Beautiful details in Rouen....

 

The charme of Rouen is hidden in the little and beautiful details: the artistic sign of the next boulanger (shop for artisanal bread), the wall decoarted with shells, the old&magic art-deco decorations.... One feels and sees that Rouen was an important and rich city in the past! In the 16th century the city was important harbour town for products exchange with Brazil.  Victor Hugo was calling the city: city of tausend church towers. A lot of architecture was destroyed during the Second World War bombing. However over 2000 colombage houses are still well preserved.

 

Rouen, the charming and cozy capital of Upper Normandy

 

I am soooo falling for the French province Normandy...and this love is more than something new, I am in love with this part of France since I first passed there:-) Its the unique cocktail of cozy towns, cute villages with lovely restored colombage houses, breathaking coast line rocks and view, yummy seafood and tons of apples, preferably in bottle of cider!

So this year I was very happy to visit the capital of Upper Normandy, the city of Rouen. And was I pleasantly suprised that the big city has still managed to keep a cozy center with fantastic selection of restaurants, bars and local boutiques. The architecture is breathtaking (churches, the cathedrale) and there is an amazing chocolatier at almost every second corner....And last but not least: here you are in cheese&wine paradise:-)

Mushroom autumn walks

 

I love autumn (and not only because it was my birthday last week and I am an October-girl:-)...the amazing colours in nature, the harvest, the fresh apples& pears...and for few years I am enjoying also the mushroom walks:-)) Lets dive into the autumn rainbow with my pictures below! This time I am sharing pictures taken in the forests in the Netherlands and Normandy, France...

The Sofia cathedral Alexander Nevski: colourful mosaics and blue hour

 

With risk to repeat myself I will be showing you some more pictures from the symbol of my home city, Sofia: the cathedral Alexander Nevski. While walking in the city on a sunny day one cant miss the golden domes...The inside is simply breathtaking, however no pictures are allowed. I did though discovered few beautiful details and colourful mosaics at the entrance, which I did photograph for you.

 
The last two pictures are my first attempt for blue-hour-photography. In the minutes after sunset the sky gets incredible blue tones and lots of photogpraphers simply die to take pictures with such a background. I was impressed to see how quick the blue colour changed (about a minute between the two pics below)!

Autumn in the Balkan mountains/ Esen w Stara planina, 2013

 

I have written about the Balkan mountains last autumn after a mind-blowing display of autumn- colours-tour in early November. This year autumn is a bit earlier there and last weekend my friends& myself have enjoyed great  views again. We drove on the famous and spectacular "Podbalkanski" road, which is a 400km stretch between the Balkan mountains chain and the shorter Middle Forest mountain... Below is the communistic monument at peak Buzludha. From there one can see the monument Shipka (on picture number 4)!