Somewhere in Egypt

Somewhere in Egypt...
... is my brother, his girlfriend and a friend of theirs. The boat they were supposed to take at Alexandria yesterday never arrived. Now they are driving back to the red sea to cross either to Israel or Jordania. Even if this means he will have to drive all the way back via Turkey and across Europe, once they will be out of Egypt we will breathe.
... are the families of our Egyptian colleagues and friends based in Belgium. Like them we keep following the news hoping for a peaceful solution.
... are our colleagues from our Cairo office and their families.
... a things are changing, hopefully.

Nothing

This week-end I am doing nothing. Nothing at all and I'm very proud of it :)

The world's coolest nationalities

I came across another interesting ranking. This time CNN ranked the 12 coolest countries in the world.
While I'm not really clear about the selection criteria, top 3 is not a surprise:
1) Brazilians
2) Singaporeans
3) Jamaicans
First European country comes in 6 position with Spain.
But the most surprising was Belgium in position 11!

Yep, you read that right: Belgians. You might ask yourself why? Have a look at why CNN placed Belgium in their top 12 coolest countries.

"OK, so it's small, damp and has a grim rep as a haven for European Union bureaucrats and sex offenders. But a nation that has made art forms of beer, chocolate and, yes, finch warbling can't be all bad.

In the past three years, Belgium has been hit by a political crisis that has left it without a government for months on end. In most countries, that would trigger anarchy, looting and offshore piracy. Belgians, however, have nonchalantly been getting on with it."

While many countries are these days fighting for democracy, Belgium is demonstrating that a country may not need a government after all. Scary.

Impressions of Paris

Bridges over the river Seine in the Quartier Latin

Notre-Dame and its gargoyles

Tour Eiffel

Sleeping in the bus

Note: one of those was taken at 6:30am. I let you find out which one.

A day in Paris

After this very early start of the day, I took Wolfram to Saint-Germain-des-Pres for breakfast in one of the cafes. We enjoyed a typical French breakfast with croissant and baguette. Yummy.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the Quartier Latin, Chatelet and le Marais.
The objective was to combine our 2 separate passions: photography for one and shopping for the other. I let you guess who likes what. With the right balance we walked from one site to the other, stopping now and then in a shop or a cafe.
It was a cold day, sometimes rainy, so not so many pictures could be taken. This means we need another weekend in Paris during the Spring, when the sun is shining.
Shopping was disappointing. I couldn't find anything fitting me and my trousers situation is still very critical. Conclusion I need a trip to the US to buy trousers that are long enough.
Walking the streets of Paris and chatting in cafes were probably the best of the day... at least until we arrived at Anahuacalli with its legendary margaritas.

Monet 2010

Monet 2010 -
I have been waiting for it for months now.
I dragged everybody out of bed around 5am this morning to catch a bus shortly after 6am to be at the exhibition at 7am. It was early and cold but totally worth it :)

This exhibition was one of the largest with the most famous paintings from Monet. Despite the crowd (believe it or not 7748 people visited the exhibition that night) I got to see all my favorites and even see some for the first time.
Painting people was not Monet's best but when it came to landscape and reproducing the light and shadows he was really really good. Depending how far you stand from the picture and your angle, the paintings look different; almost like it was living art.
One could believe he was obsessed when painting his series or simply a perfectionist trying to reach perfection and perfectly reproduce the morning light on the London parliament or the cathedral in Rouen.

I wish I could have one at home. I would spend hours looking at it. But first I need to win the lottery big time :)