The mystery of doors & windows.
It is easier to imagine wonders behind doors, closed windows.
Everything seems more mysterious and we start dreaming of other lives.
Will they be better behind one of these doors or worse? ...
The mystery remains.
One can only imagine ...
"Mystery : unrevealed truth" -Philippe Bouvard/The good life after 70 years old (2002)- Porte de l'église Saint Maclou Eglise Saint-Maclou
"The doors of the future are open to those who know how to push them.." -Coluche/ Artist, Comic(1944/1986)- A antique door in Martainville street
"There are people who talk a lot, but don't say everything; one can be both talkative and mysterious." -Victor Cherbuliez/Thoughts extracted from his works (1913)- One of the door of the Tourism Office
"Listening to the gates won't change your position. You'll always be the one behind the door." -Touria Uakkas/University Teacher, Lecrure Arts and Travels (Morocco) Door at 74 Saint-Romain street
"No mystery is deep enough to hide happiness." -Maxime Du Camp/The Lost Forces (1867)-
"Happiness, change, love, trust, it's up to you to open the doors of change." -Vincent Pelonero-
"Women are a religion full of mysteries." -Remy de Gourmont / Sistine (1890)-
"We must open the doors of the past from time to time because it brings some answers to the present moment." -Fouad Ftouki (1967)-
"Nothing proves mediocrity more than the little mysteries in the ear, the conversations in a window door, the gazette news we give for letters we have received." -Charles-Joseph de Line /My deviations or my head in the wild (1796)- Industry Street door on Lacroix Island
Between bars ...
"All deep feelings need mystery: Sensitive souls show no more what they experience than what they inspire." -Cécile Fée / The maxims and thoughts (1832)-
"My life resembles a long quest in a corridor whose doors of history would have been sealed." Remy Donnadieu/ Photographer, Graphic Designer, Author (1962)-
"Things of pure intimacy must be protected by mystery and silence." -Henri-Frédéric Amiel / Diary, March 5, 1872-
Behind windows ...
"The locked doors unlock the doors of speculation and the windows of vaticination." -Nabil Alami/ Thermician, "The Suave Phrases", Thoughts, Word Collector (Morocco)-
"Secrets must be covered with a veil like mysteries." -Francis Bacon / The Essays (1625)-
"The act of writing can open so many doors, as if a pen were not really a pen but a strange variety of all-rounders." -Stephen King- At 74 rue Saint-Romain
"To talk face to face about the mysteries of love is to play with fire on a powder keg." -Pierre-Claude-Victor Boiste/The Universal Dictionary (1843)- Tourism Office
"Who has elephants must have large doors." -Afghan proverb-
"Life is a mystery that must be lived, not a problem to be solved." -Gandhi /All men are brothers (1969)- Hotel de Bourgtheroulde
"Friendship does not make misfortune lighter, but by being present and dedicated, it allows us to share the weight, and opens the doors of appeasement." -Tahar Ben Jelloun- Left Bank
"Friendship is a feeling as mysterious as love." -Jean Dutourd /Henri or National Education (1983)- City Hall
"Mistakes are the gates of discovery." -James Joyce/ Artist, writer, Poet, Novelist (1882/1941)- Tourist Office
Will open, won't open?! ...
"There are people who talk a lot, but who don't say everything; we can be both talkative and mysterious."
- Victor Cherbuliez / The thoughts extracted from his works (1913) -
Some time since I had not tried to find out what is going on behind closed doors and windows. Sometimes some are ajar, some deserted from life.
I can only imagine, I only want to imagine. I prefer to keep the mystery and let my imagination do the rest.
What right would I have to knock on these doors, knock on windows anyway?
I have no desire to disturb the daily life of the people who live behind these doors and windows or to spoil my pleasure in photographing them.
-Left Bank- I liked this old building in height. Abandoned in the modern building environment. Incongruous and melancholy, the trace of a past disappeared from Rouen.
The mystery remains in front of this door open on a closed door.
The absolute unknown in front of this ancient door. What's in it?
Behind such a beautiful door can only hide a sumptuous abode?!
