Jim Haynes,and His Fabulous Sunday Dinners In Paris

Every week for the past 30 years, I've hosted a Sunday dinner in my home in Paris. People, including total strangers, call or e-mail to book a spot. I hold the salon in my atelier, which used to be a sculpture studio. The first 50 or 60 people who call may come, and twice that many when the weather is nice and we can overflow into the garden.
Every Sunday a different friend prepares a feast. Last week it was a philosophy student from Lisbon, and next week a dear friend from London will cook.

Jim Haynes, Paris Sunday Dinners.

I'm not sure I can even begin to give you a sense of how incredible tonight was ...

I met a magical man who invites complete strangers into his home, disarms them somehow, like a wizard who works his magic for good ... who invites total strangers to leave their egos, their barriers, their 'stuff' at the door, and simply get on with meeting whoever is there at that Sunday dinner.

If I had to sum it up, tonight, before the photographs have even been viewed ... I would write of a talk-fest that simply made my heart sing.  So ... once my camera card reader and I are reunited, there are stories to tell and photographs to post.

The photograph below ... unrelated and yet, it is all about a little bit of magic that happened in Berlin one day and therefore, it seems like an appropriate placeholder.

More to follow on the morrow.

Re-Entry ...

Sometimes, bouncing between worlds take more out of my soul than I expect.

Today I lay down after lunch and woke just before 5pm.  I am exhausted again.  There was France and another truly exquisite wedding.  A love so big that it melted my heart.

Then the Beautiful Truth workshop in Piedmont, where the people of Piedmont impressed me with their open-hearted welcome.  Their food.  And their wine.  I discovered Brachetto.  One of those discoveries of a lifetime ... or so is my story.

Then Genova, that city I love more than any other in the world.

And now I am home, doing the re-entry thing. It involves resting a lot, eating vegetables, resting some more.

There is a party to plan.  More travels perhaps.  My cousin.

It's like that.

And below, another image from the exquisite Ligurian weavers ... Cordani Velluti

The Rainbow Seat, Piedmont

Diana and Micha have created an extraordinary space here at their B&B in Piedmont.

It's a photographer's delight really.  Everywhere you look, there is some exquisite detail.  Yesterday, swimming in their pool, I would stop sometimes, lean on the side and just concentrate on how much beauty there was there in front of me.

And perhaps it seems like I'm exaggerating, or that I don't get out much, or I'm easily impressed but really, I'm almost sure that it's just about the fact that B&B Baur is beautiful.

Sardines ...

A high of 34 celsius is expected here in Antwerp today.  It started early and was already 29 when I biked to the supermarket at 9am.  It's lovely, I'm not going to complain ... It's just very. very. hot. for this crowded little city with the massive European highway passing through it.

Thunderstorms should crash over us tonight or tomorrow, and a 10 degree drop in temperature is expected.

It's summer.  It's like that.  Sometimes we have one.

When I have time, the search for exhibition photographs goes on ... and along the way I find shots like this one, taken in Istanbul.  It still makes me smile.  I called it sardines.

Sometimes ...

Sometimes, even I'm surprised by what I find in my photographs.

I'm playing with frames and so I polaroided it but otherwise the image is almost untouched.

In Ancient Times ...

'It is also famous as one of the few ancient cities that can now be seen in almost its original splendour, because unlike Pompeii, its burial was deep enough to ensure the upper storeys of buildings remained intact, and the hotter ash preserved wooden household objects such as beds and doors and even food.

Moreover Herculaneum was a wealthier town than Pompeii with an extraordinary density of fine houses, and far more lavish use of coloured marble cladding. The discovery in recent years of some 300 skeletons along the sea shore came as a surprise since it was known that the town itself had been largely evacuated.

Source: Wikipedia.

I found myself fascinated by the ruins of Herculaneum.  Destroyed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius back in 79 A.D, there is still so much that is as it was then.  I was only there for a few hours but it remains as a memory of immensity ... both in time and space.