In a vase on Monday: Ulm Münsterplatz

ulm-flower-seller-feb-11-by-enclosure
We were in the really pretty city center of Ulm on Saturday morning, walking around the farmers’ market* in the light snow. Many of the stands were completely covered in clear plastic against the cold. This one was full of tulips and forced cherry blossoms, and I would have loved to buy several bouquets, but they wouldn’t have been practical in our Ibis hotel room, which was comfortable but teeny.

So I wasn’t able to make a flower arrangement this week for “In a vase on Monday,”‘ but to see what other garden bloggers have created today, please visit host Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.


*On the plaza in front of the Ulm Münster (church), which has the tallest church steeple in the world.

The flower seller, Paris

Une marchande de fleurs, au niveau du 64 avenue Hoche, Paris (VIIIe arr.), France, 1924 (?), (Autochrome, 9 x 12 cm), Auguste Léon, Département des Hauts-de-Seine, musée Albert-Kahn, Archives de la Planète, A 69 599 X

Buying flowers at 64 Avenue Hoche, Paris, ca. 1924, by Auguste Léon, via Archives of the Planet Collection – Albert Kahn Museum /Département des Hauts-de-Seine.

This autochrome is one of about 72,000 that were commissioned and then archived by Albert Kahn, a wealthy French banker, between 1909 and 1931. Kahn sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to 50 countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.'”* The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.

I wasn’t able to make a flower arrangement this week for “In a vase on Monday,”‘ but to see what other garden bloggers have created today, please visit host Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.


*words of Albert Kahn, 1912. Also, the above photo (A 69 599 X) is © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.

Quai d’Auteuil, Paris

Jardins potagers, quai d'Auteuil (actuel quai Louis-Blériot), Paris (XVIe arr.), France, 30 mai 1928, (Autochrome, 9 x 12 cm), Auguste Léon, Département des Hauts-de-Seine, musée Albert-Kahn, Archives de la Planète, A 54 766The little vegetable gardens near pont Mirabeau, behind quai d’Auteuil (now quai Louis-Blériot), Paris,  on May 30, 1928, by Auguste Léon, via Collection Archives of the Planet – Albert Kahn Museum/Département des Hauts-de-Seine.

The Auteuil wharf or quai, next to the Seine River, was situated at the top of the sandy-looking embankment on the right side above (also see here, third photo).  Then there was a drop down to the gardens, and, on the left, Avenue de Versailles was at the top of the wall (I think). In the distance, you can see the Eiffel Tower and before it, a little to the right, the small Paris replica of the Statue of Liberty at the southwest end of the Île aux Cygnes.

There’s another view here (the 15th photo down). The area was filled in and covered by the highway Voie George Pompidou and modern apartment buildings in the 1960s.

This lovely autochrome is one of about seventy-two thousand that were commissioned and then archived from 1909 to 1931 by French banker and pacifist Albert Kahn. He sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to 50 countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.'”*  The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.


*words of Albert Kahn, 1912. The above photo (A 54766) is © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.

The winter garden: Nice, France

nice-winter-garden-library-of-congressWinter garden (interior), Nice, French Riviera, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900, a photochrom by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

There is another view of this structure here. It was probably connected to one of the city’s grand casinos.

Luxembourg Gardens

women-children-in-luxembourg-gardens-paris-getty-museumWomen and Children in the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, 1898, by Eugène Atgetvia The J. Paul Getty Museum Open Content Program.