A dancer in the supermarket.

The first day in Paris.

Hotel Cervantes did get much more praise this morning.
The breakfast is included and often hotels simply make some cheap cereal and muffins available.
To be eaten in recyclable and deposable cups and plastic cutlery.
To start the morning having to eat this kind of breakfast is a sad affair.
Not so in the hotel Cervantes in Paris, France.
The hotel has three stars but their breakfast is of five star quality.
They have real porcelain bowls and plates available of sophisticated design.
The same for cutlery: of real metal and looking like designed by Ferdinand Porsche.
Hotel Cervantes has different kinds of breads available, honey, jam, marmalade, different kinds of cereals, scrambled eggs, fried ham, yoghurts, orange juice, grapefruit juice and fresh fruit.
And this in a restaurant space very well designed served by waitresses in light blue uniforms cleaning the tables and caring customers have enough tea and coffee.
Upstairs is a selection of newspapers available included the beloved Herald Tribune and strategically located in the hotel are TV-screens showing CNN and BBC but in the afternoons mostly the matches of Roland Garros, the tennis tournament currently taking place in Paris are shown which ended for Serena Williams by punishing Belgium Justin Henin.
Who had a tremendous advantage because she recently divorced her husband so the issue of having kids is now resolved as well as all the hassle coming with marriage disturbing lives of tennis players and photographers.
Hotel Cervantes could have added a diamond to their five star breakfasts if they had paid more attention to their customers drinking tea in the morning.
Worldwide most places of hospitality undervalue what means serving a decent cup of tea.
They just make some hot water available and a collection of Lipton teabags and think this will satisfy the tea drinker.
But this is an insult to the serious tea drinker.
This is not the place to explain how a decent pot of tea is made and of what it could be brewed.
Fervent and loyal blog readers fascinated now by a good cup of tea should check out the website of “Le Palais des Thés”.

This first day in Paris was for business meetings.
There is the photo project “The most beautiful people in the world” which has a publisher in Paris for the upcoming book.
The publisher called Delpire Editions.
A most remarkable man called Robert Delpire in charge there, who is a monument in international photography.
And there is the conceptual photography represented by Galerie Baudoin Lebon in Paris.
A fascinating man in charge there called Baudoin Lebon who manages to run a multi million Dollar business all by himself helped by his staff.

One thing is how the business goes.
But more important is to feel privileged to work with people who are the best in the business and of the highest reputation.

Not far from the Hotel Cervantes is a supermarket.
This evening it was visited to get supplies a man needs when staying in a hotel in Paris.
While shopping an extraordinary event happened.

This blog reports on the daily life of a nomadic photographer.
Every event reported is true.
Even when it seems to be rather miraculously.
Which was the case today.

Five years ago when living in Cadaques a series of pictures was made there called Punta Prima.
One of the models coming to Cadaques to collaborate on this series was a fabulous woman from Ivory Coast, Africa, living in Nancy, France, called Dahiri Gabou.



Dahiri Gabou is a professional dancer having her own company creating her own performances.

At the time living was in a spectacular house in Cadaques overlooking the Mediterranean Sea from Avenida del Pi and one night the music was played of Omar Faruk Tekblik.
His album called “Whirling”.
Beautiful Dahiri Gabou grabbed a white sheet and inspired by the music danced on the terrace with the colours of the setting sun painting the sky above the Mediterranean Sea and a scene was seen never ever to forget.
The white sheet and her in harmony with the exotic music and the sky and the sea and the stunned audience and her conviction: very rarely things happen exceeding reality and becoming heavenly.

Shopping in this small supermarket around the corner of the Hotel Cervantes in Paris the incredible and unimaginable happened.
Dahiri Gabou was shopping there also.

We both were stunned.
By life.
And the surprises it likes to offer when flying like a bird.
Dahiri came to Paris to promote her career and is temporarily here.
So is this nomadic photographer.
Now they met and shared happiness.
To continue soon.

How beautiful life can get.

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To learn more about Hotel Cervantes in Paris, click on:
http://www.hotel-cervantes-paris.federal-hotel.com/page_en_1.html

To learn more about a good cup of tea click on:
http://www.palaisdesthes.com/eng/index.cgi

To learn more about the famous French photo book publisher Robert Delpire, click on:
http://www.delpire.fr/

To learn more about the gallery representing the work of Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski click on:
http://www.baudoin-lebon.com/

To learn more about Omar Faruk Tekblik’s CD called “Whirling” click on:
http://www.amazon.com/Whirling-Omar-Faruk-Tekbilek/dp/B0000007XS

To see more pictures of Dahiri Gabou, click on www.szulc.info and go to chapter “Punta Prima”.





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