Started the week with wild and stormy weather this morning, so it was definitely a good day for hunkering down and working in the studio – but a poor day for outdoor photography.
I momentarily contemplated posting some more images from yesterday’s stroll around the Jardins de Luxembourg (of which I have dozens, it is a sumptuous subject for photo-taking). However my very first selection decided the theme for today’s post – all the great female imagery I’ve noticed around town. And I’ve yet to even snap any of the myriad likenesses of Marianne, the great symbol of the Triumph of the Republic (she might get a whole post to herself)!
The central parterre in front of the Petit Palace in the Jardins de Luxembourg is encircled by dozens of wonderful statues of the various Queens and accomplished women of France.
(Wondered if this is where Anselm Kiefer got his inspiration for Die Frauen at the French Academy in Rome (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh5MzxgKn3c)
This radiant Madonna was a stained-glass fragment taken from a Paris church and on display the Musée Carnavalet.
And, as we know that women hold up more than half the world, it was no surprise to find this classic caryatid supporting the doorway to a municipal building on Boulevard St Germain.
On a slightly less reverent note, can’t wait for the Mères et Filles Restaurant in Rue Paul to open again after the congée – can imagine a very feisty Madame rules the roost at that bistrot (where mothers and daughters who come along together have their photos taken and put up on the restaurant wall).
Perhaps the daughters of the establishment are captured here in a stylish black and white moment!
Girl Power. Where is our beloved Josephine? You know she was married to that bloke Napoleon. Malmaison Estate was theirs. Paris has probably sprawled into the once gracious bush block. The original black swan hails all the way from Oz! Did you know that?
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