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Like many people I often take pictures of doors. The door to a house seems to say as much about architectural style as it does about life behind scenes. It can be welcoming or forbidding, modest or built to impress.
Here in Provence, where I have been walking around villages dating back hundreds of years, and around the beautiful town of Aix en Provence the mixture of styles and the personal touches are fascinating. Come along and take a look.
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33 comments
Loving your blog, recently discovered! Just back from Cote d'Azure and a whistle stop visit to St. Remy, but I know that we will be back soon! One of my passions with photography are doors and windows and small vignettes like the ones you show, absolutely breathtaking.
Have always wanted to travel to France but as life moves on, I begin to wonder if I ever will.
Thank you so much for your blog, it allows me to glimpse at sites I would other wise never see.
oh man! I want these doors. this old house has (had)11 doors to the outside…I have closed up 2 with stain glass…these are seriously beautiful!
Thanks for sharing those gorgeous photos of doors from one of my favourite places I visited in France, Aix-en-Provence. Just beautiful.
Anne xx
The photo showing several doors and all the terracotta pots is amazing. I so love that look and felt so happy when I saw this one. I've been taking pictures of French style doors in Chicago so I know what you mean about shooting doors. It can be addicting! Thanks so much!
I have a major door fetish!! You are seriously indulging me:).
It's all too beautiful for words.
I love doors too. I like it when the front door is visible from the front – as a way to know how to enter the house, as a statement about what is to come inside. There seems to be big trend in architecture in Atlanta to hide the front door, to tuck it away to the side, or at least not have the front door face the street. I really don't like this at all!
Beautiful images, wonderful inspiration.
– Holly
Doors say so much, and promise access to so many secrets. You can't help but wonder what's happening behind these doors – especially that little blue one in the second photo. Lovely inspiration, Sharon! Thank you.
New and finished homes could never compare with this beauty.
Oooooh….Comment c`est jolie!!!!J`adore vos fotos!!
xxx Maria xxx
I love Provence! Thank you for taking me back there. Beautiful. xo Jenny
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I love the blue door and I am fascinated by the steps in image 7…two sets of steps leading into one house. Everything looks charming and inviting. 🙂
I'm fascinated by doors, as well. I live in South Carolina, about 4 hours from Charleston, which has lovely doors, as well. I've often thought of spending an entire trip just photographing those doors…
–Lee Ann
I just love pictures of dooors!!!
Ma che bello! Chi vive lì non può che essere felice!
Oh, I love looking at doors! These are wonderful. I've always wanted to visit France.
Donna
Have a thing about stairs + doors. Thank you for the lovely images. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
Hi Sharon
Beuatiful images- I love them and like you say they reveal so much.
Helen xx
I AM SO IN LOVEEEEE…with the blues that the french use. I love the color of the door in your second photo. I soooo want to copy that color in my house. ~ SWOONING ~
~ Lisa from Indiana ~
It's art, it's like walking through an Art Museum, absolutely beautiful. So much character and beauty in something simple as doors.
Oh so lovely! I agree, doorways are addictive and so easy to "collect". I love the light blue, aged one…
Thanks for posting all of those doors. They all tell a story and are so interesting. Love the steps that are showing the test of time. The historical architect of France is great.
I, too, have a passion for taking pictures of doors especially when traveling in Europe! Love these door pictures, Sharon!
Just loved the beautiful doors and the stairs..They just look fascinating.
I too love taking pics of doors & windows, yours took me back to my visit to Provence so charming, enjoy your stay.
thanks Barbara Lilian
I love the doors too. What is it about them? The mystery I suppose.
Well, you're definitely on to something, Sharon. In my own experience?….everytime I've painted a doorway (either in France or during my years in Ireland), the picture sold in a FLASH….and I continue getting requests for the picture for years afterwards. Folks love pictures with doors or garden gates.
And, yes, I'll be honest (at least for the seconds it takes me to type this) and admit that, on several occasions when I needed quick-cash (i.e. the truck's engine broke, the dog's scheduled for expensive surgery, AND the hot water-heater died, all in one week?), I've simply coughed up two or three "door pictures". I post the the images on Facebook and the website….and they're sold in a flash.
I've learned that pictures of fully-open doors don't sell nearly as quickly. folks (particularly women, and I do keep a sharp eye on my sales demographics) like partly open doors and gates. Women (at the least the sort I get as clients) invariably tell me a variation on "I hung it in my office, so I can just look at it during the day and imagine I'm going into that garden…".
Makes good sense to me. As therapy goes, looking at a moderately-priced picture is a LOT less expensive than talking to a genuine therapist.
thanks as ever for the predictably (given the source) lovely posting,
David Terry
http://www.davidterryart.com
Could you tell me what kind of vine is growing next to the door in pictures 5 & 6? I often see it in pictures growing on houses in France. I just wonder if it grows in the states. It think is has great fall color? Love these doors. A favorite of mine too!
Dear Debe…..that's "English ivy" (folks have various names for it….but it's the coarse-leaved, heavily-"barked" sort)….the ivy which covered the walls of Lincoln College, Oxford, where I went in the 80's. It does, indeed, turn a very brilliant red in the Fall. A less invasive (and, if you have clapboarding and/or shutters, less damaging) alternative is Virginia Creeper (which I'm always surprised to find in France. they love it, but I spent most of my childhood being forced to cut it down).
—david terry
P.S. I forgot to answer your only direct question. Yes, it DOES indeed grow all too well in america. Just ask the groundskeepers at Harvard, who would like to murder whoever first planted it there.
—-david
David, thanks for the answer. We have English Ivy in Texas & it can drive you crazy. I don't think I have ever seen the "barked" type. I will check. I do have VA creeper growing at my house & my mom thinks it is poison ivy. It is not. Thanks again!
Well this sounds to be a finest place to spend in the vacation, just an amazing stay.