Between trips, i’m currently hiding out at Gleneagles in Scotland, before joining up with the Macallan on Monday… while here, i just ended up on a surprise of an epic one day road trip all over the highlands to go find Nessie… and the scenic drive, seeing so many towns and villages, lochs and locks, glens and munros, castles and churches, not to mention a run in with a flock of pheasants in the middle of the road, a lone stag running through a field, gorgeous rainbow (though it was no double rainbow), sheep and chickens and cows, oh my! I adore the lumpy bumpy rolling hills (don’t be fooled, they are HUGE mountains up close) really feel like they are covered in the lushest of carpets… It was the most incredibly eye opening journey to see so much of the gorgeous countryside ~ architecture ~ signage ~ and more ~ in a day! And Pat caught me up on much Scottish history, phrases, and stories, it was incredible to get lost in Scotland for a day! (Pat! It was amazing! Thank you so much!) So, while, i’ll show you nessie over here ~ firstly, take in some of the views on the next page!
Manege de Reims “Jeu de société” - Sometimes it’s as much HOW art work is displayed, as what it actually is. In this case, that’s what grabbed me first. We were hungry and wandering Reims in a pack of 5 trying to find dinner ~ and suddenly we find ourselves walking alongside these bizarre photographs [tons of them!] around a construction site and it was like… is this a Gap ad? Are these billboards that got posted up? And we even touched them, and they were really nice all weather prints… and the contents were bizarre, it was a bunch of images of people in this tiny space, where there seemed to be a door on one side they cam in from,and a window on the other, they went out of… like a super flipbook of sorts… then after making it around two sides of them. It was that epiphany of “Oh! it’s Art!” “Jeu de société” is an art exhibition making beautiful use of the boarded up construction site around the Halles du Boulingrin. It is a collaboration between photographer Arnaud Baumann, and choreographer Stephanie Aubin, as directed by the Armoury of Reims. It is all about a person initiating a movement, then the next joins in, and connects, and it keeps continuing all around the building with over 100 shots, showcasing various types of people in the community, from kids and parents, to lovers, to priests, to military, and more… See the fascinating display on the next page!
Thanks to Veuve Clicquot, i’m currently curled up on a cloud of a bed here in Paris after a beautiful flight from LA today! Left around 3:45pm got in to Paris around 11am ~ and in between? headed up past vegas/salt lake/etc through canada over greenland/iceland/uk and ended up in paris… and so many gorgeous views… lots of dramatically lit mountains, even flew over some pretty crazy fires, gorgeous scottish/british countryside, french coast… and glowingly red clouds… nothing like a flight to remind you how little all your emails and errands and life is ~ floating above the clouds really throws things back in perspective! Take a peek at some of my favorite views in this latest addition to Operation Window Seat on the next page!