New Years Day Eve 2015

Last year on New Year's Day Eve I got maybe my best picture ever.

This year not so lucky but I did get a good idea how the beanie vs. the bauble hat battle is going...

Here the new beanie wins the day.

A combination beanie/bauble plus last year's bauble nestle together on the Metro. If they can get along I can adjust. Luckily I brought over my NYC subway No.7 beanie so I'm IN either way.

Swedish Solli sent me illustrator Elsa Beskow (1874-1953) wonderful beanie hats which tops them all.

I was meeting Solli last night to go hear Vivaldi's The Four Seasons at the Madeleine - special concert New Years Day Eve.

Spectacular lights

WOW!

My first time inside too

Solli's picture does much better justice to the Madeleine interior.

Looking up at the painted ceiling I started to imagine the coronation of Napoleon was here.

Not so.

He crowned himself at Notre Dame in fact.

Exquisite preparatory sketch by Jacques Louis David

Of Josephine for the official commissioned coronation painting now in the Louvre.

A sweet winged angel near the exit of the Madeleine. If you've heard Vivaldi's Four Seasons 3-4 Xs (best heard in a smaller church in Venice, his home town) you really don't need to hear it again, unless it's a full orchestra blasting you to kingdom come and who wants that anyway?

Outside the Madeleine, a full  moon.

Rue Royal was looking pretty spectacular.
But nothing like coming home to my own light show on Pont Sully.
A Happy New Year Everyone!!

Easter in Venice

Let's pretend we're in Venice for Easter... Let's amble along a canal... Let's buy a pink quill pen and write a love letter to Byron or Shelley... Whilst drinking a Campari spritz in a cafe... You could think about all the Murano glass you didn't buy...

And forget the rather unspectacular pizza you did buy. These guys should come to New York - they throw a thin stripe of red sauce around the edges. What's up with that?

Nevermind. The views ARE spectacular.

And the gelato NEVER disappoints.

New York gelato joints could catch a few lessons here.

Shall we catch a Vivaldi concert in some old church? It's required listening...

What about the Easter eggs/uova di cioccolata all covered in crepe paper and ribbons? Paris would not approve. They like to SEE their chocolate.

I guess it's pommes and blood oranges.
Happy Easter from Venice!