No, this is not a recap of last years edition of the legendary 24 hour autorace that is being held annually in the French city of Le Mans. But in case you came here for that info, it was won by Toyota drivers Buemi, Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima. There is more to the city than just the yearly craze about an automotive endurance race…

… Sitting quite beautifully next to the Sarthe River it features a medieval old town, City Plantagenêt, which invites you to explore it’s car-free neighborhood, narrow alleyways and to pay a visit to the awe-inspiring Cathedral of Saint Julien. Since this was only a short day trip, this post should give you just a glimpse of what Le Mans also has to offer and that it is actually surprising.

©Nicole Wustmann

All photos did not run through any post-processing. They are straight out of camera JPEGS. 

Well this site is online for a couple of years now but has been been treated poorly by me. Mostly due to lack of time… I'm busy with work. At least that's what I keep telling myself to have an excuse. Maybe the first day of a new decade (yee-ha the Twenties are back) is a perfect occasion to breath some air back into the site and maybe using that Blog feature Format.com offers. 

I've decided to spend NYE rather alone after the past few months have been pretty rough. Not only for me but in particular for people who I was very close with. 

Apparently an old pal from school who I maintain a friendship with since first grade decided to visit me in Potsdam over NYE. So why sitting alone in front of a TV set when you can watch movies together with your buddy like in the old days? The years changed precisely at midnight, we went out to a bar and slept at 3AM. Maybe in your late 30's you don't get wasted that easy anymore so we got up at 9, had breakfast and took a walk through that UNESCO world heritage site I'm living next to: Prussian Palaces And Gardens / Preußische Schlösser & Gärten. It's a collection of wonderful old palaces, with the most famous "Sanssouci Palace". But my favroute is neither this nor the spectacular New Palace (Neues Palais). 

Neues Palais / New Palace

It's rather the Orangery Palace (Orangerie)… It sits slightly elevated and is first and foremost a giant plant hall which even today serves as winter storage for frost-sensitive tubbed plants. But you can also find a Gallery with 19th-century copies of Raphael paintings. 

While these photos might not transmit the dimension of this palace (you can Google those) they rather show some details with light and shadow play. They are not edited in any way and have been captured in camera with my Fujifilm X-T3 and a B&W "film recipe" created by Ritchie Roesch from Fuji X Weekly. Pure JPEG ;-)