Curiosity Killed the ... Guest?

I love this shoot found over at Coco+Kelly.  Perfect inspiration for a spooktacular Halloween weekend!

 

Launch!

Whew.  The website is up and running!  Check it out here: www.figstudiopdx.com

Spice Market

The Antibes market had an incredible spice and grain vendor filled with colorful ingredients.  Can you believe this guy has to set this up every morning and take it down every afternoon?

Graphics Preview

We're working on rebranding Fig Studio.  What do you think of the new blog header?  Eventually this will all roll into the new Fig Studio identity, so we'd love your feedback on the graphics and colors we've created.  Thanks!

Villefranche

Spots of color dot the sea lining Villefrance, France. 

Principality of Monaco

We took a day trip from Antibes to Monaco, a place I've wanted to see almost my whole life (thanks to my mom's fascination with Grace Kelly).  Unless you're a high roller, there's little to do than spend the day admiring the ocean view and wonder who parked their Rolls in front of the local McDonalds. 

Beautiful arch greeting us at the Monaco train station

Harbor full of yachts.  I love how they're parked in order of size (or rank, as the case may be!)

View towards the casino, an exquisite structure.

Beautiful Snack

As you know, one of the best parts of traveling the globe is eating your way through new regions and discovering new flavors.  Though cheese (brie in particular) is not new to us, somehow it tastes magical when you're sitting next to a bustling old town square and drinking wine from a nearby village.

After Switzerland...

It looks like we left off in Leukerbad, Switzerland!  We're back home now, but I'm going to get you all up to speed on the remainder of our trip, as promised!

Next Destination: The French Riviera

We were so ready for some warm weather (both caught some flu-like symptoms) and more relaxation.  We found Antibes to be the most relaxation-friendly coastal village with it's beautiful public beaches and quaint cobblestone pedestrian streets. 

 The Picasso Museum's impressive remodel really blew us away.  Beautiful daylighting throughout the space enhanced the artist's work and provided unique vantage points from which to view the village and sea.

 

Entrance framing the sculpture garden at the Picasso Museam

Leukerbad Alpentherme

As a wedding gift, Scott and Heather treated us to a surprise overnight stay at an alpine resort in Leukerbad!  We had an excellent time lounging in the mineral waters and enjoying the dramatic alpine views. 

 Our hotel was surrounded by dramatic cliffs

Our morning view of the mountains and spa from our hotel window

We took a gondola ride to the top of the surrounding cliffs and caught some dramatic view of the valley below.  I think this particular photo looks a little like Oregon!

I'm not sure these photos really do this view justice.  It was incredible.  Squint and you can see the snow-capped Swiss Alpes on the horizon.

Soral, Switzerland

Our good friends Scott and Heather are hosting us for a few days in Soral, Switzerland, a village just outside Geneva.  The quaint little village is a welcome rest from the busy schedule we had in Paris. 

Soral, Switzerland

A farm just down the road from their house

View of the full moon from our host's kitchen window

Dripping Diamonds

We had a great picnic dinner on the Champ de Mars and waited for the first light show of the evening.  The best way to enjoy the tower!

Beautiful Stairs

We took the stairs all the way to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  So worth it.  Go there at sunset and you'll see a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower and the rest of the Paris skyline.   I love this view we shot of our ascent to the top!

A Sunny Day in Versailles

We've lucked out on this trip and have had 10 straight days of sun.  We took the Paris Metro out to Versailles to see some of the incredible interiors we'd only seen in books.  I'll admit that the crowds were a bit overwhelming, but we were able to view all of the best spaces in the Palace. 

We arrived in the morning and caught the bright reflection off of the Palace's gold leaf facade

I was lucky to only catch a few visitor's reflections in The Hall of Mirrors.   The room was packed with people from all over the world.

The most enjoyable part of our visit included a long walk out to Marie Antoinette's private oasis.  She created a sort of fantasy land that reflected the look of her native Austria.  In a strange way, I would liken it to Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.   It was a  place where she wasn't restricted to daily palace regimine and could just be carefree and young.

The Grotto and Music Room

Collection of thatch-roofed buildings on Marie Antoinette's estate.

Pumpkin Harvest

Ordinary Objects of Art

A collection of vintage bottle stops we saw at a family brewery in Bruges. 

Bonjour!

We were in Paris the last few days, but I was unable to get any photos uploaded (sigh).  I'm going to try and put together some posts on our finds tonight!  We're now in Geneva, Switzerland visiting some good friends.  They surprised us with a weekend at a thermal spa so stay tuned for some great Alpine design!