Thursday 13 November 2014

In the spirit of Tea

With passing years, our readiness for novel tea adventures, our tenacity for sampling new flavours, fragrances and textures is taking a turn for a wanderlust le cuppa!

Somehow, when I think of our progression - generic tea bag convenience, to boiling tea, to sugarless, or mildly sweet, with milk or no-milk brews, to exotic aromas and leaf tea aided by tea brewers & diffusers of many varieties - the journey is akin to our own maturing in life@40s. A stage of life utilising more of the five senses at disposal, a stage that is allowing heightened appreciation of small, tiny (Tea) events in a day, a somewhat amplified consciousness that is allowing appreciation of the mild, the gentle, the tender, the unassuming, the 'hinted'.

Tea - a spirit for the awakened senses :).

and this never told history of Tea in Indian lives just brews my fascination deeper. Read on

http://scroll.in/article/683453/The-glorious-history-of-India's-passion-for-tea,-in-eight-images






http://scroll.in/article/683453/The-glorious-history-of-India's-passion-for-tea,-in-eight-images

Thursday 11 September 2014

An Indian Summer In France : A Home Tour

Many youthful summers, many evenings loitering the local colony parks & lanes, many Autumnal days & nights during Pujo - year on year- were spent together with her. Ritu, didi (my big-sis), me and a gang of some others (who I am missing terribly as I write), had totally inseparable growing-up-together years, replete with escapades, incidents, some accidents, beguiling and widely discussed crushes (at times on the same boy), sharing of beds, food, sarees & clothing, shoes & secrets and just about everything else that early and teen years are romanced for! The perfect pre-20s of our lives which would not be half as memorable or wild without each other.

Cut to 2014, and I write this post today as a commemorative of our French summer soiree, and the last phase of that vacation spent in the absolutely idyllic city of Nantes, located on the Loire river, in the west of France. (In 2004, Time named Nantes as "the most liveable city in Europe").

Ritu (Ritu Bernaerts now) lives here in Nantes, with two lovely daughters Fiona & Ilona, stunningly gentle & genial Nicolas (her husband), and graceful Twix (the first cat I ever tried to love)!

And she lives!  Ritu and Nicolas have built their cherished home in this urban isle, in its untouched 18th century-character-quarters,  known as the Feydeau quarters. Unlike centuries back, the Ile (Isle) Feydeau is today joined to the main town and to the Ile Gloriette where the river Loire freely flowed back then. (Ile Gloriette of today is a grand parking area giving way to a local market on Saturdays, very much a colourful & vibrant dry/wet market of fresh produce, nick-knacks and all variety of essentials). 

The Feydeau quarters are built mainly in limestone, with ornamental faces framing the facades and wrought-iron balconies, inner courtyards and vaulted staircases. The pomp of these houses are classically expressed as they stand white and serene against the centuries-old milieu.

And visualise this! As you enter one such apartment inside these stylish French Quarters, a blast of India surrounds your senses, almost overwhelmingly - a platter full of colours, engravings, wood, textile, art, craft, sheer warmth & radiance and dotted with stories personal, Indian & French ! 

I'll let the pictures speak for it.


Ritu's favourite seat in this theatre:)






Read the story of the Sewing machine, below
Of the many stories contained in this household of treasures this one is my favourite. In Ritu's own words "My Grand mom's USHA sewing machine which I got shipped from India...When one of my French friends saw it she gladly donated her Grand mom's SINGER sewing machine-table lying in her attic for a long time. The machine & the table fitted perfectly!! Indo-French relations you see..."

 



This beautiful piece of art on leather is a collectible from India, handed down from Nicolas' Great-Great-Grand mom

Love those tomato red covers on those couches

 





An inherited piece from Nicolas' Grandmother

   
Carved ornamental faces that frame every doorway and hang over each balcony... surreal !




The centuries old fireplace : heartwarmingly beautiful despite it's purely decorative functionality today

And meet Mr. Twix, the most French of 'em all







India lined on shelves






The story continues :


We learnt that restructuring the historical city for urban living took nearly 20 years (since 1926), especially to fill-in the parts of the rivers Erdre and Loire that flowed round the ile Gloriette. The areas where the river once flowed is today recognisable in the strips of lawn bordered by granite.  

Where the renovation story gets legendary is that the architects forgot that the houses are built on sandy foundations, and years later, as a result the Feydeau quarters don't stand straight ! Standing crooked, unaligned, though later-on reinforced for their stability, built mainly in limestone, the majesty of these houses indicates the importance of the city's former commercial trade status.


Tilting, unaligned gorgeous Feydeau Quarters

The balconies indicate how distinct each floor was; the ground floor was for commercial use only and is dominated by arched windows and reception rooms. Above were the refined & decorated private apartments. 
Ritu's patch of green - a balcony of potted greens, veggies and herbs 
The facade characterised by ornamental faces and wrought-iron balconies
Classic ceilings

Original tiles at the entrance of the Quarters

These cobbled lanes have braved centuries of walking & trampling by people, horses, carriages & cars
Look who we found, lived here! 'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea'

Nantes slave trade port
The opulent life-style in 18th century Nantes was guaranteed by 2 main sources: Africa and America. Ships built and fitted in Nantes ran the triangular trade between France’s number one port at the time, the Guinean coast and the West Indies. The principle was cruelly simple: buy Africans and sell them on for sugarcane to be refined in Nantes. This is how colonial products like coffee, cocoa, pepper, indigo and exotic wood came to be unloaded along the quayside of Quai de La Fosse and île Feydeau. It was here, in particular, that the shipbuilders built up their dynasties, leaving behind magnificent examples of the city's architecture

The isle evokes the extravagant way of life the maritime traders led in the 18th century, when the port of Nantes was the biggest in France and one of the most important in Europe.



All photographs in this post are taken by me & copyrighted to : limegreenwalls.blogspot.com
All Rights Reserved.