LAPC #204: Doors/doorways

Oh, Sylvia, this is a very, very difficult challenge for me, not because I don’t have any door photos, but because I have hundreds, having participated in Norm’s, now Dan’s, Thursday Doors challenge for years. I guess trying to choose is partly why it’s called a challenge. 🙂 I’m going with an eclectic gallery, starting with a church door from Philadelphia, a city full of interesting doors.

Then there are ancient doors that are difficult to reach on purpose! This is Montezuma Castle in Arizona. Coming home late? Be sure someone leaves the ladder out for you!

This French crypt has a rather wonderful door but as it’s ajar, I hope no one’s gotten out. Reminds me of the old joke of “When isn’t a door a door?” “When it’s ajar.” 🙂

Then there are moving pizza doors,

unique Colmar doors,

fancy furniture doors,

doors that might be a bit difficult to access,

doors that don’t even get noticed, and

details that make the door.

If you really enjoy doors, you should join Dan’s Thursday Doors, started and formerly hosted by Norm up in Canada, eh? Click on the highlighted link to find the entries for this last week and check in with Dan on Thursday at midnight EST or later to see his doors and link your entry. It’s lots of fun but very addictive!!

Thursday Doors…un trio Français

Due to my lack of good tagging, I’m not sure where in northeastern France this church door was located but who cares? It looks heavenly anywhere.

We stopped the car for this shot so I couldn’t do anything about the angle of the sun and its effect on my photo. The door’s hard to see but the rest looks pretty good.

We spotted this establishment on our way back from our wonderful day at a stage of the 2014 Tour de France, a stage that ended on the heart-taxing, back-breaking steepness of La Planche des Belles Filles. Imagine cycling at professional speed for 150 kilometers or so, then going steadily uphill for about 7k only to face a short section of 22-28 degrees where you need to be pushing hard to win the stage! It was hard enough walking all the distance. We noticed this bar-restaurant particularly because Bruno is our brother-in-law’s name. On a nice day it would be fun to sit outside eating and drinking.

A folk etymology, in contrast, holds that the mountain took its name from the time of the Thirty Years’ War. According to legend, young women from Plancher-les-Mines fled into the mountains to escape Swedish mercenaries as they feared being raped and massacred. Rather than surrender, they decided to commit suicide and jumped into a lake far below. One of the soldiers then took a board on which, with his dagger, he engraved an epitaph for the “beautiful girls”. A wooden statue, created by a local artist, is a reminder of the legend. Wikipedia

Very early tomorrow morning we’ll be out in the dark heading for California and our new grandson (and our daughter and son-in-law too naturally.) I’m not sure whether I’ll be posting or not but if not, you’ll know why not. 🙂

Thursday Doors 4/21/22

Thursday doors…pink

In my continuing quest to combine challenges into one daily post, I’ve managed to come up with some doors that have some sort of pink to them. Trust me, probably won’t happen again this month, although I have lots of archives left to troll. Today we’re traveling to France, which I wish I were actually doing but there’s this little pandemic stuff going on. So tighten your virtual seatbelts and lets fly.

No actual pink doors, but plenty of pink paint or stone. Enjoy.

Have to say that as much as I enjoy a good door, I love good shutters just as much!

for Thursday Doors 4.15.21 and Life in Colour: pink

Thursday doors…French unique

While archive diving for this week, I realized I didn’t really get too many door photos during my last (2019) visit to France. But I did find at least a couple that aren’t the usual run-of-the-mill doors. This first one, while not a great photo, is a door to something you probably haven’t seen: a walk-up egg automat. You can see the egg cartons filled with organic eggs and on the left a list of prices, 2-3 Euros, and a description of the eggs. Put in your money and take your eggs. No refrigeration either.

The unique thing about this door as well as the shutters is that there’s nothing behind any of them, like a movie set on the second and third floors. However in Europe, that would be the first and second floor, the floors above the ground floor.

The yellow door on the left leads to a property à vendre, for sale. The door on the right? Apparently beer at least is involved. The Licence IV sign you see on the wall on the right is the French permit allowing cafes, brasseries, (French restaurants selling simple food), and restaurants to serve alcohol. The official signs are bolted to the walls of the establishments.

