Floralia Brussels

 

Floralia Brussels (Click link, enlace, lien)

Le château de Grand-Bigard abrite Floralia du début avril à début mai

The spring flower exhibition in the park and the greenhouses of the castle of Grand Bigard (Groot-Bijgaarden) offers an unforgettable flower experience. The park of 14 hectares incorporates nearly all spring bulb varieties. For the new flowering time, the gardeners of the castle have planted by hand more than one million bulbs.  Special attention goes to the tulips, with almost 400 varieties, hyacinths and daffodils are also well represented.

Sur les 14 hectares du parc du château de Grand-Bigard vous pourrez découvrir presque toutes les variétés de fleurs de printemps à bulbes. Sous la direction de spécialistes, professionnels des plantes à bulbes, ce sont plus d'1 million d'oignons qui ont été plantés à la main par l'équipe de jardiniers du château. Les nombreux amoureux de la nature auront l'occasion de découvrir durant ces 4 semaines 400 variétés de tulipes parmi lesquelles de nouvelles créations. Les jacinthes, narcisses et d’autres variétés de printemps ont également  leur place dans le parc. 

Floralia Brussels (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visit The Netherlands 4/4

Delft (Click link, enlace, lien)

A visit on a snowy and grey day.

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Delft is also known to be the native town of the painter Jan Vermeer.

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Delft (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visit to The Netherlands 3/4

 

Kinderdijk (Click link, enlace, lien)

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.

Kinderdijk is a village in the municipality of Molenlanden, in the province of South Holland, Netherlands.

Kinderdijk is situated in the Alblasserwaard polder at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. To drain the polder, a system of 19 windmills was built around 1740. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. The windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the best-known Dutch tourist sites. 

2022-03-31 Kinderdijk (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visit The Netherlands 2/4

 

Keukenhof (Click link, enlace, lien)

Keukenhof the world's largest Floral Garden.

Keukenhof means Kitchen Garden, also known as the Garden of Europe, is one of the world's largest flower gardens, situated in the municipality of Lisse, in the Netherlands.

 In the 15th-century it was the castle's kitchen garden (in Dutch: keukentuin), providing game, fruit and vegetables. Keukenhof, the park, as it is now known today, was established in 1949 by a consortium of bulb growers and flower exporters to showcase their products and support the export industry. The garden opened to the public in 1950. Each autumn, 40 gardeners plant the 7 million bulbs, donated to the park by over 100 growers. Planting starts early October and is usually completed by 5 December, around Sinterklaas. The flowerbeds are synchronised to the different bulb flowerings to ensure blooms throughout the duration of park's 8-week opening. To ensure continuous bloom, three bulbs are planted in each location. The shallowest bulb will bloom first for three weeks, followed by the subsequent layers. This technique is known as the "lasagne". 

Keukenhof (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visiting The Netherlands 1/4

Zaanse Schans (Click link, enlace, lien)

a picturesque village near Amsterdam famous for its iconic windmills.

It is best known for its collection of well-preserved historic windmills and houses.

Names of the mills from left to right: Het Jonge Schaap ("The Young Sheep"), De Zoeker ("The Seeker"), De Kat ("The Cat"), De Gekroonde Poelenburg ("The Crowned Poelenburg") and De Huisman ("The Houseman").

Zaanse Schans (link, enlace, lien)

Visit C... & Basilica of Saint-Remi

 

Notre Dame de Reims & Basilica of Saint-Remi (Click link, enlace, lien)

Notre Dame de Reims.

Notre-Dame de Reims, meaning "Our Lady of Reims", sometimes known in English as Reims Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the French city of the same name. The cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was the traditional location for the coronation of the kings of France.

 The cathedral church is thought to have been founded by the bishop Nicasius in the early 5th century. Clovis was baptized a Christian here by Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims, about a century later. He was the first Frankish king to receive this sacrament. Construction of the present Reims Cathedral began in the 13th century and concluded in the 15th century. A prominent example of High Gothic architecture, it was built to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. Although little damaged during the French Revolution, the present cathedral saw extensive restoration in the 19th century. It was severely damaged during World War I and the church was again restored in the 20th century.. 

Basilica of Saint-Remi (UNESCO World Heritage Site).

The Basilica of Saint-Remi (French: Basilique Saint-Remi) is a medieval abbey church in Reims, France. It was founded in the 11th century "over the chapel of St. Christophe where St. Remi was buried.

