Day 10- Free Range Chickens

Day 10- Chickens happily roaming at Mas de L'Elze; a historical silk farm renovated into a guesthouse. The owners are X-Cern physicists who have been transforming the property over the past
18 years. Located in the Ardeche Region in Southern France.

Day 9- French/Italian Border

Day 9- Col de la Seigne on the French/Italian border

Day 8- Beaufort Cheese

Day 8- Beaufort Cheese.
These rounds are 40-50kg each...and there are 30 caves in the factory....

Day 7- Cowbells

 

Day 6- French Alps

Day 6- French Alps-Beaufort Sur Doron switchbacks

Day 5- Paris Protest

 

Day 5-CGT (Confederation General de Travail) Protest in Paris

Day 4- Notre Dame at Night

 

Day 4- Notre Dame at Night- 

My crush du jour was a toss up between a subway orchestra, anything in the Latin Quarter, a light show at the Eiffel Tower, an anti-capitalist protest or the Notre Dome. I think it was the flying buttresses that did me in...

A flying buttress is a specific form of buttressing most strongly associated with gothic church architecture. It serves to transmit the lateral forces pushing a wall outwards (which may arise from stone vaulted ceilings or from wind-loading on roofs) across an intervening space and ultimately down to the ground. Flying buttress systems have two key components - a massive vertical masonry block (the buttress) on the outside of the building and a segmental or quadrant arch bridging the gap between that buttress and the wall (the 'flyer').^[1]

Day 3- The Marne River

 

Day 3- The Marne River- Spending 9 hours barging 45 km, through 6 locks, seeing rural France from the river, with people biking by, kids waving, skulls and working barges alongside, and the sun shining. Then entering the busy, working Seine and mooring in the heart of Paris in the evening.

Day 2- People Watching: Paris

Day 2- People-watching: Paris
Strolling through the Jardin de Tuileries, a formal, 28 hectare garden, and one of the most fashionable spots in Paris for relaxing around fountains, parading about in ones finery and generally emitting the chicness of
Parisian lifestyle...

Day 1-Walvis: The Barge

Crush du Jour #1-Walvis: The Barge
Walvis is the Dutch word for Whale, and the name of this 23 meter river cruising craft.
After 30 grueling hours of slap-happy transit and travel, Gillian and I finally arrived in France! The owner of this barge is Mike Young, my friend Gillian's friend and mentor on International water allocation issues. Gillian and I are traveling together and she will be conducting an interview with Mike as part of her PhD, so we were invited to stay on-board for a few nights and sail westward on the Marne from Meaux to Paris (about 45 river km) on the extensive French river, lock and canel system. 

Crush Du Jour: Travels in Europe

A lighthearted, photo-based project inspired by the concept of a love/crush (not serious love) and the [French soupe du jour : soupe, soup + du, of the + jour, day.] combined. As an artist and traveler with a romantic sensibility, I find beauty and novelty in a new environment and culture. This experience can be overwhelming, so this project also acts as an exercise in editing information.

Plato refined the concept of eros. Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. Plato does not talk of physical attraction as a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, "without physical attraction". Plato also said Eros helps the soul remember beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth. Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to tell the truth by eros, the god of love. The most famous ancient work on the subject of eros is Plato's Symposium, a dialogue among seven men (including Alcibiades), reclining in a Greek symposium, in which Socrates reveals his knowledge about the nature of eros, inspired by the teaching of Diotima of Mantinea. Eros, in the Socratic logos, can be defined as the longing for wholeness or completeness, a daemon whose aim is to reach wisdom without ever owning her and is used to describe fulfillment between man/woman and man/God. (Wikipedia.com)

The project is to select one "crush" object (of origin animal, mineral or vegetable) to feature daily and to share with anyone who is interested. I hope to post a new item and small blurb daily on my 4 week trip to Europe. The intention is for friends and family to check in and enjoy a photo of something of interest on my trip to Europe, and an opportunity to respond or react online.
I hope you will join me!