sarahsnowchic

I first fell in love with ceramic mosaics and started a habit out of photographing doorways and archways on a trip to Morocco 6 years ago; a fascination with what i now have come to know as being synonymous with the Andalusian area of Southern Spain.  The Moorish architecture in these parts describes the berber-islamic influence of Northern Africa across parts of Spain and Portugal dating back to medieval times when the Moors were dominant across the Iberian territory also into France and as far as Italy.  The style of an inward-focussed Riad; where the rooms open into an internal atrium space and often into internal courtyards, and fountain-filled gardens, lends itself to beautiful characteristic elements of horseshoe arches, domes and decorative tile work that would become the focus of my photographic exploration.                                       ...

If you arrive in Paris over a long weekend in Summer, your trip-advisor top ten might be thrown into disarray upon finding that many of the attractions are closed on Sundays, Mondays, some Tuesdays.. the first weekend of the month oh and much of August.  But not to despair, where previous mid-winter trips might see you escaping the unfriendly frost losing hours inside the Louvre immersed in anthropological study of the origins of mankind, starting in the basement of ancient civilisation onward to the masterpieces of Italian renaissance making your way into the 19th Century...perhaps never to come up for air except to seek solace from sleet inside lesser known indoor galleries and shopping strips... Paris in Summer is made for exploring and while historical and cultural ventures are a must, incorporating market visits, canal walks and outdoor activities should create a completely different but equally memorable adventure altogether. On this most recent visit, I made it...