Day 542 – that travel journal

December 25, 2015December 26, 2015Leave a comment

🇫🇷Or breakfast at the Rochester hotel.

A lavish spread. Heaps of croissants and tasty rolls. Several kinds of delicious cheeses, quiche, home made yogurt and the list goes on and on. There was even some kind of baked chicken and veg. 👀

🇫🇷If you didn’t like what they had you could order whatever you wanted. I always ordered an omelet. We were up so early I did’t want to get hungry before we found a place to eat lunch!! And of course since it was a buffet we tried lots of goodies-perhaps only a bite.

🇫🇷This lady sat next to me at breakfast one day. I knew she would not notice me drawing her since she was engrossed in her IPad.

🇫🇷Strathmore mixed media 500 paper, Noodler Konrad pen, platinum carbon black ink, Daniel smith, winsor Newton, and Holbein watercolor.

🇫🇷 I think I left my heart in France when it’s not in Decatur with my grandkids. 😢 I dream about it a lot!!

Merry Christmas🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄

Thanks for reading.

Day 540 – quite a few travel journal pages done

December 23, 2015Leave a comment

Paris Day 1 – Giddy with excitement.

Now but since I am once again traveling will parcel them out and hope I get some more done. Not easy with an adorable three year old grandson “helping” you out. Lol

Like the layout. It evolved. The right page was done first sketched while we waited for our food. L’Artoise is a sweet little restaurant on Rue d’Artois around the corner from our hotel the Rochester. The Yelp reviews were spot on. Food was passable but not memorable.

Debbie and Tucker also cruising on Viking and staying at the Rochester.
The Proprietors were sweet and oh so French. The eggplant entree w a slab of store mozzarella was not great. The chicken an improvement – cow au vin I think.

We were so excited that dog food would have been wonderful lol. We imagined we were Phil who we followed on his adventures on PBS What is Phil eating. A hoot. Phil would not have eaten at L’Artois.
Dessert créme brûlée. Yummy. Then we walked the champs Elysees. I think we walked five miles even with out jet lag.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret off to make Christmas cookies but dreadfully in need of a long winters nap. On the 26th right?! 😊 xxx

Day 537 – Finally

December 22, 2015December 22, 20152 Comments

Figured out the title page for my France travel journal. I filled up two Strathmore 500 mixed Media journals but still have a lot of pages to paint in what I call my coloring book.

The light was bad on the boat for painting so I mostly drew with my Noodler Konrads while I was on board.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret making headway in her journals finally. 😘

Day 521 – Paris to Normandy

December 14, 20154 Comments

Another map of the places we went on our voyage down, or is it UP the Seine River. I guess we went both ways. Lol.

Maps are a lot of fun and make a great memory for a travel journal. You should try one.

First make a list of what u want to include. Sites restaurants places u stayed. Then make a rough draft of the roads or river you traveled. Use your photos to jog your memory. They are a lot of fun and your friends will love them.

I used Carbon platinum ink on strathmore 50o mixed media paper. Love that ink and that paper. Inked with the carbon pen, a Kuretake brush pen for lettering and a Noodler Konrad. The river was inked with the Kuretake for emphasis.

I drew the river with a pencil first but the rest was drawn straight on the paper with the carbon pen.

Colors used cerulean cobalt Inathrodone blue burnt sienna burnt umber yellow ochre cad yellow cad red and alizarin. Oh and hookers green.

Now go make a map!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 520 – A Map of the Marais

December 13, 2015December 13, 2015Leave a comment

I like to draw maps of my trips sometimes. This one is definitely over the top compared to most of the ones I do. I probably have twenty hours in it so far.

This is a WIP. I think it needs something more on the right bottom corner but not sure what. Sooner or later it will come.

This is the walking tour we did of the Marais – about 2.5 miles- when we first got to Paris. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to complete it.

The biggest problem I had doing it was figuring out where we went. I had to use google maps to find the street names that went with my photos of the sites. I knew we started at Place de la Bastille and ended at the Hôtel de Ville. That was about it. I didn’t know the names of the streets and couldn’t remember the names of some of the sites like the Biblioteque.

Bit by bit I found my way thru the Marais so I could draw the streets. The next step was to put the buildings in their proper places. I tried to be accurate with my street layout but sometimes to fit buildings in I had to move the streets a little like around my favorite Merveiulleux de Fred and the oldest buildings in Paris on Francois Miron. Oops.

I also turned quite a few buildings around to face the viewer like Carnavalet and the Jewish école (school) on Francois Miron.

I drew this first with a pencil and then inked it with my Carbon Pen for two reasons – the fine point and the ink. Carbon ink doesn’t smear a lot. All done, all erased successfully with no smears. I noticed something that I did not ink. Took off the lid. Started drawing.

Suddenly I had ink blobs by the river and on La Pause Baubourg. The top of the pen was full of ink. I had ink all over my hands. 😢 I was seriously annoyed. I guess it’s a challenge to fix it right?

Something else to think about.

Sooner or later I will probably paint this or maybe just paint some things like the river.

Bytw I found this very cool map of the Marais on BHV/Marais’ website http://www.bhv.fr/plan-marais/ when I was trying to see what the right side of the BHV looked like. I only had a photo of the domed entrance. Having been in the BHV by the other entrance I knew it was different. Such a plain entrance.

I also found this very cool photo of the BHV there. I had to share it. It’s all decorated for Christmas now with a British theme. Mine was taken during the daytime. How cool is this store. Too of my list for a revisit whe. I get back to Paris.

