La Poste

Where would Mail Art be without La Poste, the post office? I've been to the Musée de La Poste in the past, but this year, I had a special treat. Not only did I go through the museum but prior to that, I had lunch with our new friends Jean-Claude and Régine, who work for La Poste. I know this may not seem exciting, but believe me, it was. Here are some images I took in the museum. The painting on the mail bag was done by Claude Viallat for a special exhibit of many of these. If you clik on Musée above, you can see more of the exhibit. Here's an old mail box, an old delivery coach, and an image from an old film showing pigeon courier soldiers in WWI. The soldiers had small baskets on their backs, with 2 pigeons in them. In the film, it showed them loading their pigeons into the baskets, then hopping on horses and riding off. There was an excellent special exhibit on the mail service during war time in France. And a really fabulous exhibit of work by Marc Pessin, that you must check out. He does intriguing calligraphy, engraving, embossing, collage work.

Last days in Paris

Well, I have to do it...I have to post the last photos from our last days in Paris. I put it off because once posted, it means the trip is really over. It flew by!

Okay, here's what you're seeing...a view of a French village as we were flying back to Paris from Dublin, the skating rink we watched being constructed on the parvis in front the Hotel de Ville (the igloo is where you rent skates,) a view from our studio on a rainy day (you can kind of make out the map of Korea in the lower right corner, you know the one that looks like a bunny statue,) and the Christmas decorations on the corner by the Pont Marie metro entrance. There's a similar one by the St. Paul metro. Big red and gold bows decorate trees. Lower branches have been pulled down to hide the tree trunks. Real grass was laid down and trimmed in a curve. We watched them create these, too.

So long Ireland

A few final images from Ireland. A seal in the boat harbor in Black Rock and M. looking out at the Irish Sea. A stair case at The Hugh Lane where we saw a room full of Sean Scully paintings, but weren't allowed to take any photos, so I got one of the stairway.



Here's a picture of the sun coming up at Dublin airport and a view of Dublin from the air as we headed back to France.

More Ireland (retrospective)

Here are some very Irish things...the double deck city bus, they were everywhere, and so very tall! Irish cofee, perfect on a chilly, rainy night. We were at a small market in Temple Bar and tasted homemade chutneys, and cheeses. We didn't get any samples of the Christmas pudding, however.

More from Ireland

A sight in Temple Bar, Santa! We came upon this last supper by John Byrne, in a pedestrian walk area, north of the river Liffey. The models he used are local people, from different walks of life.









The fish and chips I had for lunch were very yummy.














Here's a view of a closed off pedestrian shopping area, which was PACKED with shoppers. Notice, the sign is in Gallic.

Later that night, we went to see a dance performance based on R.D. Laing's book KNOTS. It was energetic and powerful.

More Dublin

We're back home, finally getting adjusted to the time change, sort of...so I'm going to post some catch up photos of our weekend in Ireland and our last days in Paris.

Here's a fuzzy image of the pub we stopped in on our arrival in Dublin. I had my first cup of Irish tea here, no really, hot tea! We did a lot of walking, dodging rain drops, and ended up at the Irish Film Institute to meet our friend M.

We were settling down to have a cup of coffee when a person called out our names..it was Noah's friend Jenna, thanks for permission to post your photo. What a shock! We had no idea she was studying film in Dublin. We had a nice time chatting with her and her friends, D. and A., until M. arrived. Though Jenna had to leave to go to the library, her friends were great company. Ha ha, Jenna, we'll find you no matter where you go!


We took the DART with M. to their house in Killiney. Here are some great views from their kitchen, a Martello tower (to keep Napoleon away) a view towards the bay, a garden angel. See, we did have some sunny time in Ireland.

Dublin, just a taste..

We went to Dublin for the weekend to see our old friends M. and P. Here's a view of the Ha'penny bridge over the Liffey River. I hope to post more before we return to the states but am dependent on free wifi. Thanks to the city of Paris, and the free wifi, I'm in the library of the local city hall.