The Buddha shop Tiens, voila du Bouddha!

Found this strange and very inviting shop. Although very interested in Buddha's teachings, I don't think I'll ever get myself a statue. Who knows, I might change my mind.

Hiver bucolique... Bucolic winter...

Parc de l'Orangerie

Le boulanger The baker

What are you having for breakfast?

Que prenez-vous au petit-dejeuner?

Not just a big puss! Ce n'est pas un gros minou!

No no, it is actually actually a European lynx, a good-sized one. Mighty nice of to posing for me! Nice pussycat!

Ceci est un lynx de nos montagnes, pas vraiment le minou qu'on caresse dans la rue...

Skywatch Friday

Right before last weekend's violent storm, there was this incredible burst of sunshine, piercing the clouds just above the football (aka soccer, for some) pitch.

More sky photos here.

Stormy night. Nuit de tempete

It was stormy here last weekend, with rain falling horizontally. I stayed in.

Nuit de tempete le weekend dernier, avec de la pluie tombant a l'horizontale. Je suis reste au chaud chez moi, pas folle la guepe.

Home sweet home

We moved last weekend, and this the view we have now from our living room and from our kitchen. Nice, innit?!

Apres notre demenagement le weekend dernier, voici notre nouvelle vue. J'aime!

Important place!

Ok, S(a)DP is back in business, much earlier than we were 'promised'. 8 days to get internet... Still too long.

Right. This is a very important building! It is the...

:

Should you have something to tell them judges, like him
Well, this is the place.

S' Buerehiesel

Looks like straight out of a Grimm's tales, complete with a witch or 3 , the kind who eat children for breakfast... But wait... It is actually one of the very best restaurants n town! The name means little farmer's house. Go there, you might sit next to several ministers or presidents, or other celebs.

La maison de la mechante fee Carabosse??? Que nenni! Il s'agit en fait d'un des meilleurs restaurants de la ville, a en croire Mme Merckel, ou autres Hollandes ou Sarkozys...

Time for a unvoluntary break .Moving house tomorrow, saturday, but internet reaching us only much later, on the 24th they say. So, WILL I SURVIVE??? I certainly think so! C ya then!

Les lenteurs de tous genres en France...Je demenage demain samedi. J'ai commande l'internet il y 1 semaine, sans m'attendre a l'ineffable lenteur d'une compagnie qui ferait mieux de continuer a construire des maisons et a oublier internet. Donc pause forcee, passage oblige dans des cafes internet... A dans 2 semaines 1/2 donc!

Blended by the light

Lac des cygnes. Swan lake, or Swanee river?

Weird Etrange

I spotted this weird bi-headed statue the other day, in the Orangerie park, Wasn't able to find any info about it.

Cette statue bicephale se trouve a l'entree du parc de l'Orangerie. Quelqu'un aurait-il des infos a son sujet???

Not Strasbourg

Carrying on traveling... And carrying on with this month's theme, the coffee house. Paris, Le Nemours, Facing the Louvre museum, in my opinion one of the finest and dandiest place for a 'petit noir', un express.

The eagle is about to land.... L'aigle va aterrir...

Did a bit of ''painting'' today, with my laptop. There is a ever so tiny zoo at the Orangerie park.

Un peu de ''peinture'', avec mon ordinateur. Dans le zoo rikiki du parc de l'Orangerie.

Scene d'un cafe Scene of a coffee house

Scene from a coffee house, is today's theme for the City Daily Photographers. See this guy, sitting there on cold but sunny day... He will so enjoy his coffee... Watch closer... See how the coffee and the milk are smoking, exhaling their aroma... A true connoisseur. A gentleman. He even has a halo...

Scene d'un cafe, tel est le theme de ce premier du mois pour la communaute des City Daily photographes. Admirer cet homme, attable par unr froide mais ensoleillee journee d'hiver. Il va apprecier son cafe. Voyez comme le cafe et le lait fument, exhalant leurs aromes... Un connaisseur, Un homme du monde. Il a meme un halo...

Plus d'entrees sur ce theme, more posts about this theme here/ici.