Ok, we’ve got eggs and alcohol. Maybe an omelet and a glass of wine? I imagine there’s a pâtisserie nearby where we can get dessert. Gotta go! Are you coming?

for Thursday Doors 1.28.21

Thursday Doors…Let’s get closer

I had to add a bit of light to this photo of a French door because the position and intensity of the sun made it difficult to see the wonderful details. Then I needed to get closer so you could really appreciate them. Have to admit that I’m sorry I missed my yearly trip to France last year. Maybe this year. I’d love to get some more doors to share. In the meanwhile, enjoy this one. And don’t forget to have a bit of fun with today’s date, 1.21.21, which is a palindrome, meaning it reads the same forwards and backwards. Just thought you’d like to know. Getting my math geek on for you, Dan.

for Thursday Doors 1.21.21

Thursday Doors…2020 favorites

I’m usually too lazy to go back and look at all the doors or gates I shared in a year, but I’ve decided to make the effort this year. Of course that creates a new problem: which doors to choose?? I’m going with some favorites from each of the places I usually find doors.

The door that no one really cared about, from the visitor’s center at Saguaro National Park…

Keep on truckin’. From Chicago’s WNDR Museum…

The door to a Wyoming sheepherder’s home…

Found in Pasadena, California…

And, of course, from France…

for Thursday Doors 12.17.20

Thursday doors…a soupçon of French doors

I’m once again trolling the archives of last year’s visit to France for my Thursday Doors entry this week. I’m sad to say there will be no visit this year but I can’t imagine having to wear a mask for all the time it would take to get from the Phoenix airport to the Basel airport–with possibly two stops and all that time in the air! However, with the ease of virtual travel, we can zip over for a few quick stops.

First stop is a favorite spot–Luxeuil-les-Bains. Remember that les bains means the baths and this is one of the places in the area where you can get into hot water and have it be a good thing.

I do love shutters and a balcony filled with flowers. Since many doors open almost right into the street or sidewalk, it would be much nicer to sit up above the crowd.

Thursday doors…une chapelle française

Since I’m unlikely to be visiting France this year, let’s take a look back at my visit last fall and a chapel not far from where my sister-in-law lives. It’s the Chapelle Sainte-Ursule (Esboz) which we drove past many days. But when we finally stopped, the door was locked.

I tried to look up information about it, but there didn’t seem to be any. The Encyclopaedia Britannica has this to say about St. Ursula:

Saint Ursula, (flourished 4th century, Rome; feast day October 21), legendary leader of 11 or 11,000 virgins reputedly martyred at Cologne, now in Germany, by the Huns, 4th-century nomadic invaders of southeastern Europe. The story is based on a 4th- or 5th-century inscription from St. Ursula’s Church, Cologne, stating that an ancient basilica had been restored on the site where some holy virgins were killed. Mentioned again in an 8th- or 9th-century sermon, the number of maidens increased to several thousand, reportedly martyred under the Roman emperor Maximian. In Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda Aurea (1265–66; Golden Legend) Ursula is a British princess who went to Rome accompanied by 11,000 virgins and was killed with them by the Huns on the return from the pilgrimage. The discovery at Cologne in 1155 of an ancient Roman burial ground believed to contain these martyrs’ relics inspired additional legends. Ursula is the patron of the Order of St. Ursula (Ursulines), a congregation of nuns dedicated to educating girls. In the 1969 reform of the Roman Catholic church calendar her feast day was reduced to observances in certain localities.

Here’s a closer look at the door as well as the First World War monument remembering the children of Esboz-Brest “dead for France.” (The town hall building, which you can see at the link, looks similar to the chapel in style only larger.) You’ll find monuments to those who died in WWI and WWII all over France, a somber reminder of the past.

Thursday doors…Lost in translation

This week we have more random French doors, but with a bit of a linguistic twist. The first is the door to a cave. No, not a door to a cave, but to a cave (cahv), French for cellar. Of course it is a bit like a cave, but a cave that houses wine sometimes or, in this case, a variety of spirits for the distillery above. In a very un-American way, there was an entire bottle of whisky with small glasses for tasting and no one there to be sure you didn’t have two samples! Quelle horreur!*

This is a wild boar door. 🙂 Sangliers can cause all sorts of destruction, despite how cute these look on the outside of this small hunting cabin. From experience I can testify that the meat when smoked is delicious!

Thursday doors…French gates

Shelter-in place, self-isolation, and quarantine are all for the body, but mind is free to roam the world, so tighten your seatbelts and put your tray tables in their upright and locked positions. We’re on our way to the Franche-Comté. See that? I made a little rhyme.

As all Thursday Doors peeps know, gates count as doors and that’s the way I’m going today. Enjoy.