The Basilica of Saint-Remi dates from the 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th centuries. The eleventh-century nave and transepts, in the Romanesque style, are the oldest; the façade of the south transept is the most recent. Most of the construction of the church finished in the 11th century, with additions made later. The nave and transepts, Gothic in style, date mainly from the earliest, the façade of the south transept from the latest of those periods, the choir and apse chapels from the 12th and 13th centuries.[4]

Basilica of Saint-Remi (Click link, enlace, lien)

Visite du Château de Sedan on a cold and grey day

Château de Sedan (link, enlace, lien).

The Château de Sedan is a castle situated in Sedan, France, on a headland on the border of the river Meuse, in the Ardennes département of France. Solid and imposing, Sedan castle dominates the town with its impressive stature. It took one and a half centuries, starting in 1424 and with successive additions, to build this monument, the largest feudal fortress in Europe. In 1424, in the early 15th century,  Evrard d'Arenberg, Count of Marck, began building a very powerful castle on a rocky outcrop around the remains of the church of St. Martin. This castle, consisting of a large number of towers and buildings built over several centuries, was part of the Principality of Sedan where several La Marck princes succeeded each other over half a century.

Château de Sedan (link, enlace, lien)

Promenade à Gand

Promenade à Gand (link, enlace, lien)

Ghent, Dutch: Gent ; French: Gand ; German: Gent ) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province and after Antwerp the largest municipality of Belgium. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe with some 50,000 people in 1300. It is a port and university city.

Promenade à Gand (link, enlace, lien)

DINOpaseo con el paleontólogo Miguel Ángel Torrente

DINOpaseo en El Castellar (link, enlace, lien)

El Castellar is a municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon region in Spain.

Aragon and particularly Teruel has the richest paleontological deposits in Spain found so far. One of them is located in the village of El Castellar, recently inaugurated, with more than sixty deposits, as well as bones! According to Miguel Torrente, paleontologist, from the Foundation of "Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis", even paleontologists from America are starting to pay attention to the studies done here in Spain.

Of course I invite you to come to discover this beautiful unknown province of Spain

DINOpaseo en El Castellar (link, enlace, lien)

Pensée Nomade by Guy Lorgneret

Pensée Nomade (link, enlace, lien)

Guy Lorgeret is a French visual artist. The sculptures represent women on dugouts, migrating, claiming their freedom. Years ago the same women started their journey on foot, then later, on bicycles.

Nomades, the women of G. Lorgeret want to invite you to travel with them.

The artist doesn't get tired with his nomades "more than 10 years I go along with them". Don't try to find where they come from, perhaps can you just imagine where they are going to. 

"The whole idea is to travel with them".

Les femmes de Guy Lorgeret invitent au voyage. L'artiste ne s'en lasse pas, « cela fait dix ans que je les accompagne ». Inutile, en revanche, de chercher à savoir d'où elles viennent, mais peut-être pouvons-nous imaginer où elles vont, « l'idée, c'est de voyager avec elles ».
      Enjoy.

Pensée Nomade (link, enlace, lien)

If you want to see more go to Guy Lorgeret website

Wandering in La Butte Montmartre

La Butte Montmartre (link, enlace, lien)

Montmartre is a large hill in Paris' 18th arrondissement (district). It is 130 metres high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank in the northern section of the city.

Always a pleasure to walk up and down the streets of La Butte specially in March with not so many tourists around.

Enjoy those snap shots.

La Butte Montmartre (link, enlace, lien)

Saint-Malo

Saint-Malo (link, enlace, lien)

If there is city that I always enjoy going over and over and photographing, it is Saint-Malo. Today the weather was incredible beautiful, certainly too warm for a 26 of December, 15ºC (59F) ! Anyway enjoy those few snapshots.

Saint-Malo (link, enlace, lien)

a walk in the sunny and warm Brussels

a walk in down town Brussels (link, enlace, lien)

Last Monday the weather was so good that staying home was a sin. So hop we went for a walk. 

Enjoy those few shots that show the beauty of old Brussels, you might want to come and discover it by yourself. 

a walk in down town Brussel (link, enlace, lien)

Couleurs d'automne

Fall Foliage in Parc Monceau Paris 17

Couleur d'automne au Parc Monceau Paris 

click the link, enlace, lien; to see more photographies

The Parc Monceau is 10 minutes away from where I live when I'm in Paris, I consider it my back yard! It is always pretty but at this time of the year it's even prettier.

Couleur d'automne au Parc Monceau Paris click the link, enlace, lien

Enjoy a little of of Fall Foliage from Paris

Paris brule t-il ? Paris burning? ¿Paris en llamas?

What a sunrise this morning over the capital of France!