Will you ever open up for me?...
It's only mystery and I like it ...
"We love the mystery so much that this half-glimpse which leaves the imagination free to guess more, pleases more than reality."
- Pierre-Jules Stahl / Various thoughts and reflections (1841) -
Magnificent work of art
Opening on the sky ... The mystery of cathedrals...
I see this window but do they see us behind that window?...
"We don't lift the veil of mystery, we tear it apart."
-Adolphe d'Houdetot / Ten thorns for a flower (1853)
To wonder if it's a door or a window ...
In the nooks and crannies of Rouen hide these mysterious doors and windows that continue to fascinate me. I still don't want to open them, I prefer to let my imagination wonder, even wander. It is good to let secrets remain secret. They only have more charm and no disappointment will arise.
Imagine that one day I open one of these doors and that behind it there is nothing. Nothingness. A wall. What disillusionment!
I would then become incapable of dreaming of what is hidden behind, of the life that there may be behind such a door or other window.
I want to continue playing with these mysteries, certainly harmless for some , however always happy for me ...
As for this door which looks like a window or this window which looks like a door, I will not reveal its location, I leave it to anyone who would like to play to discover it.
The door to France's oldest inn! I finally managed to find it closed... proof that my morning wanderings are good ...
Will you ever open up? Let's hope not...
In the lair of the Big Clock ...
Behind maybe one of our forefathers is hiding?!
Mystery half unveiled
This narrow street, called "The Viscount" enchants me, it contains small but so precious treasures ...
Finely ornate door, very chic
Art DécoArt Deco? Not Art Nouveau? Not Art 3.0? ... Perhaps...? Non Art Nouveau? Non Art 3.0 ? ...peut-être...
Color in a raw world ...
Like a theater.
Reflections
Dominant blue
Another world on Viscount Street
Behind bars, is there really a mystery ?...
When the sun dazzles the window ...
From one street to another, the colors change, the windows are brightened up by flower pots in bright colors, by colored tiles when in a nearby street, they are completely abandoned. The contrast is staggering but it is not sad (well yes, a little though) because I imagine the life that there could have been on this street, the joy of yesteryear behind these broken, dirty windows. Hope remains today. The one they will find one day ...
An easy quiz: tiles or curtains, which ones are colored?!
"Not the Color, Just the Shade!" -Paul Verlaine-
"It's the silence that teaches us to love music, it's the darkness that teaches us to love colors, it's war that teaches us to love peace, it's the absence of laughter that teaches us to understand humor." -Tailor-made paradise / Bernard Werber-
"When the man lifted from the oldest tomb Will spread the bramble and flowers of the hallier, When he goes up the dilapidated staircase Where the foot of silence with every step falls." -Charles Péguy/Eve (1913)-
"The dilapidated manor house will be saved but the senile man will perish. This is iniquity." -Christina De Leu-
"There is more greatness in poverty than in wealth." -Samuel Ferdinand-Lop /The New Thoughts and Maximus (1970)-
Behind the gates ...
"Rust would have a crazy charm If it only attacked the gates." -Bruno, says Maxime Le Forestier /My brother- (1972), Bruno's Rust, says Maxime Le Forestier
"The gate is big, all green." -Peppered reflections on jactance / Frédéric Dard-
"At some point, a heavy gate closes behind us, it closes and is locked with lightning speed, and we don't have time to go back." -The tartar desert/ Dino Buzzati-
In the blink of an eye...
