Day 415 – Marais

December 9, 2015December 9, 2015Leave a comment

Back to Paris to the Marais. A quick trip on the metro from FDR on the fabled Champs Elysees to Place de la Bastille.

Our tour started at Place de la Bastille where the first French Revolution started on July 14, 1789. There were two more revolutions. La Bastille was an infamous prison before then.

All that is left to mark where la Bastille stood are the red cobblestones.

Off down the Rue de Sainte Antoine. Did you know the street names are posted on the buildings at each corner. You know exactly where you are.

Our first French statue Pierre-Augustine Caron de Beaumarchais was a notable early revolutionary supporting both the American and French Revolution. We owe him for acquiring the rights to Voltaire and publishing it in Germany. Banned in France Voltaire would have been lost to history’s for not for Beaumarchais. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Beaumarchais

Originally a swamp or Marais this was the Jewish section until WW 2. You know how that ended.

It was also the home to many royals before 1600. After the revolution it became a working class neighborhood. The area still has more prevolutionary buildings than the rest of Paris.

Le Nôtre. We drooled over the Patisseries. Did you know you have to have a baker with an advanced degree to use the name?
A fabulous le église aka church in the Marais.

The entrance Hotel de Sully on Saint Antoine.

The courtyard of the Hotel de Sully built in 1634. A mansion for the Duc de Sully superintendent of finances to King Henry IV. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hôtel_de_SullyThe four seasons are carved into the facades on each side.

Enter the hallway to the gardens de Sully.

A panorama of the building. They lived on the second floor.

The formal garden with l’orangerie- similar to a conservatory. French gardens are as formal as they consider English gardens wild and carefree.

From here you have easy access to Place des Vosges, the home of the kings.

More Marais tomorrow. We saw a lot on that tour.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 512 – Rouen

December 5, 2015Leave a comment

The much smaller charming capital of Normandy – William the Conqueror and Rochard the Lionhearted’s French capital city. Smaller than Paris but filled with medieval charm…think of it as an arrondissement sized town.

There are 100s of half timber houses charmingly titling along the streets. Two fabulous gothic cathedrals minutes from each other. It also stretches along the Seine like my beloved Paris. Many live here instead because it’s affordable and there are no mobs of people.

All reasons that drew Monet there from Paris to paint the cathedral 28 times. Living was affordable. The townspeople living around the cathedral let him paint from their house’s windows. Handy in the changing French weather. Our guide said they have three seasons spring fall and a long wet grey season aka winter.

Saint Mc Clou. Maybe two blocks from Notre Dame.

The lacy intricate carvings on these two buildings are just incredible. There are layers of encrustations unique to these buildings. The spires soar to the heavens. Rouen’s Notre Dame spires make it the tallest church in France. During the reformation Protestants tried to destroy the images on the churches facade because they thought Catholics worshipped them as idols. Maybe they did but they are magnificent.

100s of gargoyles twist off the face of St McClou. Such fancy waterspouts. Some seem to climb down the building. Others turn toward heaven.

One of the spires of Notre Dame seen thru a wall of tracery.

Where else can you walk down a street lined with medival half time be houses and see a Gorgeous gothic church peeking at the end?

Tomorrow a little more Rouen.

Thanks for reading

Margaret xxx

Day 508 – Sketching the Smokies

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015Leave a comment

first you better have a good breakfast. We started with some of the best eggs and bacon ever cooked in a restaurant at the Little House of Pancakes in Gatlinburg near our condos.

I got there early and of course I sketched the perfect line up of happy Customers mere feet away from my table.

This is drawn with my brush pen in my Stillman and Birn zeta colored with watercolors.

I always love it when people sit nearby never noticing they are being drawn. These actually look like the couple eating.

Fun drawing.

Thanks for looking.

Day 502 – playtime

November 24, 20151 Comment

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Really like this one of our chef Dimitris favorite Patisserie en Conflans. Evidently you have to have a lot of training to be able t use the name Patisserie and have a special pastry chef on staff.

Our first meal in France at L’ Artois on Rue de l’Artois around the corner from our hotel. The food was ok but the host and hostess were trés charmante as was the restaurant.

