A glimpse of the White House garden

Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

I’m skipping around somewhat in sharing my photos from our March travels. Today I’m back to Washington, D.C.

I’ve been a little curious about the White House vegetable garden and its exact location, because the W.H. grounds are not enormous — not after you subtract for enough lawn to land a helicopter or two, press/security tents and equipment, large conifers for privacy, roses, etc.

But on a walk I took about March 15, I passed by the fence on the south side and there it was (on the far left of the first photo below).

The Park Service seemed to be doing some spring cleanup, although the beds looked pretty well planted out with various early greens. (Click any photo to enlarge it.)

About 10 days after I passed by, schoolchildren and Mrs. Obama officially planted out the 2012 garden.

There’s a very interesting post in Early American Gardens about the White House Gardens in the 19th century, here.

Park of lights, Paris

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This is another little spot we came across on our one day in Paris last month. (We were on our way from Lyon to Brussels).

This petit park, which is the courtyard of the 16th c. Hôtel de Lamoignon in the Marais, is very traditionally landscaped with lined-up trees, clipped shrubs, decorative trellis, and lawn.

It’s nothing special, in fact — except that the grass is studded with dozens of small solar lights.

But the little fixtures didn’t stop anyone from enjoying the grass on such a warm March day.

I couldn’t go back to the park at night, but I did find a photo on flickr.

Photo by Philippe Payart under CC license, via flickr.

The courtyard is on the Rue des Francs Bourgeois, two and a half blocks west of the Place des Vosges.

Un coup d’oeil* in Paris

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We spent one of the last days of March in Paris — just walking around and occasionally stopping for tiny $4 coffees.

We spotted this tres discret window decoration in the chic Saint Germain des Pres neighborhood.

The little topiary pots were in several windows across the building.

This pleated bag, below, in the window of Pleats Please Issey Miyake made me think of this previous Wordless Wednesday.

We crossed over to the right bank, and I saw this graffiti alongside the Louvre.

‘Regarde le ciel’ (look at the sky) is a rather common sight in Paris, as I learned from a Google search.  I could not find the origin of this street art, but I thought it might refer to a song by Cortezia, which excoriates airplanes.  (Apparently, Cortezia does not tour far from home.)

However, there seems to be a Romanian connection, as another common version of the graffiti is ‘priveste cerul,’ (look at the sky in Romanian).

At any rate, the sky was just about perfect, as you can see from this photo of the Passerelle des Arts.  If you click and enlarge it, you can see how the bridge glitters from hundreds of padlocks or ‘lovelocks’ (we also saw the beginning of this fad on a pedestrian bridge in Lyon).

Since this was Paris, I probably should throw in a restaurant recommendation.  We ate dinner that night at the wonderful Café Constant, which is owned by “Top Chef” jury member Christian Constant. Located at 135, rue Saint Dominique, in the neighborhood near the Eiffel Tower, it is the first in a row of three restaurants owned by Constant, each a little more expensive (we were in the least expensive and most casual). The café doesn’t take reservations, so go early for lunch or dinner.

*a look around

Sk(in)

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About two weeks ago, while we were in Washington, D.C., I went to the Phillips Collection to see the exhibition Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard.

It displays 200 personal photographs taken by 7 post-impressionist painters at the end of the 19th century, using the then-new Kodak handheld camera. Seventy paintings and prints are also shown. The pictures are engrossing, although many are only a few inches tall. It runs until May 6. See it if you can.

On the way down the stairs, I spotted this sculpture in the Hunter Courtyard.

It’s one part of a work called Sk(in).  The other part was hung inside, but, unfortunately, it has been removed.  The artist is A. Balasubramaniam, and you can watch an interesting short video on the full work’s  installation here.  The sculpture “explores the limits of perception.”

It certainly explores the potential of steel mesh.