"Everyone in this world has his little secrets and his private affairs that are not likely to be exposed, even to the most intimate friends." - Benjamin Franklin / The indiscreet visitor (1826)-
"The best kept secret is the one you don't give to anyone." - Benjamin Delessert /The Guide to Happiness (1839)-
"The secret, whether it is a garden or a fragrant meadow, is a freedom without tears. Poetry is born of this freedom. Not only does she express it, but she invents, cultivates and honors it." -Tahar Ben Jelloun /Let the wound close (2011)-
"Seal of secrecy: It is, at times, a perilous seal." -Grégoire Lacroix / The Bictionnaire (2015)-
"Who does not know how to keep a secret faithfully is not worthy of having a friend." - Congratulations from Genlis / Detached thoughts and maxims (1801)-
"Sooner or later a shared secret is revealed." - Pierre-Claude-Victor Boiste / The Universal Dictionary (1800)-
Light dark
"A mystery cannot be proven, it can only be admitted." -Samuel Ferdinand-Lop / The New Thoughts and Maximus (1970)-
"Mysteries are objects of contemplation, not riddles to be solved." -André Frossard / The Party of God -
"The world is a parable, an enigma. And the multitude sees, and the crowd hears; but to no avail." -Alexandra David-Néel -
Secrecy
"The enigma also lives on the wish to be pierced." -Jean-Claude Renard / The Light of Silence-
"Intelligence is, alas! always an enigma, but no more than stupidity..." - Laurent Lemire / Alan Turing -
Mysteries of yesteryear
"The past is like a broken plate: you may try to put the pieces back together, but you can never give it back its old-world appearance." - Haruki Murakami / Kafka on the shore -
"And Jeanne, the good Lorraine - That English burned in Rouen - Where are they, where, Sovereign Virgin? - But where are the snows of yesteryear." -François Villon/Testament, Ballad of the ladies of the old-
"My Eternal Autumn O My Mental Season - The hands of the lovers of yesteryear litter your soil - A wife follows me is my fatal shadow - The doves tonight take their last flight." -Guillaume Apollinaire/Alcohols (1913), Sign -
Forbidden postal
Both taken aback and amused at the sight of these mailboxes that did not dissociate from bars ... boxes and bars, which ones were there first ?! What was built around what? ..
A strange arrangement that should not facilitate the work of the postman ...
In any case these mailboxes live safely ... as if the mailboxes had their own life ... I know it's delirious but I felt inspired by the image!
You could say that the owners of the place knew how to take advantage of a surely limited space to get there.
(Seen rue de la Croix verte )
In the eyes of Robec
"For the eyes of the heart, the walls are made of glass." -Raymond Brucker /Maria (1841)-
"There are certain eyes that do not allow more to penetrate into a man's mind than blue glasses. And others that are clear and deep, wells in which one can fall." - Ralph Waldo Emerson / The Laws of Life (1864)-
"My life for your eyes slowly poisons." -Guillaume Apollinaire/ Alcohols, Les cchiques (1913)-
"Eyes in the eyes and joyful heart, one forgets the earth and the heavens." - Georges Brassens / We don't need the moon (1980)-
"The mind does not see clearly with the eyes of the heart." -Alfred de Musset / The first poems, Namouna (1832)-
"Eye: Window of the soul open a few hours a day to the world." - Philippe Bouvard / The Beautiful Life After 70 Years (2002)-
Windows of the Republic
"Let us be the same republic, let us be the United States of Europe, let us be the continental federation, let us be European freedom, let us be universal peace!. " -Speech to the National Assembly on 1 March 1871/ Victor Hugo-
"But she knows that, in the world of the tsars of the Republic, there is no room for self-esteem or for love at all, and that to climb the ladder, one is obliged to touch the bottom before being allowed to rise again." -What are the monkeys waiting for / Yasmina Khadra-
"A constitution which, in the nineteenth century, contains any amount of the death penalty, is not worthy of a republic." -Complete works by Victor Hugo-
"They voted they will vote as one takes a barbiturate and they put the Republic at the bottom of a vase to rest The experts analyzed what was at the bottom of the vase There was nothing but a little mud" -Violence and boredom, (1980) / Leo Ferré-
"I want the Republic to have two names: to be called Liberty, and to be called a public thing." -Complete works / Victor Hugo-
"The Republic is the right of every man, regardless of his religious belief, to have his share of sovereignty." -Socialist action: first series. socialism and teaching. Socialism and Peoples (edition 1899)/ Jean Jaurès-
"Republics end up luxury, monarchies through poverty." -The genie de montesquieu ... (1760 edition) / Montesquieu-
"The Republics themselves have seen very well, that of all the goods that can be enjoyed in this World, Friendship is the most excellent and the sweetest." -Hieron / Xenophon of Athens -
"I will not die leaving the pernicious example of personal power. I would have founded a free parliamentary republic before, as far from Bolshevism as from fascism." -Speech / Mustafa Kemal Ataturk-
At Beauvoisine ...