The Ranville church and cemetery. Love the colors of the flowers combined with the somber tombstones.

Cathedral en Vernon. Did I say I love all the gothic churches? Pregothic ones too.

One of my favorite was St Mclou in Rouen with Notre Dame that Monet painted 28 times in the background. St Mcclou was smaller and just lovely with all its encrustations.

The front of Saint Mcclou. The Rouen Notre Dame looked very similar to Paris Notre Dame.

Thanks for reading

Margaret xxx

Day 487 – only five miles of walking

November 18, 2015Leave a comment

I found this November 9 post stuck in WordPress land. Evidently the boats wifi never let it be posted.
Quai Grenelle-where our boat docks.

Today. We are pikers. We went on a Seine boat ride instead of chasing all over town. So instead of 9 miles only give. Instead of THIRTEEN stair flights just Trois.

I sat In the lounge of the boat with an actual interesting view of Radio France building and people out walking the Seine on this beautiful fall day. Everybody wears black here which was great for this sketch since it made all the figures show up. Evidently it’s the color for the season. Hmm no red no brown just lots of black with occasional grey. And bright red lipstick. Don’t forget the lipstick.

Our pianist. Mom would love his music. Lots of show tunes. Frank Sinatra. Porgy and Bess. I actually am sitting about five feet from him aS I type. He’s just playing his heart out.

St. Pierre church in Monmartre. A lovely small church next to Sacre Couer. We rode the funicular up the hill to Sacre Couer or it would have been 20 stories today walking. 😳

Of all the sketches today this one is screaming for paint. Maybe tonite.

Here it is outside. A lovely little church that almost got torn down about 100 years ago but the people of Monmartre decided they wanted to keep it.

Sacre Couer next door to St Pierre. Monster sized in comparison. No photos inside. Not allowed. The. We toured the area and back to the ship for lunch.

Then we walked a mile along the quai to out boat tour of the Seine. Gorgeous day for the sail.

The Louvre from the river.

Notre Dame
Incredible bridge named after King Alexander of Russia. Over the top decorations.
The stairs that run down to the bottom of the funicular in Monmartre. I did walk down!😳

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 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

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.

My dog Honey was painted with the Whiskey Painter palette only two colors. Ultramarine blue and burnt umber. Period.

Thanks for reading. Pass me a croissant please!!

Margaret xxx

Day 480 – one day till

November 3, 20152 Comments

Lift off. My suitcase is packed and I have plenty of room for art supplies. When I went to key west I actually needed more sketchbooks. Not this time!!

So why am I taking to sketch with?!! I know u r dying to know!!!

My two small palettes. Been painting with them and they really have all the colors you need. The whiskey painters palette has all the basic Winsor Newton colors plus Daniel Smith Quin coral which I love for skin tones and two ceruleans because I use it A lot!!

The cotman is full of quinacridones and a couple of paints that should be in the Whiskey painters palette the yellow and Thalo blue.
Paint brushes. Taking the good ones since I have room and just in case. Most of them are Isabey sables including the mops but the big sable is my cheap Joes legend which I love. Curious to see how much the Isabeys cost in France the land of their birth. They are made in Brittany and are Charles Reid’s favorite brush. I wouldn’t mind another one or two.

Back up colors in case I run they the ones in the palettes.

Pens loaded mostly with Platinum Carbon Black. Top to bottom Kuretake Brush Pen, Black pitt pen Fine, pentrl brush pen, sepia pitt pen Fine, two Noodler Konrads (one has Deartementis document brown ink in it) Platinum Carbon pen, and two of my favorite pens the Noodler Creaper ahab.

I am taking these with me in case I want to paint as I sketch. I usually paint when I get home because I hate to make my sister Jan wait while I paint. Bad enough that she waits while I sketch.

Lots of ink and cartridges.

Lots of paper. The two hand made sketchbooks have Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro, 3 strathmore mixed media sketchbooks(my current fav) a tablet of Fabriano squarely 149# cold press, some Canson post cards and some Strathmore 500 watercolor cards oh and a stack of accordion folded Stonehenge paper to draw strings of people and maybe a chicken or two on?!