Back from Sweden...

A very short stay in Gothenburg. It was cold, but the sky was blue and nice most of the time. 

One major reason for my short visit was to go to the concert hall and listen to Marja Inkinen-Engström, a personal friend and who has a number of Paris friends after several visits here. She was the soloist in the Prokofiev violin concerto no. 2. 

I also paid a visit to the local art museum (see also top picture) and could admire some paintings which rather recently have been exposed at the Petit Palais in Paris ... and a lot more including some Rembrandts... 

Well, here are just a number of photos which I'm not commenting. I have already posted several times on Gothenburg, my birth town....

... and some extra pictures with a French touch. 

There will be a break...

I’m back from Sweden. I have a very busy program the coming few weeks, so there will hardly be any regular posting for a while. Also, I have already reported quite a lot on my birth town Gothenburg, so from this latest trip there will only be this duck mother and her 15 (!!!) babies, met in a street. I already published a photo on Facebook a couple of days ago. I should have made a video! The mother decided to leave the street for a little garden. There was a little wall. It took a couple of minutes before the last baby managed the jump – after many tries. Only then the mother decided to continue further into the garden. Can ducks count? 

Well, another little thing... I noticed that the French language sometimes is in use in Sweden. 

Gothenburg

I’m back in Paris after a couple of days in Sweden. I have already posted on Gothenburg (Göteborg), where I spent my first 25 years, but I thought I could again say a few words and show you some more photos.

The name Gothenburg refers of course to the Goths. The city is situated on the west coast of “Götaland”, the probable origin of the Goths. (We should perhaps remember that what is referred to as “Gothic Architecture” originally was a pejorative description created by the Renaissance people (Vasari…).)

The city with some 800.000 inhabitants – suburbs included - is the home of Volvo, SKF (the world’s largest bearing manufacturer), was until the 1970’s world leader in shipbuilding and is the major Nordic commercial port.

The present location of the city dates from the 17^th century after several previous attempts to create a town in the estuary of the Göta River, all destroyed during wars.

The river and the old port where basically only some ferry traffic remains (today’s commercial port activities are now further away) is maybe the major attraction of the city. The former shipyards are today transformed to living quarters, offices, marinas, restaurants …

Maybe a special mention for two ships berthed at the quays:

“Götheborg” is a newly built replica of an original ship which sank in 1745 after its third voyage to China. The present one has also been to China and when it returned in June 2007, it was welcomed by the Chinese President (Hu Jintao), who visited Sweden mainly for this purpose.  

“Viking” is a four-masted steel barque, built in 1906, the biggest sailing ship ever built in Scandinavia. She has been berthed in Gothenburg since the 1950’s and is today hotel, restaurant… 

Some views from the city centre…

… some older areas.

Some views of older ways of commerce…

… and some of more modern ones.

Back in Paris

Back in Paris – at least for a while. Sorry for being absent from blogging for a too long time.

In Sweden, I was too busy to have the opportunity to do some real photographing, but at least here is a proof that I was there.

This is a statue, called “Poseidon”, which you can find in front of the Gothenburg Art Museum (and the Hasselblad Centre). The statue (by Carl Milles) which stands here since 1931 has become something like a symbol of the city.

I wish you a nice weekend!

A week in Sweden

In a nice weather and with beautiful autumn colours, I spent a week in Sweden, Gothenburg (Göteborg), meeting mother, family and friends. (I you wish, you can refer to some previous posts about Gothenburg - 1, 2.)Looking through some albums, I found a nice photo (1930) of my mother with her nine sisters and brothers together with their parents.












I love the 1903 building where my mother lives. There was not much time for strolling around, but I took a walk up to the 17th century fortress, the Skansen Crown (which never served), to have a look over the surroundings. On the way back... ... I dropped into a 19th century University Library building, today nicely equipped, but with the original interior design maintained. I did not want to disturb all the busy students; the photos are just from the entrance.

Final report from Sweden (at least for this time).

Before returning to my normal blogging about Paris, I would like to finish my « report » from my visit in Sweden last week.

Two smaller “events”:

I went to a small village, the place of origin of my mother’s family, some 150 km (90 miles) from Gothenburg (Göteborg), A meeting between cousins had been organized. The place is called Håverud and used to have a now closed paper mill. It’s along a canal called “Dalslands Kanal” connecting a number of small lakes to the biggest Swedish lake (the third largest in Europe), “Vänern”, from where a river (“Göta Älv”) connects to Gothenburg. The canal goes here via a number of locks and an aqueduct and is crossed by a rail and a road bridge. The canal dates from the 1860’s and is today basically used for tourism. Unfortunately the weather was grey and slightly rainy. I managed to make a few shots of the place and the lake late in the evening and of a small steam boat on which we made a tour.
The second “event” was that I assisted in Gothenburg at the yearly carnival parade held on the Walpurgis Night (April 30th) by students of the local Chalmers University of Technology. The parade was preceded by female horse-riding police "forces".
This is a great and popular tradition since almost 100 years. Some 250.000 people assist, which is not bad for a city of about 500.000. It’s all for fun and the parade is there to depict, in a satirical and comic way, the events of the year, internationally, nationally, but also and particularly, locally. As some more general information about Gothenburg, I could mention that it’s Scandinavia’s biggest port, used to be a shipbuilding centre, that it’s the home of Volvo, which originally was created as a subsidiary to an older Gothenburg company, SKF, still number one in the world on (ball) bearing manufacturing. For those who are interested in photography, Gothenburg is the home of the Hasselblad camera. It has today also Scandinavia’s largest university.

Swedish architecture

Back from a short trip to Sweden, I thought I should bring some pictures from there. I have already previously made a post about Gothenburg (Göteborg), my place of birth. This time I wished to concentrate on the city architecture, especially in a part of town, called Vasastaden (the Wasa city).

The majority of the buildings here date from 1870-1910 and it’s obvious that the architects have taken some ideas from the bigger cities on the European Continent and the fashion those days. This was clearly a time when a wealthy part of the population had the means to invest in a convenient housing… more or less at the same time as many “Olsons” were forced to leave the country for a westbound transatlantic trip. This was the city and port from where they left.