Europa

Strasbourg est le siege de plusieurs institutions europeennes, dont celle-ci, le Parlement Europeen.

Strasbourg hosts several european institutions. This is one of them, the European Parliament.

Weekend Reflections? Here, ici!

Grande Synagogue de la Paix. Shabbat shalom

Stronger than the sword is my spirit. In memory of the Jewish people killed here.

En memoire des Juifs tues en Alsace.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Strasbourg.html

Hungry? Une petite faim?

A very illuminated restaurant near the cathedral, very popular with tourist but not that much with the locals. We eat very well here in Alsace, btw!!!

Restaurant joliment illumine a la cathedrale. Bonne nourriture alsacienne! Tres prise par les touristes, beaucoup moins par les gens du coin. Les torchons et les serviettes...

Museum of modern lard - Musee du lard moderne

AKA the museum of modern art... But I guess, for many Strasburgers (yes, Ich bin ein Strasburger, lol), the joke has to made... It is the multicolored building in the mist, btw.

Musee de l'art moderne, en fait... Mais pour beaucoup de gens, la vanne est sans doute trop bonne... C'est le batiment colore dans le brouillard.

Du neuf sur de l'ancien - Where old meets new

Seems strange to me to see a glass... thing next to 15th century buildings... Oh well, at least it is too much of an eyesore.

Je me demande ce que les gens du coin ont du penser quand on a construit ce truc en verre... J'aime assez.

Petite France + syphilis...

Poetic, no? Although... The name Petite-France ("Little France") was not given for patriotic or architectural reasons. It comes from the "hospice of the syphilitic" (Hospice des Vérolés, in French), which was built in the late fifteenth century on this island, to cure persons with syphilis, then called Franzosenkrankheit ("French disease") in German. Wikipedia.

Poetique, n'est-ce pas? Or... Le quartier tire son nom de l’hospice des vérolés, construit à la fin du xv^e siècle pour accueillir les soldats revenant de la campagne d’Italie atteints de syphilis, appelée également le « mal français »

Couleurs - Colors

So many colors on this embankment wall!

Un quai de toutes les couleurs!

Horreur, malheur, dang, blast: they have landed!!!

Je me souviendrai toujours de ce mardi funeste...

I remember the day when THEY came... It was on a Tuesday...

On any other day, it's the local train station, hiding a gem.

Blague a part, la gare SNCF m'inspire.

Vendredi! Friday!!!

Party!!!

Holy mackerel! Zut!

Zut! I was looking at possible definitions for this word... Here is what Wordreference.com has to say... French is such a colorful language!!! Dang, blast, and a holy mackerel!

Principales traductions
zut interj	familier (flûte, mince) (colloquial)	drat, blast n
	Oh et puis zut à la fin, je te répète que je n'en sais rien !

.

WordReference English-French Dictionary © 2016:

Formes composées
et puis zut à la fin interj	(tu m'énerves)	for the last time expr
		once and for all expr
		for heaven's sake expr
	Oh et puis zut à la fin, je te répète que je n'en sais rien !
zut alors ! interj	(antiquated)	dang
zut alors ! interj		shoot
zut alors ! interj		shucks
zut alors ! interj		holy mackerel

Snowy. Kind of.

We had a little snow last Sunday. It is still here, as it is far too cold to melt, with temperatures going down to minus 8 degrees C at night.

IL FAIT TRES FROID!!!!

Les Ponts Couverts

Ponts Couverts, covered bridges, are part of very old line of fortifications who protected the town from invaders in the 13th century. More about them here.

Les Ponts Couverts, partie des vieilles fortifications protegeant la ville des envasseurs au 13eme siecle. Plus d'infos ici.

Illusion

Trompe-l'oeil, rue Sainte Helene

Enfin! Finally!

First (little) snowfall of this winter! And suddenly, the town becomes the stuff of (icy) dreams...

Premiere petite chute de neige. Et soudain, la ville prend un aspect feerique...

Orangerie monochrome

It is winter here in Alsace, so nobody uses the rowing boats in the Orangerie park.

Personne n'utilise les barques du parc de l'Orangerie.

