Le Printemps à Paris ~ Spring in Paris

April 18, 2015July 3, 2015 ~ Château des Rêves ~ 3 Comments

Spring in Paris... Lapérouse — Spring in Paris… Lapérouse

The Kiss, Robert Doisneau.... What could I say... — The Kiss, Robert Doisneau… “Le baiser de l’hôtel de Ville”

J’aime Paris au mois de mai

J’aime Paris au mois de mai
Quand les bourgeons renaissent
Qu’une nouvelle jeunesse
S’empare de la vieille cité
Qui se met à rayonner

J’aime Paris au mois de mai
Quand l’hiver le délaisse
Que le soleil caresse
Ses vieux toits à peine éveillés

J’aime sentir sur les places
J’aime dans les rues où je passe
J’aime ce parfum de muguet que chasse
Le vent qui passe

Il me plaît à me promener
Par les rues qui se faufilent
À travers toute la ville.
J’aime, j’aime Paris au mois de mai
___

J’aime Paris au mois de mai.
Lorsque le jour se lève
Les rues sortent du rêve.
Après un sommeil très léger
Coquettes se refont une beauté

J’aime Paris au mois de mai
Quand soudain tout s’anime
Par un monde anonyme
Heureux de voir le soleil briller

J’aime quand le vent m’apporte
Des bruits de toutes sortes
Et les potins que l’on colporte
De porte en porte

Il me plaît à me promener
Dans les rues qui fourmillent
En souriant aux filles.
J’aime, j’aime Paris au mois de mai
___

J’aime Paris au mois de mai
Avec ses bouquinistes
Et ses aquarellistes
Que le printemps a ramenés
Comme chaque année le long des quais

J’aime Paris au mois de mai
La Seine qui l’arrose
Et mille petites choses
Que je ne pourrais expliquer

J’aime quand la nuit sévère
Étend la paix sur terre
Et que la ville soudain s’éclaire
De millions de lumières

Il me plaît à me promener
En contemplant les vitrines
La nuit qui me fascine.
Que j’aime Paris, oui.
J’aime Paris au mois de mai

I love Paris in the month of May
When the buds come alive again
[And] that a new youth
Takes hold of the old city
Which sets about glowing

I love Paris in the month of May
When winter abandons it
[And] that the sun caresses
Its barely awake old roofs

I love to smell in the squares
I love in the streets I pass through
I love this scent of lily of the valley that chases
The wind that is passing

It pleases me to go for a walk
Through the streets which weave
Across the whole city.
I love, I love Paris in the month of May
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I love Paris in the month of May.
As soon as the day rises
The streets come out of their dreams.
After a very light sleep
Coquettes redo their make-up

I love Paris in the month of May
When suddenly everything comes alive
With an anonymous world
Happy to see the sun shining

I love when the wind brings me
Noises of all kinds
And the rumours that they spread
From door to door

It pleases me to go for a walk
In the streets that are teeming
While smiling at the girls.
I love, I love Paris in the month of May

I love Paris in May
with its book stalls
and its watercolourists
(I love) that spring has returned
as it does every year, along the quaysides
I love Paris in May
the Seine that washes upon it
and loads of little things
I cannot possibly explain

I love it when the stark night
spreads peace over the land
and the city suddenly lights up
with millions of lights
I like to stroll around
taking in the shop windows
in the night that fascinates me
I love, I love Paris in May

Taken from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/j%C2%B4aime-paris-au-mois-de-mai-i-love-paris-may.html#ixzz3XvA2I6FK
___

Charles Aznavour

Le Baiser de l'Opera, 1950. Robert Doisneau — Le Baiser de l’Opera, 1950. Robert Doisneau

Sweet Paris... — Sweet Paris… Art Nouveau staircase in Montmartre, Paris.

Au Revoir et merci! Good bye and thank you! — Au revoir et merci beaucoup ! Good bye and thank you very much!

Spring

April 14, 2015May 23, 2015 ~ Château des Rêves ~ 6 Comments

Spring has taken forever to arrive…. If I wait one more day, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me! It’s been said that you create your own reality… so here we go! Spring has sprung and I am happy beyond myself. Spread the Joy!

Fresh and beautiful — A season for gardening!

Dreaming awake... — Dreaming while awake with Flowers and Florence!

The new Spring of life! — The new Spring ! Yes… who would have thought only 30 years ago!

ranunculous — Ranunculus, aren’t they pretty?!

Prosciutto wrapped pears with spicy arugula leaves

I can see it, I can feel it ! — I can almost see it, almost touch it, I can feel it !

Chilled avocado and cucumber soup, served with a light and airy parmesan cheese chip

Washington DC Spring Cherry Blossoms — Washington DC’s Cherry Blossoms

Pear, pancetta and feta salad with pomegranate dressing

Italian Feast, Carolyne Roehm. I can definitely see myself doing this often!

I would totally feel like a southerner bell here.. — I would totally feel like a southern belle here..

I'm feeling the blues! — I’m feeling the blues!

I can't wait for those tomatoes — I can’t wait for those tomatoes…. Tomato, Tomato? Potato, Potato?

Sunshine through the flowers! Peonies, my favorite!

If life gives you lemons... — If life gives you lemons… Yep, that’s what I’m doing right now.

There is something special about Spring and children, both represent hope and a new beginning, a fresh start.... — There is something so special about Spring and children, both represent hope and new beginnings, always a fresh start….

chinoiserie influences — Chinoiserie influences

bring — Bringing the outdoor inside always helps!