Paris brule t-il ? 

click the link, enlace, lien; to see more photographies

Paris brule t-il ? click the link, enlace, lien

Along The Mekong day 4

Phnom Penh second visit (link, lien, enlace)

Back to Phnom Penh…
We enjoyed again the Royal Palace and its elegant pagodas and the National Museum. 

In the afternoon we visited one of the most poignant testimonies of the brutality of The

Khmer Rouges regime ( 1975-1979) led by Pol Pot, the dreadful S21 prison where over 17 000 people were tortured and killed. It has become the Genocide Museum.

Some historians estimate that they killed up to two million people, dying from executions, starvation, disease and overwork, the educated middle-classes were particularly decimated. Today, only two S21 prison survivors remains, they sell books narrating the horrendous conditions of their captivity. Very few Khmer Rouge leaders were brought into trial, however, former S21 prison chief, “Duch”, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.

We ended the afternoon with the Wat Phonm pagoda, on the hill that gave its name to the Cambodian capital. Walking back to the boat we saw the imposing French Colonial Post office (La Poste), and several beautiful colonial buildings that would require urgent renovation.

Phnom Penh second visit (link, lien, enlace)

Along The Mekong day 3

Excursion to Oknha Tey (link, lien, enlace)

Our last day on the Tonle Sap river, before arriving to Phnom Penh.  In the morning we visited the Oknha Tey Island, well known for its Silk Farm,  silk is still made the traditional way, by hand. Before the farm we visited a local School. We were welcome by teachers and children, they sang several songs, some in English. We arrived to the capital in the afternoon. During the evening, local Dance School students came on board, to perform Cambodian dances. Many represent heros from the Ramayana Hindu poem, demons, gods, goddesses, but also traditional country dances to celebrate harvest or fishing.

Excursion to Oknha Tey (link, lien, enlace)

Along The Mekong day 2

Tonle Sap River (link, lien, enlace)

In the morning of our second day, an excursion to Kampong Chnang, the most important fishing port at the Tonle Sap River. A small boat took us to a lively local market. Numerous local food delicacies, one of the most famous is unborn chicken, fully formed inside the egg. We bought some and gave them to local children that enjoyed them very much… In the afternoon, we went to Kampong Tralach a small beautiful village with two pagodas, driven by ox carts. Children were selling flowers for the pagodas. Later on we visited the Oudong, a royal residence in Cambodia for more than 250 years. A monumental necropolis of sovereigns with dozens of stupas is visible, and many buddhist monks and nouns live there today. We received a blessing in a colourful painted pagoda by a buddhist monk.
In the evening we watched the famous “ The Killing Fields” movie, by Roland Joffé, based on a real story during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979), in preparation of the visit in Phnom Penh of the dreadful S-21jail.

Tonle Sap River (link, lien, enlace)

Along The Mekong day 1

From Siem Reap to the Mekong´s River (link, lien, enlace)

To be able to reach our Mekong cruise boat, we had to cross the Tonle Sap Lake, the biggest lake in South Asia.  Siem Reap is in the North,and we had to get to the South end of the lake were the Tonle Sap River begins. It’s the biggest affluent of the Mekong. Due to the draught, our cruise boat could not navigate on the Lake. Thus, after a bus ride on dusty roads, we took a small shallow motor boat , quite a shaky ride! Finally we got to the cruise boat, really nice , with a big deck, to sit and enjoy the views and our first sunset on board.

From Siem Reap to the Mekong´s River (link, lien, enlace)

Siem Reap 5

Siem Reap 5 (link, enlace, lien)

In our way to  the Kulen Mountains, we visited the remarkable Banteay Srei temple, called the “Citadel of Beauty” due to the exceptional delicacy and elegance of its decoration. Discovered by the French in 1914, it was built in the 10th century in pink sandstone. The relief carvings cover lintels, roofs, walls and pediments, showing intricate foliage, gods and goddesses, depicting scenes of the Ramayana, the mayor Hindu epic, tracing the adventures of Rama to recover his wife Sita. In the afternoon, we climbed on a narrow dirt road to Kulen Mountain. On the top, a very famous Pagoda, with a giant Buddha. It is a pilgrimage place,  many monks and families visiting, a local market with religious objets and offers for the sanctuary ( lotus flowers, fake money, phallic symbols, incense sticks). Nearby a natural recreation area with waterfalls, where families go to picnic and enjoy the day. A variety of food stands and a joyful atmosphere! A huge traffic jam to go back down the mountain, locals where very friendly and patient...

Siem Reap 5 (link, enlace, lien)