I often notice doors when I travel, the color or size or ornamentation. Here are some I noticed while traveling around France on my Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.) tour.
In Lyon, sometimes the door caught my eye, but more often it was the decorative work above the door that entranced me.
Red doors on churches often catch my eye. The one on the left is in Paris and the one on the right is in Bayeux.
Purple is my favorite color, so the doors to this church in Sarlat won my heart.
I took my first food picture at breakfast on day one in France, and then another at lunch and another at dinner. “At this rate,” I thought, “I will be photographing every meal I eat,” so I started being more selective. I want to share just a few to give you an idea of the abundance of great meals.
Barbizon is an artsy village with galleries and museums. We had a scupting class–my first time working with clay–and visited the Besharat Museum and Gallery which houses an eclectic collection of art and is also a boutique hotel. Lunch at Le Royal was this exceptional tuna nicoise salad, bread (of course) and beer.
I had my first mussels in Fontainebleu and my last in Paris (with a few more along the way). These were at Les Cascades in Honfleur (and perhaps my favorite). Here, I learned the trick of using the shell instead of a fork.
I usually like chocolate for dessert, but I had many excellent desserts in France that did not include chocolate.
One of the first things I noticed in Fontainebleau were the light fixtures and the decorataive ironwork on many of them. I wondered if people differentiated their homes from their neighbors by the artwork on their outside lights.
As we walked the streets of Fontainebleau, and really throughout my time in France, I noticed the light fixtures and thought about light.
We are so accustomed to flipping a switch and, voila, light. But before electricity, when many of the buildings I was passing were built, there was no electricity. I pondered light and darkness.
On that first day in Fontainebleau, as light fixtures caught my eye, two friends came to mind, two women who are facing health challenges, and I wondered how I might bring some light to their lives.
One great thing about touring in France is that there are churches everywhere, so I began in Fontainebleau, and continued throughout my trip, visiting local churches and praying for people who need light (I included myself in that group). I lit candles and joined my prayers to those of all the people who had prayed in these churches over the centuries; I felt I was a part of the communion of saints.
Madeline Bialecki 