colleen

– getting my viola da gamba in january and starting to play this instrument, after 15 years of dreaming about it

– playing the viola in public for the first time, in a church that’s part of a castle at the top of a hill,  in a village called Palmela in Portugal, for the EME Festival

going for the first time to lots of new places that were mind-blowing in very different ways :

– Barcelona and in particular Parque Güell, the perfect combination of man-made architecture and natural elements

– Chicago and its incredible architecture… such a different type of beauty to what can be seen in Europe

– Los Angeles and its vast spaces and vegetation that looked so different to anything i’ve ever seen in my life… also the fact that in France the weather was cold and over there you could wear a t-shirt…

and on my first trip to Japan, i saw things and visited places that i will never forget

– i think the most beautiful and peaceful place in the world is in Japan : the Hasegawa art museum

We were taken there by Moto, our driver on the tour,on our way to Tokyo, and i’m almost scared of talking about that place because if too many people go there the incredibly serene atmosphere will be destroyed

when we arrived there, the sun was shining on the deep blue sea, and everywhere i turned, i felt like i saw the real-life version of ukiyo-e…

the owners and their cat fitted into this place perfectly, i bought a mother-of-pearl box before leaving and the lady gave me a lotus flower and gave us all some hand-made paper…

a perfect afternoon that will stay with me forever

– thanks to Yuko of Mamamilk !, we visited the Ohara temple and pavilion near Kyoto, and that was another amazing experience : stepping into the temple as people were still chanting during a ceremony, and then going to hear the water fountain in the pavilion and trying the rock xylophone, while the sun was slowly setting down and casting shadows on the gardens…

another unforgettable moment

– i fell in love with japanese paper and packaging in general ; i had heard that the japanese were gifted for packaging, but seeing the real thing was something else, and i just felt like buying everything because everything looked so beautiful !

– if i had to choose just one record… Sibylle Baier « Colour green » – a particularly moving record

– if i had to choose just one book … i didn’t read much fiction but this biography of John Coltrane, by Lewis Porter, « John Coltrane : his life and music » was really great and inspiring