The city wears a perfume of limestone and wisteria.
Limestone, like cheese, cut with wires, veined and crumbled,
smelling of caves.
And wisteria, like mauve spice,
swallowing the wires that trained then constrained it,
Festooning and clutching the arches of the bishops' palace,
swallowing the wires that trained then constrained it,
or trailing affectionately over the lintel of a flaking shuttered window, on the shabby pavements of a noisy boulevard downtown.
20 comments:
How wonderfully textured these pictures are, Lucy. The limestone really does look like a veiny cheese!
I've just been out assessing the garden, and our wisteria is falling to bits. We've had days of wicked wind. It's nice to see the pictures of yours -- still in their lush prime.
That last limestone photo shows the face of an ogre. And the first two wisteria photos have me envious. Our wisteria was a miserable failure before it died.
Rare that I can imagine the aroma of a post.
I had to replace wisteria with lilac, because I know that smells.
These last few posts have been gorgeous, Lucy! I love the textures of the stone here.
gorgeous photos, so much texture in the first ones, then those knotted trunks are amazing, not forgetting the flowers too!
That tree looks as though it is treating the wire like a barbecued spare rib.
Lovely photos as always.
That blue paint on the shutters: always faded and only in France.
Another heart-lifting post, Lucy. Like Friend BB, my attention is captured by the blue of the shutters.
What a wonderful way to start my day!
:)
Oh limestone - so French. It makes me long for a visit.
The wisteria looks very venerable too. Mine is just finishing, hopefully I'll get another flush in August.
Wisteria grows above our front door, Now I shall think of it as mauve spice - a phrase which makes you see and smell the flower as though for the first time.
I love that last pic, Lucy
Not an ogre -- a being in agony! Your limestone does resemble cheese, though it obviously smells quite differently. And the wisteria are lovely. A very evocative post.
What a lovely post....your comparison of limestone to cheese makes me smile...and what a wonderful collection you created.
Thanks people. The wisteria also seems generally good this year. We can't risk it up here, too windy. I didn't know it flowered again later...
Loved the spare rib comparison!
Ah wisteria! I do love it. And that looks a truly venerable one. Memories of the Red House...
these are so amazingly interestingly textured!! loved these photos!
i also love the the photo of the door. that shade of blue and the layout of the leaves and white...its visually so interesting!
We had some wisteria at our old house in central Brittany and it did very well. The colour and texture of the wood does seem to set off the limestone in your photos. The effect of ours against crumbling fieldstone was not quite the same!
Beautifulissimo. I love the shutters and wish I knew how to paint mine to look just like that!
Hi Lucy
Details in nature make just the best photographs.
June in Oz
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