Grand Doors

One of the most popular images on my pinterest site are the front doors and door knockers that I pop on my Carcassonne board.  There are some truly splendid doors to be found as you wander round the bastide, sometimes I feel rather awkward as I bend down and spend time fiddling and focusing, some activities are best done surreptitiously ! Then there are the  doors that gleam with gloss paint or look highly cherished by the hours of toil that have gone into polishing them and nurturing the ancient wood.  But then there are so many that simply look uncared for, held together by years of 'patching up and making do' and I feel you can tell so much by the appearance of someones front door. There are some doors that you feel you simply couldn't live with they are so devoid of character and charm, yet the battered unloved doors do not offend me in the slightest, I just worry that they will be replaced by something false and hideous.

This doorknocker for example on first glance looks very much like a replica of the red one above but look more closely, see where the ladies rings differ, I wonder why that is ?

I'm a huge advocate of taking time to explore and I try very hard to advise my guests on where to find the small interesting off the beaten track places.  I shudder at the coachloads of visitors who are deposited by the hundreds and spew up the narrow cobbled streets of La Cité clutching their cameras and looking vaguely confused as they get carried aloft by the hordes and swept past the mass produced tourist shops, where is the magical castle they were promised and had read about ? was this all there was to it ? no wonder so many people end up disappointed and negative about their travels, they haven't known where to look.

Some people actually visit La Cité and don't give the bastide a second glance or say they wouldn't dream of visiting in July or August because of the crowds. Of course there are crowds but anyone who has walked over La Vieux Pont on a hot summers evening and watched the moon appear over La Cité and embraced the heat of a hot sultry evening and felt the magic will laugh at the notion.

Finally though I think this chap is one of my favourites, can you see the way the snake has curled and his tail is placed in his mouth ?

I love doors and in particular I love the sentiment 'as one door closes another one opens'

How very true.