To see more monochrome photos/pour voir d'autres photos en noir et blanc... ici/here!

Weekend reflection

La terrasse Vauban, partie des vieilles fortifications. Un peu de magie pour le weekend.

A part of the old 17th century fortifications. Much nicer in peaceful times

More/plus de Weekend Reflections ici/here!

Lost... Perdu...

Lost and found office, Lost blonde girl, 6 ft, blue eyes... Will come back.

Bonne chance!

The red house - la maison rouge

A rich burger's house near the cathedral

Maison bourgeoise cossue, pres de la cathedrale

Jack

I saw quite a few elephants in my lifetime, last on a highway in New Delhi, but this is a first for me! He is HIP!

J'ai vu bien des elephants dans ma vie, le dernier sur une autoroute a New Delhi, mais celui-ci sort du lot!

Look me in the eye...

I'm watching you, with that big black thing pointing at me!

Serena, Barney, Helmut, Rose, Princesse & Gordon, la menagerie

Sometimes, it's hard for me to differentiate between a graffiti and a painting. Let us call this... art. The artist in this case is called Delphine Harrer.

Difficile de differencier graffiti and toile. Ceci est en pleine vue et rue, appelons ca de l'art, tout simplement. L'artiste s'appelle Delphine Harrer, cliquez ici pour en savoir plus.

Bucolique - Bucolic

And not a cat to be seen...

Et pas un chat dans le coin...

Weekend reflections...

Monochrome cathedral

Le grand orgue de la cathedrale. Votre weekend en noir et blanc commence ici!

The cathedral's main organ, in all it's splendor. Your black and white weekend starts right here and now!

1872

1872. It is when they started fabricating the very french casquette, caps. That's how the shop looked at the end of the 19th century:

And this a casquette, a very french one:

Nowadays, they are selling all kinds of headgear as well!

La fabrique de casquettes dans la Grand Rue. Ils en font et en vendent depuis 1872, voir photo du millieu. Mais aussi d'autres chapeaux, berets, etc.

Winstub

A winstub. Win: wine. A stub is a room, a chamber. You can grab a bite as well.
This particular is called Holy Sepulchre.

Winstub, le debit a vin. On peut souvent y manger aussi. Cet endroit s'appelle le Saint Sepulchre.

Bierstub

This is a bierstub, literally: beer chamber. It is where you can have your...not coffee, but beer, la biere. I am more of a wine drinker (actually, most of my wine goes into whatever I am cooking) than a beer drinker, but the locals say it is quite good. There are even 2 beer academies in town!

Une bierstub, c'est la ou on boit de la...biere. Les connaisseurs disent qu'elle est bonne. N'y connaissant rien, je m'incline devant leur sagesse...avec moderation, bien sur!

Soleil hivernal - Winter sun

Sunny but cold in the Grande Ile.

Journee belle mais froide dans la Grande Ile.

Red - rouge

Not sure what this is about...

Pas sur ce dont il s'agit...

Hiver doré - Golden winter

Now and then, rarely enough, there is a moment in time when the light is just... perfect. Then, I take out my (rather good) camera, and try to capture the moment. But, a camera is by far not as good as the human eye... Up to me to try to recreate what I actually saw.
No, that's not it... Trying to recreate a feeling, rather than a view. With this photo, I got it close enough.

De temps en temps, la lumiere est... parfaite. Mais mon appareil photo n'est pas aussi bon que mes yeux... Je tente donc de recreer ce que j'ai vu.
Correction... Tentant de recreer une impression, plutot qu'une vue. Parfois ca marche bien, comme ici.

Christkindlsmarik, the end/la fin/das Ende

Une derniere photo du marche de Noel, pour cette annee du moins.

A last photo of the christmas market. For this winter anyway.

Ein letztes Bild vom diesjaehrigen Christkindlsmarkt.

2016!!! First theme day of the year!

Today, 1st day of the month, theme day! Please below my favorite photo of the year. Well, one of them anyway... My BFF (Best Furry Friend), Teddy, living in Harrow, north London.

Click here to see how my fellow friends from the City Daily Photo group were inspired.