skies

The little things. In photos.

/ sarapiper / 6 Comments

I love the details. 

house details. ❤️

I love on my travels when I come across people who take the same delight in simple things that I do, but it’s actually less often than one might think. 

I’m the silly/cheery/overly-enthusiastic Canadian girl taking a close up photo of a cracked flower pot on someone’s front step, or old lace trim on a couch cushion or line of stacked espresso cups at the café, and all of that makes me super happy. 

I thought I’d share some of those ‘detail’ photos from the summer so far. 🙂

I love sunlight filtering through leaves…. this was captured when we went camping on the coast!

This is an artichoke flower in full bloom!

 

As cliché as it is, ‘stopping to smell the roses’ (or artichoke flowers 😉) is important to me especially when I travel, and I think my parents instilled in me at a very young age an appreciation for noticing little things. 

A frame hanging on the most beautiful fresco-painted wall.

How cool is this? A wrought iron figurine holds this shutter open.

An old wall and an old door that I walk by every day. 🙂


Sometimes I remember to photograph these visual treats. If I really have time, I have sketched them out instead. I recently read somewhere to try and sketch or paint your travels instead of taking photos, so I’ve started taking time to do more of that. 

Inspired by a red piece of pottery.

Glass decanters- a delightful challenge to capture the light and shadows! 🙂

My view of L’Isle Jourdain that I painted one afternoon on the viaduct.

Postcard painting!

The view from the little apartment I stayed in for one week.

 

So many little things that I am happy to capture in the moment: from every day household items and architecture, to nature and the neverending offerings of the skies here..

Fresh baked bread that Sini made. It was soooo good!

Early morning blackberry picking!

One of the old churches in the village, juxtaposed against a bright blue sky.

A beautiful sky and the farmer’s fields below.

The corn was as high as an elephant’s eye…. sorry, I couldn’t help it. 😉

Old glass bottles and a birdcage with tealights. does it get any sweeter?

 

I hope you enjoyed this snippet of photo treasures. I’m sure there are plenty more to come. 🙂

A trip to Mont Saint Michel…

/ sarapiper / Leave a comment

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So this is a brief post (and mostly photos) of our trip out to Mont St Michel last week. I was told that the island is a must-see by several friends, and I was looking forward to spending the night on the island in order to be there after the daytime rush of tourists. The tides at Mont Saint Michel come in and out very quickly when they change and it’s exciting to see when you are out there, so naturally, I looked it up. It turned out there would be absolutely no change between low and high tide while we were on the island. I was slightly disappointed but figured that the water would be in and it would look like any other island. It turned out, the water was completely out, so the island was now surrounded by sand. And that turned out to be amazing.

We took the train from Paris to Rennes and then took a bus to the shuttle at Mont Saint Michel, but it was a beautiful afternoon so we decided to walk along the pathway to he island, which was awesome. It turns out you can rent bikes too, but it’s an easy walk.

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A storm was leaving the area just as we got there, so it made for really exciting skies!

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The view from our hotel room

The view from our hotel room

After dinner and some exploring around the island (the *one* street filled with restaurants and novelty/souvenir shops), we headed down to the ‘beach’ to take pictures. We walked barefoot and there were only a handful of people down there, so it felt like it had cleared out just for us. Aside from the constant cries of seagulls, it was quiet and beautiful! My sister can attest- I was downright giddy I was so happy to be there.

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The next morning we went through the Abbey at the top of the island (oh the stairs…. People with limited mobility or even worse: strollers (!!!) : stay away!!).

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Even by 10:00am we realized how quickly the island gets busy!

The one street. Did I mention there is only one street? I'm not exaggerating. One street.

The one street. Did I mention there is only one street? I’m not exaggerating. One street.

I’ll never forget it. I am SO glad we stayed overnight on the island, and got to see this incredible place. It is a ‘must-see’. 🙂

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