FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

I share your interest in the insolite! nice word. Your windows and doors are always artful and fascinating. I was in Chicago this weekend and forgot the chip for my camera - had the camera! I saw lots of great art deco doors. Next time. It was too cold for photos anyway - 9!!

Wonderful! I greatly enjoy your posts and always forward them to my fellow Francophiles. You have great style, thanks for sharing with all of us. Have a happy day!

Beautiful as always Kristi - It's a good thing you posted a second photo of the cat, I missed it in the first photo. I must be
getting old. XOXO - MOM

I love all things "insolite" perhaps the more-so, the better. As in certain women who ignoring the rules will present themselves in quirky and interesting modes of dress. Chapeaux are a good way to do this. By fixing a single adornment thereon, one can be lifted in a touch of whimsey. Inspiring, as is your post today. Must be that "insolite" is the root of insolence. Often it is all in the way we look at things that causes us to be either appreciative or appalled. Insolite is so much more fun!

The cat, like Mme Alberte, is at the window, ready to see what delights the day will bring her!

Perhaps the crucifix on the window represents the way the person inside tries to view life--through God's eyes.

I love your pictures of windows, doors, and old walls, Kristin. Those have always been some of favorite subjects to photograph, too. They are so rich in history and character.

Enneigee in North Carolina - no school today!

Lovely post and kitty, and of course I will pass along! Have a great first week of Fevrier!

xx

I recently passed on your blog to about 5 friends. I sent them the one with you and Smokey making the lentil soup. I laugh so much at that one. One of my friends is from Algeria and says her French is suffering these days. Another from Paris and the remaining lovers of the French way of life.

Ok, I am the third person who missed the cat in the first picture! Great post Kristin! I love to say "insolite"... fun word!

I am returning from some time away from home and have just spent hours relishing 6 separate journal entries. I re-read the conversation with the sunflower in the window several times. "Open your eyes, your very own lense, and you will see love... if you pay attention." What a profound way to live one's life (in the moment as Robert Haine shared), "dicovering something about myself" (as Candy shared.) Thanks to all of you.

May I also add a potatoe appetizer to the collection of recipes. It caught my attention at a holiday party in December. Tiny red potatoes cooked whole in the skin were cut in half and served cold with a sprig of dill and a dab of caviar (or tapenade or pesto can be used instead.) They were so pretty and tasty.

We missed the rain entirely while away from Santa Barbara but our fruit trees are singing Horray !!

I too missed the cat in the window.

How funny is that, three of us missed the cat. Our eyes were attached to the cross, thinking that was what was heaven sent
A second look gave us a surprise, two beautiful eyes

Thanks again Kristi for a beautiful post.

Insolite! Thank you for this word. The photo of the cat is wonderful. When traveling one often runs into interesting juxtapositions. One of my favorites was in the town of Conwy, Wales. In a shop windows near the castle we spotted a sign that read "Faxes and Funerals."

In the middle of my screen, I first saw

deux solides barreaux rouillés
2 sturdy rusty bars

une fenêtre à peine entr'ouverte
a window, slightly ajar

un chat rêveur derrière le carreau
a dreamy cat behind the window

et..., en plein centre de la fenêtre, une petite croix
and..., right in the centre of the window, a little cross ...

Another look at the first photo, a bit closer, and closer ... Now, my eyes can only see “un enchevêtrement d'angles droits” ( a crisscrossing of right angles) in dark plum and white colours - the most eminent right angles being the one made by the green enamel Cross itself, right in the middle, and the one made by the crucified God nailed to it.

Well, some people in the town of Caromb offer a plastic sunflower to the passers-by, but here, somewhere in the Lubéron, somebody is offering a cross, made of fine and colourful enamel, solidly nailed to the centre of their window frame and appearing between 2 white parallel bars covered with rust.

In the towns and villages Kristin invites us to disvover, via her Newsletters & Cinéma Vérité, we've seen little statues inside niches on the outside walls of some old houses. They reveal a traditional sense of devotion & protection, but, I never felt the 'saint-in-a-niche' pictures were whimsical or eccentric!
Here, we have 2 photos of a picturesque 'window scene', with a religious display occupying the centre of it, so what makes that window-scene so whimsical? a cat and a cross appear together, on each side of a tiny old “guarded” window - the feline and the divine, under a rather crumbling 'heaven' above.

For the people who own the cat - and nailed the cross to the centre of their window frame, for their friends and neighbours, I suppose the togetherness of the scene belongs to the 'ordinary'... but, for the weekenders and holidaymakers who keep their eyes open, and for the photographers who keep their lenses ready to catch and frame any “scène insolite”, this is an extra-ordinary reward!

Lucky us, FWAD readers!
A big thanks to you, Kristin, for sharing your latest “image insolite” with all of us.

Yes that happens to me also, Newforest. I assumed that it was because it was a photo from a previous post.

The technical detail that I am having is that my comment won't post unless I fill in my name and email address. But that may have been because I cleaned up my cache and cookies recently.

Darling Candy, I have always known you were special...but your last post brought tears to my eyes. I have always hoped everyone would see Kristi's talent hid behind the sign of FWAD. Of course when NEWFOREST showed up here a year or so Kristi and I were blown away. It would be worth your time to check back-comments of Newforest' - they are all brilliant.

I'm so happy you are here Candy. Are you on
Facebook?

XOXO

JULES

Dear Kristin,

Today, you obviously had to give all your time and attention to something or somebody or to some event that took full priority.

Looking forward to your Super Saturday Cinema Vérité ... and if you've got time and can manage a Newsletter on Friday, that will be a real treat and we'll all be more than grateful!

How did you get your photo next to your comment? Chouette! Good to hear from you (and see you!)
JULES you are so sweet and I hope our paths cross someday. In the meantime you can find me on facebook (not often, but I am there!)
Hugs to you!
Candy Manchester Witt