Europe

butterflies-on-Rue-Paul-Bert

Where to go to channel your inner Parisian – Paris flea market (Marché aux Puces)

What do you imagine when you hear “flea market”? Overpriced tat, hoards of people pushing and shoving, dusty crockery, trestle tables sagging under miscellaneous car boot/jumble sale type stuff, bacon butties and polystyrene cups of tea, furniture with woodworm, broken electrics, old plugs, poor quality “art” and nothing of value OR antiques, furniture worthy of

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Turkey – holiday ideas for outdoor plants, features & colours

Everyday things often seem more appealing and desirable when they’re spotted on holidays. These photos from a holiday in and around Turunç, Turkey are mainly of plant pots, gourds and other outdoor hanging ornaments, ubiquitous features around the Bozburun peninsula but unusual and covetable to me. The use of white on white, white with blue

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bowl-on-Indian-rug

Romanian pottery – 7000-year-old design looking modern today

How is it possible that a form of pottery and its design from up to 7000 years ago can be recreated in the 21st century and seem modern? This Romanian Cucuteni-Trypillia-style dish was made in Cucuteni in 2018 to pottery-making methods and design dating back to somewhere between 5200 BC and 2750 BC. Cucuteni is

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Sicilian ceramic heads with a gruesome past

If I were to play word association linking Sicily with souvenirs, the immediate follow-on would be “heads”. Glazed ceramic heads of a (Moorish) man and a (Sicilian) woman are as everywhere as everywhere means when you’re exaggerating an otherwise valid generalisation. Unsurprisingly, there is a story behind the heads and, equally unsurprisingly, there are variations

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