reflections on trip to France…

We have just returned from a fabulous vacation in France … in celebration of our recent 40th anniversary. We chose France because the flight was shorter than Oz…which remains on the bucket list.

We spent 4 days exploring Paris. We did not see nor do everything everyone said we should, but rather enjoyed our time at our own pace with accommodation to my weak knees. We did the hop on-hop off tour bus for two days and saw a lot.

On the 4th day we boarded the Viking Spirit and cruised a week on the river Seine to Normandy and back. Hubby crossed Omaha Beach off his bucket list as did many others. As for me I found the incredible beach sculpture and the one art gallery!

As an artist on vacation I did go a little nuts with the photography. So much so that I came home with over 1000 images on the camera and iphone combined. Ack!

Since I want to retain what morsel of vacation creativity is left I will not be resizing and uploading 1000 images anywhere! Instead I will post to this blog some of the best according to subject matter.  Today it’s reflections.

The reflection from the water of the Seine was awesome. Nearly every shot of homes, bridges, wildlife and nature contains a reflection.

As an artist I have always been drawn to reflection, but not quite sure how to create it. Now I see it is simply a matter of positive-negative, light and dark.

There were a number of homes we shot as we sailed both directions including this one. My hubby might have captured one from the sundeck while I got it from the room coming back a few days later!

A fellow passenger who was also a shooting fool suggested we capture our reflections in the water! Clearly we had too much time on our hands.

We saw so many swans-a-swimming. They seemed to be like the seagulls at home… scavengers of the sea. I love this Rorschach swan.

In Paris we stood in line for well over an hour on a Sunday morn to get into the Georges Pompidou Centre where they house the modern art. The controversial architecture of that building reflects in the windows across the street.

After we got into the museum we learned we had stood in the wrong line for an hour…we were in the line for the library!!! There was no line at the entrance.  So much for my minimal French.

And the final reflection for today is the interior of this incredible sculpture in the Pompidou. It was constructed of a film material with all sorts of foil and punched out dots. I wish I knew the artist. I neglected to note it as I was so captivated by the reflection.