Day 492 – what a day

November 14, 20153 Comments

We are leaving without our last day in Paris and our tour of Versailles and the Orsay museum due to maniacs threatening to destroy the worlds most beautiful city and its victims.

Palace at St Germaine en Laye

Instead we stayed in Conflans, took a tour of Conflans and St Germaine en Laye then spent the evening packing like crazy people for our 4:45 am bag pickup and our 6:30 am departure. Suitcases will be thoroughly searched at the De Gaulle and we are glad but it means the check out starts earlier. 😜

Les Bateaux the retirement community in Conflans and then cathedral.

Parisians retire here in riverboats because it’s so inexpensive in Conflans compared to Paris. It’s a sweet little town on the rivers he center of the famous Seine boatmen.

Thanks for reading.

Nite.

Margaret xxx who will post the sketch again soon.

Day 491 – Les Andelys

November 13, 2015November 13, 20153 Comments

An adorable small village on the Seine below Chateau Gaillard, Richard the Lionhearted’s twelfth century stronghold that dominated the river valley. The chateau was completed in two years instead of the normal ten years a castle like this usually took. He did not allow the peasants and workers to build the village of Les Andelys til the chateau was finished.

This is a sketch up the hill from downtown. The castle just dominates the village which is just adorable, full of half timber buildings and cute shops. I think I could live here no problem.

Only going to share a few photos because this wifi continues to be intermittent.

So picturesque. Only a few streets wide.

The cathedral one of the earliest pre gothic churches built between 1150 and 1210.

The chateau from another angle as we passed it on the boat.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 490 – Bayeux Tapestry

November 12, 2015November 12, 2015Leave a comment

I drew this as the bus whisked us to see the Bayeux Tapestry. The scenery is so gorgeous. Looks nothing like America. Charming buildings abound. And Lombardy poplars everywhere.

The Bayeux Tapestry is a most amazing sight. 72 meters long. About 78 yards maybe 30 inches wide. At some point someone wrote numbers for each scene on the top edge with what looks like a magic marker. Really. Not quite as long as a football field. You have to wonder how long it took to stitch it together.

Supposedly it was made in England by monks under the leadership of Bishop Odo who was William the Conqueror’s half brother not by Williams wife Matilda in front of her fire. The stitching, a laid stitch, is an English stitch and not French or Flemish.

Arromanche where we had lunch at 6 Juin Cafe- best meal since La Bouef sur la Toit. Amazing food.

Sorry I can’t post pics because photos were not allowed. It is over 1000 years old after all. Bayeux itself is well worth your time too. Incredibly gorgeous and charming Norman town with many old buildings and an impressive cathedral of course.

Day 489 – Rouen

November 11, 2015November 11, 2015Leave a comment

Walking tour of Rouen today. Fabulous town. So walkable. So charming.

After our two hour tour I spent the afternoon eating at the cafe and sketching. Oh and shopping.

Rouen Market square – The restaurant La Couronne where Julia Child discovered French cooking and the filet of sole meunière.

Over the main door at Notre Dame. The lower part was blocked by the Christmas market which is soon to open.

Rouen Cathedral- Notre-Dame Cathedrale-that Monet painted 28 times.

And here they are.

I stood in the middle of Rue de Gros Horlage sketching the Cathedral. Not the greatest. Done in ten minutes or less. But at least I could imagine that I was with Monet.

The Parliament of Normandy, Palais de Justise the largest civil Gothic edifice in France constructed at end of the Middle Ages. The Court House is gorgeous in the morning light.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret who wishes she could post more photos xxx

Day 488 Wifi problems

November 10, 2015November 10, 2015Leave a comment

Sketching from the boat. More in a minute.

No idea of my posts are making it. But I am trying. So we are now arriving at Vernon after spending the morning in Auvers sur Oise. Lovely little town. You might have heard of it. Van Goghs last town where he died?!

Begins the inn Van Gogh died at. The houses and lane are still there.

The wheat field he painted with the crows is still there. It’s also where he was shot or he shot himself depending on who you believe.

Back on the boat heading to Vernon I discovered that I could draw buildings I like and did them to the sketch making my own towns. The houses are real but maybe not next to each other. Trees are real but not where they were necessarily because we might move down the river before I got done drawing the house and it’s foliage.

The first house at the locks at Mericourt. Those trees were not next to it. Oops. We moved. I wanted to finish the sketch.

Then I tried a one page sketch of the river hillside. Fun drawing but no these houses are not exactly like this in Rolleboise. What a great name, non?!

And the first double page

Day 486 – Off to the Boat

November 9, 2015November 9, 2015Leave a comment

Hmm does not want to go. So strange Sorry for the bad post. I had a nice long one and the network on the boat is crap.

Day 485 – La pause de beaubourg

November 8, 20153 Comments

Le Brasserie La Pause Beaubourg near the Hotel de Ville and Georges Pompidou Contemporary Art Center. Delicious food and wonderful staff. This is the view out their window. We are there again today – so delicious.