Forbidden to sit or see?! ...
Two lonely pots ...
A pretty lady at the window ...
Sesame, don't open ...
Patrick and Patrice
"Mystery is not a wall where intelligence breaks, it is a reed where intelligence is lost." -Fate of Man/Gustave Thibon-
"The little clarity that is in the mystery that surrounds us comes from ourselves: it is a false clarity. The mystery has never shown us its own." -Journal (1887-1910) (1982 edition)/Jules Renard-
"But what do we really know about those who share our days? The heart of others remains the greatest mystery." -Silent Hours/Gaelle Josse-
"It is more of a silence, it is more than one night for every solitude has its own mystery." -Loneliness: poetry /Sully Prudhomme-
"The worst thing in the mystery of evil is not that there are evil men, but men who like to justify their evil acts. And the worst justification is ideology." -How literature changes man: rûmi, dante, montaigne, tagore, hesse, camus, solzhenitsyn/Leili Anvar-
"The forebodings, sympathies and signs are three strange things that together form a mystery of which humanity has not yet found the key." -Jane eyre/Charlotte Bronte-
"Marriage, a mystery. Why we love, and what we do to define and contain our love. To protect him. As if love were a flame that a stream of air can blow." -Females/Joyce Carol Oates-
"The first step towards vice is to put mystery into innocent actions and anyone who likes to hide sooner or later is right to hide." -Complete works / Rousseau (edition 1863) /Jean-Jacques Rousseau-
A mystery barely revealed...
A good mallet
"We are the secrets we expose, and the clues are our whispers" -Enes Aydogan-
"A kiss is a secret that takes mouth for ear." -Edmond Rostand-
"Don't be too secretive, you'll forget to be discreet." -Szczepan Yamenski-
"In secret, close your eyes to read what the words keep quiet." -André Brincourt-
"There are few secrets disclosed than those that are disclosed by yourself." -Mary Sarah Newton/Newspapers and Memories (1855)-
The closed shutters of Saint-Amand
Containment
I took this photo a while ago but had not posted it yet. She inspired me without me finding the inspiration to post it yet on my blog. Today, it makes perfect sense for me. It's the grid open to tomorrow. A door ajar. The light at the back of the courtyard. A tomorrow that has nothing to do with yesterday, the light at the bottom of the tunnel which opens on better days but so different from what we have always known and taken for granted.
I see this gate ajar and I'm almost afraid to cross it because tomorrow is scary. I am afraid for myself, I am afraid for others too. Life will never taste the same again. Life will be keeping its distance, life will be masked. Is this life? But what choice do we have?
"Containment". This word, which has become hideous, synonymous with locked down, will forever mark our lives. I know I will never be the same person again. I am a homebody, a loner who likes to walk alone and observe, watch people live, the city bubbling and smile to be part of this life.
Today I am afraid. I like this moment when I wake up and where for a few seconds everything seems normal. But this moment only lasts a few seconds, the return to reality then strikes me very hard in the head and, I know then that our lives will have nothing to do with before. Yesterday was great. We complained but it was good!
One day, I will have the courage to pass this grid and tell myself that we will live differently but at the least, we will be alive.
I have a touched thought for everyone, all these suffering people because everyone suffers from this locked down which deprives us of our freedoms for our own good. But what's the point of complaining when you're lucky to be in good shape. Each evening, I am moved to hear the applause, pots, whistles and other sirens which pay tribute to the nursing staff and intrinsically to the patients in intensive care. They do not necessarily hear us but they are in my thoughts and I hope they will emerge unscathed from this arduous battle they are waging. Caregivers and the sick are in my heart.
Today I have only one enemy and this is the covid-19.
April 20, 2020 (we have been in containment since March 16, 2020. End of it will be on May 11, 2020 )
Courage to all, take care of yourself!