We called in on two sets of friends today, journeying through France. The first set have been busy renovating an old and lovely village house in the Corrèze. My eye was caught by a small window above eye level. Just how many squares can you see here? And how thick, exactly, is that wall?
We’re spending so much time travelling and generally not bring near a computer that I’m finding it impossible to read posts at the moment. Sorry. I’ll catch up one day …
We’ve started our journey home. It’s not all bad, because we’re visiting two sets of friends, having a mini-break, and yesterday we drove through a favourite haunt from our days in France: the Gorge du Quillan. It’s characterised by steep and narrow cliff sides, and geometrical peaks reminiscent of fearsome dragon’s teeth. Awful photo – sorry. Moving car, and a phone having a sulk and go-slow. Posting from said phone isn’t helping…
Our last day in Catalonia. Malcolm and I took ourselves off to the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, commonly known as the Museu Blau. It’s in a really new part of town, Diagonal Mar. As the name suggests, it’s a thoughly geometric sort of area. Look.
And many of the museum’s contents are pretty geometric too. These fossils for instance …
… or shells …
… or butterflies & moths …
… or arachnids.
It’s a pretty fine museum. In an interesting area. And not on the tourist circuit. Yet. Recommended.
There’s nothing even a tiny bit geometric in an unctous dark and temptingly tasty Spanish hot chocolate. Luckily the bar where we had one yesterday was able to deliver.
One of my favourite building complexes in the whole world is that of the original Hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona. It sits alongside its more modern successor, a centre of excellence for modern medicine. In its day, when it was first built in the early years of the twentieth century, before the days of the kind of universal health services we now take for granted, it was a wonder. It cared for all comers, and recognised that part of any treatment was access to beautiful spaces, to fresh air and access to nature. And it shows.
I’ve written about it here, and here. So let’s just look at some of its wonders as part of GeometricJanuary.
Alella is a well-heeled little town in the hills, about half way between here and Barcelona. It sits comfortably in productive wine country, and in the 19th century, wealthy landowners – often the aristocracy – either bought plots on which to build, or else knocked down and rebuilt or extended existing properties they already owned. Malcolm and I went to have a look today. A few are still in private ownership, but most have passed into other uses, such as clinics or residential accommodation for those with various disabilities. Come and stroll round town with us – no history lessons – just enjoy the varied, always geometrical and often quirky buildings we found, and plan to research later.
This was the most extravagant of all, and the one we saw first.
We saw ordinary streets too. Like this one …
…and a church, Sant Feliu, in a pleasant square.
… and some geometric plant life …
What town is complete without a sense of humour? The first image isn’t geometrical at all, but I’ll include it anyway. And the second is a road sign that was once geometrical until the tree it was placed on started to grow over it, and the Town Wag took matters in hand.
We liked you a lot, Alella. We’ll be back.
I am looking for an excuse to share images of yesterday evening’s sunset, down on the beach at Premià. And I found it in the views of Barcelona, some 20 km away. Its skyline features suitably geometric buildings, so here’s my square for today.
And here are a few more – unsquared – views, so I can share them with Hammad, of Weekend Sky fame.
It’s not often that we’re down on the beach in January, as the sun is setting. We should do it more often.
Today’s the day I show off Anaïs’ completed birthday cake. However, it looks even less geometric than it did yesterday. Look.
A lot of you guessed what the carcass I showed yesterday was going to be. Becky knew because her mum had made her a similar cake when she became eight.
Today’s been a bit full on, with lunch at a pizza restaurant down at the port with Anaïs’ wider family. No time to think about geometry. So I’ll just include a couple of somewaht geometric shots taken at our table, outside-yet-inside on this balmy January day. I hope I get away with it.
Yesterday, Anaïs was four. This meant that she got crowned at school and got to be Class Queen for the day. Celebrations at home were muted, what with swimming lessons and so on. But on Sunday, she’ll have a party. The centrepiece of course has to be the cake: and for Emily and me, it’s a joint effort. I have made three different sized cakes. Emily has erected them, and chopped them about into a vaguely symmmetrical bell shape. I have just iced the undercoat, and tinkered with a very important prop, bought for £1 in a Ripon charity shop, to be added later. What do you think the cake will represent, once completed? Answers tomorrow, or possibly Sunday.
Yesterday, returning from Ciutadella Park on the tram, we broke our journey at Glòries. This is an area that is being re-invented and opened up to the pedestrian in a big way, though it IS a work in progress. Here’s where you come for the huge flea market that is Mercat dels Encants (The Market of Charms), which is indeed an astonishing place to visit. Hundreds of stalls selling cheap clothing, fabrics, electrical goods, and the fag-end of a thousand house clearances and jumble sales have been re-homed into an astonishing building, the underside of whose roof has been plated with thousands of rectangular mirrors reflecting the teeming activity going on underneath.
Here’s the actual scene:
The roof also reflects the building and excavating and walkway-making going on below.
Or your eyes can look further, and see the distant Sagrada Familia …
… or the much nearer Torre Glòries, which we really need to climb one day to see the views.
An engaging way to spend an hour or two, and once the work on the area has been completed, it’ll be a wonderful addition to the Barcelona experience.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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