Despite being exhausted and walking 7 miles today I drew two sketches when we ate there again after our visit to the Georges Pompidou. I even drank a Coke. Something I rarely do.

La Pause Beaubourg where u can eat in the window in the most charming barrel chairs. Tiny furniture in France unlike supersized everything in America. Always too big pour moi!

La Pause Beaubourg

We did sit resting our aching feet and recooperating before we took off for some Marveilieux au Fred on Rue de Pont St Louis Phillippe three blocks from the Hotel de Ville in the Marais.

Can I say Heaven!? Delicious meringues filled with what might be marshmallow fluff?!

Tiny cakes called Marveilleux that melt in your mouth. Wonderful staff. The young homme who helped us spoke English like an American. When I asked him where he was from he said he learned English from American tv shows.

Beautiful churches abound. This one is interesting because it has a gothic flying buttressed church with a neoclassic facade. Gorgeous lit in the afternoon sun.

Hotel de Ville the crenelated embellished jewel also know as City Hall. Amazing building. This is the Seine River side.

Hotel de Ville from the plaza side.

Even the lights, the metro signs and

the advertising kiosk are amazing in Paris.

Notre Dame across the river from Hotel de Ville was amazing. The building is just incredible. So large! I am sure it’s bigger than a football field.

The Rose Windows and all the stained glass unbelievable. We just sat in awe of quite a while. Well worth getting up early and beating the crowd which stretched across the plaza when we exited the building.

To think that only Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame kept it from falling down in the 183os/. Thank you Victor Hugo and Quasimodo.

Views from the fifth floor of

The Pompidou were worth the admission alone.
Parisians packed the plaza in front enjoying the sunny warm fall day.

The children loved the bubble lady and so did we.

The architecture near the Ljmpidoy was quite eclectic. Gothic to modern in a row.

A few more views from the Pompidou.
Ze Eiffel Tower.
We are off the Viking Pride today and the Louvre. No hopping night club to keep us awake tonite on the quai.

Day 484 – Champs Elysees

November 7, 20152 Comments

What better place to start than this gorgeous avenue of world class shopping.

Despite two hours of sleep on the place we managed to walk five more miles including a rainy after dinner walk to the Arc de Triomphe which is gloriously lit at night. Well worth the walk!!

We ate dinner at L’Artois around the corner from our Hotel on Rue d’Artois. A sweet little place with the nicest owners. A nice way to dip our toes into Paris dining. This will get watercolor soon but not tonight after another six mile jaunt thru the drizzly beautiful Parisian streets.

We did a waking tour of the Marais today. Originally the Jewish district before World War II we know what happened. The Nazis actually rounded up the children at their schools to transport them to the death camps. There are plaques dedicated to them all over the Marais.

Charming Patisseries. This is the Marveilleux de Fred. We hope to go tomorrow. Fabulous cakes. Yum!
One of the oldest buildings in the Marais. A half timber building much more typical of Rouen than Paris which was rebuilt after the third revolution of Les Mis fame with its sweeping boulevards.

Built in the 1400s the buildings were not allowed to be all wood for fear of fire.

It also used to have several royal residences. Place des Vosges is all that remains of the home of Henry 4 and Catherine de Medici. She burned the palace when her husband died from jousting wounds and established this park.

We finished the day at the Eiffel Tour. Our tickets were pre purchased they parisinfo.com. No waiting in the block long line. We went straight in at our appointed time 2 pm.

It is amazing.
The building incredible.

And just enormous. More than 1000 meters tall. 700 HUNDRED TONS of steel!!😳
The view from the Eiffel Tower. Still raining sadly. I would like some photos taken in the sun. Please Thank you!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret hoping in the shower. Xxx

Day 483 – Bill Karp or

November 6, 20152 Comments

Paris. You know we are out with our Paris museum/monument pass riding the metro drawing the city so I offer you a few watercolors of Bill Karp at Best of Augusta painted from my small whiskey painters palette.

These are painted with four colors from the whiskey painters palette. Can u guess which ones?!
ultramarine blue burnt umber for his clothes

Quin coral and yellow ochre. That’s it.

Thanks for reading. I will be drinking some champagne for you!

Margaret in Parisxxx

Day482 Paris

November 5, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

We should be touching down any minute in Paris. Can’t wait to get sketching in France. To stand in the haunts of some of my favorite painters Monet Degas Matisse Van Gogh and Cezanne will be amazing. To visit the Rouen cathedral that Monet painted how many times?! Got to paint it at least once.

In the meantime going to post some of my Inktober sketches that I painted with the palettes I am taking with me.

This one lit up my Instagram feed. And yes I did strip my kitchen floor. Evidently it also striped my fingernails even though I wore gloves but hey my floor looks brand new!!

A quick brush pen sketch of one of the audience members at Best of Augusta. I just loved her look and couldn’t resist sketching her. Sometimes I find the audience members much more entertaining to draw than the bands that are playing. Her skin is burnt sienna with ultramarine blue for shadows. The hair is ultramarine blue and burnt umber.