The French Connection

The main advantage of exploring the streets of a  city you are visiting for the first time on foot is that you get to see what you would have missed if you were on a double-decker hop-on hop-off  tourist bus. You'd miss the intricate details of doorways, the semi-hidden side gardens, and you'd miss signs like these two I saw while exploring Paris:

This sign was posted outside what I presume to be a travelers' lodging house. I like the 'language' they speak as listed in the second and fourth line. There won't be much of a problem communicating here!

How thoughtful of the proprietors to put up this sign.


As I cannot read French, the two signs in English which I came across were what I could understand...and they tell me so much about the nature of the people who put up these signs. They must be delightfully humorous and considerate people.


The last sign does not need interpretation...there it was, right in the middle of Avenue des Champs-Elysees, a sentiment I personally share:




For more signs, visit Lesley at Signs Signs.

My World Is...where I find wondrous beginnings.

My world is a wide, wide world

wherever I go, whatever I behold

there's where my world is

calling to me

belonging to me

enriching me beyond treasures!

My neighbours are all one

sharing this village

we call our world

sharing that one thread 

that links all minds

a universal consciousness...

Shakespeare knew what I mean.

We may be from all over the world, but our love for nature brings us together.

And we may roam the world, looking for differences in our culture, in our customs, in our way of life...and what do we find? That we are similar in everything that counts...in our humanity, our joys and sorrows, our love for family and friends, our moral values and even our vices!

This is a Buddhist Temple in Auckland! I like the sentiments expressed in the exhibit. Do read it.

We go in search of fascination

of the beauty of mountains and rivers and springs

we find instead, with fascination,

in the people we meet-the beauty within...

                                                                    Rosie

This poem is dedicated to My World Tuesday and Signs

Signs I love to see...in Italy!

 When on the road, sight-seeing in Italy, these are the signs I look out for:

           Gelato Ice-cream in Capri ! 

       

Italian Pizza in Anacapri

                                               Panini and limoncello on the Isle of Capri

   Gelato and panini in Rome                                                 

                                                     And more gelato outside the Vatican City

For more signs elsewhere around the world, go to:

http://signs2.blogspot.com/

Signs of Ancient China...Pictographic Characters

It is rather unusual, but the past seems to be ever so present in Yunnan Province. When we were in Lijiang, we noticed that there were still pictographic characters in use  by the Naxi ethnic minority. These pictorial representations of language had been created a thousand or more years ago. They called it the 'Dongba' script. The creative writing of the Naxi people throughout history had been recorded in the 'Dongba' and the 'Geba' script which was a syllabic writing system. Can you imagine the cave walls covered with poems, legends and myths. Beats having to put up new wall-paper every few years or so!


Although today the Naxi minority people use written and spoken Chinese, I guess it is a matter of pride, and keeping the heritage alive, that 'Dongba' can still be seen such as in the contexts pictured below:



Exhibited - At the entrance to the Lijiang Impressions Show:

I guess the middle character would logically mean fisherman/fishing. He seems to be casting a net.

Messages left for the dieties to read: these messages are written on wishing-windchimes and hung out in the open hoping for the wishes to come true. Somewhat similar to tossing a coin in the fountain.

...some messages were for  good luck and good health for loved ones, some people wished for the gift of a newborn, some were general in nature. This one on the post had been translated into English. It appears to be a sociological sign of the times.

Warning for teenage girls...wash your hair before you go on a date, ( that seems to be the secret for getting pregnant?)

The best I've seen were iconic but a little perplexing. 

Why the scissors? Meat is well-represented. The chicken? Looks like goat, don't you think?

If you want to see more interesting signs, click on Lesley's link below: 

http://signs2.blogspot.com