php - access a folder in 'public' directory of laravel

How can I access a folder placed in thepublic directory of my default laravel installation. This question is for both -testing as well aslive purpose.

While Testing-

I am testing on windows using XAMPP's apache http server. I have placed my app's root folder in thehtdocs folder of XAMPP. Thus, when I try to access a folder in public directory,'localhost/myappname/public/blog' it redirects me to'localhost/blog'.

I don't want this behavior. I want it to pick up the'index.php' file present at'localhost/myappname/public/blog/' location. But it doesn't do so.

While Live-

I have my site live on ubuntu with apache http server. When I try to access'mysitename.com/blog' in the firefox, it gives me this error -

Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this 
address in a way that will never complete.
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I have no hint about what's wrong. I have tried spending two days working with laravel's default.htaccess file(inpublic folder) and apachehttpd.conf but still not able to resolve it. Have searched a lot over stackoverflow and google but still no clue about where I am wrong. Please guide me.

Added:

The content of.htaccess file is -

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
    Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>

RewriteEngine On

# Redirect Trailing Slashes...
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]

# Handle Front Controller...
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
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