Van Gogh, I wanted so bad for him to be happy… he seems happy here..

Oh my gosh... — Oh my gosh… those colors ! Only in nature …

Spring mold… of course, I couldn’t just put a regular cake mold or pan here, right? It had to be a SPRING ONE!

Garden dinner — Patio rendez-vous ! Hound’s Tooth table cloth…

Family…. who else could sit at this table if not family, or friends who you consider a part of it?! Freshly picked berries in grandma’s heirloom purple goblets…. long, neatly pressed linen napkins, bought together during a family vacation in Provençe… gorgeous flowers, warm and bright, still infused with Spring’s rays of sun…

lovely bar — Lovely colors and textures awaken my taste buds!

In the city — Peaceful and fun in the city, after you create your own, little paradise…

More bars — How pretty is this bar created with an antique silver tray and an old wicker table?! The Pellegrino cans and fragrant oranges give this vignette a Tuscan vibe! (Yes, I can smell the oranges… we have more senses than we realize!)

Tea time... I wish we could bring it back! — Tea time… I wish we could bring it back!

The beach, the perfect place for everything... — The beach, the perfect place for everything…

barn lemonade — Barn lemonade, tea and Mason jars

love — Love is in the air, have you seen those velvety peaches behind the flower centerpieces?!… and everything else?!

detail — Wedding confidential..Those candelabras are exquisite! Can I have a glass of that p-l-e-a-s-e ?! It’s almost too pretty to drink. Almost.

chocolate — Chocolate and Berries! match made in heaven

Time to start to create my dream... — Time to start to create my dream… Enjoy your Spring !

Darkness, the absence of Light

April 3, 2015May 10, 2015 ~ Château des Rêves ~ 6 Comments

Darkness, the absence of Light

My father loved poetry, he used to recite poems all the time as he walked around the house. “To Christ crucified” was one of my favorites, it always managed to move me to unspoken tears … In spite of being too young to comprehend how deep those words were, I always had a profound feeling of respect and sadness at the same time every time I heard them. The tone of his voice, the intensity and the feeling he had behind those words were powerful… My father was an agnostic or so he said… I think he wanted to be and tried hard to make others believe he was. There were some moments like those ones when he recited this poem that lead me to believe later on that he was just trying, as strange as it might sound, to protect himself of hope. Many of us try hard to stop believing so we can’t be hurt anymore. We try to stop believing in real love and decency, in human integrity and character, we try to stop believing in fairness and possibilities, even in God. We feel all grown up and too smart to believe…even though there is something inside of us that needs desperately to do so and never, ever stops searching, even in all the wrong places, for that light that seems to start inside of us and needs to connect to it’s source, a much bigger and powerful light, in order to continue to exist. It is then, when we cease to believe, that we become broken, empty lanterns without a fire, without a purpose… It saddens me to accept that I, as well, had walked away from the light inadvertently, not completely, not that far, still far enough to experience such darkness… I love little Albert Einstein’s explanation to his teacher about darkness not existing and been impossible to be proven scientifically, he said it is only the absence of light. Researching the story a while ago I found out it was an urban legend… I was heart broken and refused to believe it wasn’t real so I decided right there and then to hold on to it, for as long as I could… too much beauty and truth in it to let go.

My father lost his mother when he was a little boy, I can only imagine how hard it must have been… I think that had a big influence on him trying to live his life without faith or hope. He never said it but it makes sense to me now… it’s made sense to me for a while actually, specially since he died in September of 2011. It’s helped me greatly to believe that he actually, deep, deep down, in a dark, quiet corner of his heart, believed… the way he recited this poem with such sorrow and passion… There were a few things and moments during his life where we were able to see signs of his lost faith since he went to Catholic school. Those moments had given me hope that he has finally reunited with his Mother and that I will see him again, joyful and in peace, without pain, the way it was intended to be… and he will hold me and comb my hair and tell me how pretty and smart I am again…

Here is the translated poem and the original.

Sonnet to Jesus Crucified

I am not moved, my God, to love You
by the heaven that You have promised me
and I am not moved either by hell so feared
as the reason to stop offending You.

You move me, my Lord, it moves me to see You
nailed to a cross and your flesh destroyed,
what moves me is to see your body so injured,
what moves me is your suffering and your death.

What moves me, finally, is your love, and in such way,
that even if there was no heaven, I would love You,
and even if there was no hell, I would fear You.

You don’t have to give me for me to love You,
so even if what I hope for I did not hope,
the same that I love You, I would love You.

—Translated by José Leo O S

A Cristo crucificado

No me mueve, mi Dios, para quererte
el cielo que me tienes prometido,
ni me mueve el infierno tan temido
para dejar por eso de ofenderte.

Tú me mueves, Señor, muéveme el verte
clavado en una cruz y escarnecido,
muéveme ver tu cuerpo tan herido,
muévenme tus afrentas y tu muerte.

Muéveme, en fin, tu amor, y en tal manera,
que aunque no hubiera cielo, yo te amara,
y aunque no hubiera infierno, te temiera.

No me tienes que dar porque te quiera,
pues aunque lo que espero no esperara,
lo mismo que te quiero te quisiera.

This week, as we remember Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, I better realize what happens when we extinguish the light. We are surrounded by what we perceived as darkness, we are surrounded by the absence of THE LIGHT.