Gazing balls - French 19th-century mercury glass gazing balls, believed to invite luck to a household. Paris metro - Reflections of people on opposite platform in train conductor's guide mirror, Line 9, Marcel Sembat station. Both images were taken for......

Coffret de curiosités, Val d'Loire, France. Click photo to view detail. Three years ago today, Paris Parfait was born. Now, 1,621 posts and hundreds of photographs later, it has evolved into something resembling a virtual curiosity cabinet. As a few readers have suggested, "I never know what I migh...

Stairwell, historic home, Savannah, Georgia. It's been a long, hard climb, but today President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act into law! Hallelujah! This means equal pay for men and women doing the same job. And Lilly Ledbetter herself was by the President's side, as...

Ancient wood and iron decorative shutters over a shopfront, Barcelona, Spain.. Today I was out buying things for my camera (and the new Bruce Springsteen CD Working on a Dream). I've been busy cataloguing photos - copying nearly 4,000 images onto CDs, so I can delete them from my laptop. And before ...

Leather-bound journals and fountain pens to record your journeys - real or imagined - along with binoculars and globes, Barcelona, Spain. Today's armchair travel destination: Morocco! The books: Lulu in Marrakech by Diane Johnson. You may remember Johnson as author of "Le Divorce," on which the movi...

Candlelight, Paris. "An age is called 'dark,' not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it." - novelist James Michener. Ed. note: I've begun moderating comments, due to some readers who apparently subscribe to the Sarah Palin "School of Delusion and Nonsense:" Memo to al...

Changing history: One of two "magic" Obama flags my Canadian friend Gillian bought last month during our whirlwind trip to New York. The flag is perched on an architectural model. I wanted to photograph the Obama flag in various locations around Paris, but it rained. Come back tomorrow for the story...

Stone sculptures with sorrowful faces, Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada de Familia, Barcelona, Spain. "And now, I am not I and the house is not my home." - Federico Garcia Lorca "Murdered and unknown. No forgetfulness gathers them and no remembrance scatters them...they're forgotten in winter's grass on the p...

Open corridor, Mosquée de Paris. Photo by Jordana Shalhoub. "Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind." - Katha Upanishad. Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon about the world's mounting opposition to the ...

Madonna and Child, Cathedral de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. "For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6 Sculptural re...