Links I Love • May 2019

“Lilacs are May in essence.” - Jean Hersey

Here are the links that caught my eye this month:

• Thoughts on Blogging Burn-Out - For 6 years, I posted everyday (usually just a photo and a quote), but although I was committed and loved the process, keeping up that pace sometimes felt overwhelming. This year, I’m taking my time…

• I’ve completed a Project 365 (six times) and am working on my second year of the Dogwood 52 Photo Challenge, but here are some interesting photography projects I might try this summer.

• I have printed just a few of my photos, but I’m thinking about creating some themed photo books. Have you done this? What are your favorite printing options. I’m looking into Artifact Uprising.

• Travel article featuring our town - Delafield

• Three great articles featuring my favorite book:

  • All the Covers of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast

  • A Moveable Feast Walking Tour

  • Hemingway’s Paris - A Moveable Feast

• Tips for shopping in Paris (and at home):

  • The Insider’s Shopping Guide to Paris

  • Vintage Shopping in Paris

  • Luxury Shopping in Paris Made Easy

  • Paris Flea Markets

  • 25 French Brands You Can Buy in the US

  • One of my new favorite brands (I have Number Six)

• 40 Years of Gorgeous Parisian Typography (Here is my take from years ago. Note to self: Redo this post with updated photos.)

• Following the death of Karl Lagerfeld earlier this year, Chanel’s new creative director, Virginie Viard, debuts her first runway show

• 10 Outrageous Proposals for the Restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral - Just make it like it was, only safer!

• There Will Never Be an ‘Amélie’ Sequel Because the Director Thinks “Paris is Ugly Now” - I love Amélie and I don’t think a sequel would ever do justice to the original, but Paris is always beautiful.

• The 12 Best Unknown Monuments in Paris - I only knew of two!

• Paris is Removing its Iconic Kiosks. So What Will Become of Them? The new ones look great and I’m sure are more functional, but this makes me sad.

• Last week I did a French Friday feature on the steps of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont. Here’s a more comprehensive tour of the movie locations of Midnight in Paris

French Friday: Saint-Étienne-du-Mont | Purple Doors + Magic Steps

“This is unbelievable! Look at this! There's no city like this in the world. There never was…Imagine this town in the '20s. Paris in the '20s, in the rain. The artists and writers…” - Gil Pender, Midnight in Paris

Imagine sitting on these steps when the clock strikes midnight…

You look down this street to see a vintage Peugeot approaching. The car pulls over to invite you into Paris of the 1920s — Hemingway, Scott and Zelda, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Dali, Josephine Baker, Man Ray…

Completed in 1626, the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont is located around the corner from the Panthéon on the top of la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the 5th arrondissement. In addition to the magical steps, the church contains the tombs of St. Blaise, Jean Racine, and Jean-Paul Marat.

The church is mentioned in Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast: "I walked past the Lycée Henri Quatre and the ancient church of St-Etienne-du-Mont and the windswept Place du Panthéon." Seems like Woody Allen did his homework!

Violets

“The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.”

― St. Therese of Lisieux, “The Little Flower”

"When you talk to me, I smell violets.” - L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Windy Poplars

Modest Grace

“I love tulips better than any other spring flower; they are the embodiment of alert cheerfulness and tidy grace…Their faint, delicate scent is refinement itself; and is there anything in the world more charming than the sprightly way they hold up their little faces to the sun. I have heard them called bold and flaunting, but to me they seem modest grace itself, only always on the alert to enjoy life as much as they can…” ― Elizabeth von Arnim

Something happens to my heart when I am here — especially when the tulips are blooming!

Week 19 - Storytelling: Aging

“I'm like a tree. My leaves might change color, but my roots are the same.” - Rose Namajunas

(Although if I’m being honest, my roots are the same due to a great colorist 🤣)

“Love it or hate it, aging is something we all experience. Tell a story of aging in a single photograph.” #2019dogwood52 #dogwood52 #dogwoodweek19

Week 18 - Inspiration: Weight or Mass

"Let me be light as a feather — strong, with purpose, yet light at heart; able to bend, and, tho I might become frayed, able to pull myself together again." - Anita Sams

Heavy as a stone or light as a feather: I love the gravity of the blocks of battered slippers juxtaposed with the ethereal tutu. #2019dogwood52 #dogwood52 #dogwoodweek18