest lift in the world, when it was built. It is the only lift in the building, though you can get between the permanent exhibition spheres about the expo by escalator. If you want to go to the temporary exhibition (which changes every couple of months – when we went, it was about Belgian designers, and chairs – not the most fascinating of topics for an exhibition, but maybe the others are better…) you have to climb many stairs (80-odd, if I remember rightly) up (and even more back down again, for some reason), so skip it if you’re not feeling super-fit!

And now, random pictures of The Future:

The Atomium

Close-up of part of the Atomium

Going up in the fastest lift in the world, in 1958

The view towards the pavillion

Mini Europe, from on high

The Restaurant of The Future

Stairs to the Restaurant of The Future

Stairs up to Further Spheres of The Future

More steps up through the Atomium

Chairs of The Future Part 1

Chairs of The Future Part 2

Ever upwards

A Sphere of The Future – note the connecting stairways in the tubes

Down the Escalator of Lights Part 1

Down the Escalator of Lights Part 2

Down the Escalator of Lights Part 3

In Bruges…

So, this weekend, we went to Bruges! Famous amongst British people of a certain age because of the 2008 film by Martin McDonagh, Bruges is also (arguably better…) known for being an astonishingly pretty town. I shudder to think how much the local council have to pay to keep it that way.

Anyway, practical details first: you can catch a train to Bruges from Brussels Midi, Central or Nord stations (it calls at all three) and it takes about an hour. (Took us a bit longer, but there were problems on the line. Being British, I was just pleased to see a train turn up at all near the time it had predicted, since timetables seem to be more like suggestions on the British rail network.)

And really, you have to see Bruges to best understand it, so I’m going to stop writing here, and show you some pictures. It also has the to-date unexplored depths of a Chip Museum, and the distinction of hosting the scariest mannequins I have ever seen, and the saddest stuffed bear. Nice bars, lovely town, but I’d suggest trying to avoid visiting in the summer when the tourists are presumably like locusts…

If you see this, you’re in the right place…

River on the outskirts of Bruges

River on the outskirts of Bruges

Road into Bruges

Silk scarves for sale

Church by the river

Church tower

House by the riverside

Cafe by the riverside

A pretty passarelle

Horse-drawn carriage.

Tower in Bruges at a cloudy part of the day

Depressed, angry animal mannequins

Tower from the other side, clouds fading away

Ducks sunbathing by the riverside

Sad, stuffed bear outside a bar

Riverside cottages

Sunlight on the daffodils in the convent garden

When I win the lottery, I want to live here.

Tree by the riverside

Leffe. End-of-winter sunshine. Fabulous.

Tervuren – the Africa Museum – sunshine

Today, we have sunshine! For the first time in what feels like ages, the wind has pretty much died down, the clouds are gone, and a burning yellow ball of flame has appeared in the sky. It is awesome. It feels like spring is on the way!

To celebrate, we went to Tervuren. Which is a place I have enormous difficulty typing – I haven’t yet managed to write the word without misspelling it. There, you can find the Africa Museum, and a beautiful garden with lakes and fountains. Sadly, the museum apparently closed last month for a three-year renovation period, but the gardens are still open to the public, and are lovely (and will likely be even lovelier in the spring!)

There’s a tram (number 44) that runs there from Montgomery – I had no idea the tram network goes so far out! (The same tram goes through the tram museum, if you’re in the mood for odd museums and/or are a bit of a public transport geek.)

The sun has come out properly since we came home (naturally…) but it was what I think weather-forecasters call “sunny intervals” while we walked around, too – here are some photos:

The Africa Museum being renovated. Feb 2014.

Steps up to the Africa Museum

Benches in front of the Africa Museum

Clouds in the sky

Trees by the lakeside

View along ‘the pond’

Moss growing on a wall

House at the edge of the park

Tram tracks, heading back to Brussels

Thing a Day – week 1 – Brussels and brioche

I’ve not managed to make a new thing every day, and despite my best intentions, the things I have made this week have usually been food. But TAD has inspired me to make things I’ve never made before, so it’s meeting my aims, even if it’s not being done ‘properly’!

To summarise Week 1, I went on a tour round Brussels on Sunday; that day’s Thing is a photo of macarons, below. Monday I made tabouleh, which was easier than I expected, and provided enough food to feed the 5000. Tuesday, I made pizza. Wednesday, I made flapjacks. On Thursday, I think I failed to make anything. Ditto Friday. This morning, I made brioche!

Photos from my tour of Brussels, starting with macarons:

A shopping arcade in the sunshine:

A square tree:

Brioche loaf:

Brioche slice:

Playing with my camera

I’ve been playing with my new camera today, so I thought I’d share, because I’m nice like that.

Today’s pictures show a silver bracelet and a copper and labradorite necklace, both made in different styles of chainmaille. And, if I do say so myself, I think the pictures have turned out rather well!

More pretty pictures to follow shortly, no doubt…