This is a fast sketch Christine our tour guide in the Marais and a bit of journaling about it.
Thanks for reading. Time to tackle drawing the Seine now.

Margaret xxx

Day 519 – In Search of Aux Merveilleux de Fred in the Marais

December 13, 2015Leave a comment

Aux Merveilleux – each a bit of meringue clothed with whip cream topped with anything from cherry to coconut or chocolate or coffee. Seven flavors! We had been told they were incrediblé! A true taste experience.

We only had time to press our noses against the glass and marvel at the Merveilleux marching in rows upon rows of many colors as we marched toward the Hôtel de Ville. ViTe ViTe!

Just time to snatch a quick photo of the name and address Aux Merveilleux de Fred Rue de Rivoli and Rue de Pont St Louis Phillippe. ViTe ViTe! Here’s the website! http://www.auxmerveilleux.com/home_en/ 

A moment more to longingly gaze into the interior of Aux Merveilleux de Fred. Quelle chandelier! Fantastique! ViTe ViTe! More to see! Time is running out on our tour!

We made it our mission to return and BUY some Merveilleux. Do you know how many Aux Marveilleux de Freds are in Paris alone? Which one had we drooled over? En le Marais! That narrowed it down.

What address? Thanks goodness for the photo with the street address.

TEN metro stops from our HÔtel?

Three blocks past the Hôtel de Ville into the Marais and turn right on what? Pont St Louis Phillipe! Toward the river?

There it was just where we had seen it! On a corner teeming with people.

Would there be any left for us? Did we have time to stand in that line? Mais oui, the line also moved ViTe ViTe!

Our clerk spoke English learned from Saturday morning tv! A miracle. We got a box of six assorted lovelies and off we went! To the Louvre to l’Orangerie, then to the Seine where we enjoyed our Merveilleux as we dreamed above the river.

So why post one more photo of Aux Merveilleux de Fred? The line.

All those people out front.

Never ever eat at a restaurant or, as in this case, a patisserie that does not have a line. The line tells you that what is inside is delicious, worth the wait, worth your money, worth the search for Aux Merveilleux de Fred.

Bytw there’s one in NYC now! Watch out Fred. We may be making a field trip! Christmas in NYC with Aux Merveilleux de Fred?!

One more reason short walk in the Marais tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 517 Walk walk WaLk!!

December 11, 2015December 11, 20152 Comments

Is what you do on a tour…I do wish we could have gone in all these fantastic places. It took us three days to figure out how to get back to the Marais. By then we were out of time to look.

Carnavalet Museum. Such beauty. A statue of Louis XiV the Sun King famous for his lavish lifestyle his mistresses and his palace Versailles. And I thought this was a woman!

Haussmann the designer of the wonderful Paris we all love today asked the city to dedicate Hôtel Carnavalet as home of the Paris city museum.

The Marais is becoming upscale with fancy boutiques and shops lining the quaint narrow streets but the integrity of the old facades must be maintained. An expensive clothing store in an old patisserie. Hmm I think I would rather have a tasty treat from a Patisserie than clothing.

Fantastic carvings over the Guerlain store. The wrought iron is not bad either. No time to sniff the famous perfume!

A random building on a random street corner in le Marais. So man beautiful building …so little time to do more than looks and run. Zip zip zip on we charge to Carnavalet. So much to see no time to linger.

Around the corner from Carnavalet this impressive building was built for the illegitimate daughter of the one of the French kings. I think it’s the museum of locks and keys but I am not sure. Zip zip off we go. Be careful not to trip over gate locks cobblestones slopping sidewalks.

Just in case she forgot a bar sis inter was added to her royal coat of arms…..the diagonal line between the fleur de lis.

Lucky Parisians can rent one of these electric cars for 150 euros a year. They can drove them 150 miles from Paris but no more. Hmm I could not drive to Atlanta in one but….there’s no gas. The solar panels charges them. You reserve one via the Internet were its flagged and held just for you. I think you can also just rent it for one trip. Incredible to think you have access to a car for a mere 150 a year.

We are rounding the corner to the old Jewish quarter. Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 516 Place des Vosges en le Marais

December 9, 2015December 11, 20157 Comments

The Hotel Sully is a royal gateway to Place des Vosges. There was an enormous palace Hotel de Tournelle at Place des Vosges back in the 1500s.
The shop arcade that runs around the park on every side.

It is the first planned park-then known as Park Royale and was built in Paris by Henry IV but the reason its inception was sad.

Henry II who built Tournelle palace died from his wounds in a jousting tournament there. His wife Catherine de Medicis had the palace razed after his death replacing it with this beloved Parisian park. Bytw Catherine knew how to hold a grudge waiting ten years to capture and kill the knight who mortally wounded her husband.

Four fountains splash in the summer while Parisians sunbathe often in their swimming suits. The buildings surrounding the park are different in that they all have the same facade. At their bases is an arcade with shops and apartments over the shops.

Sadly all the Paris fountains were turned off for the winter.

A statue of Louis 13th dominates the center of the park. A large carrousel once commermorated his marriage in the park.

A Parisian water fountain. Yes I drank from it.

Victor Hugo who saved Notre Dame with his Hunchback of Notre Dame lived here on Place des Vosges. You can still visit his abode which is now a museum.

I love the Parisian street lights. No mere pole will do for Paris!! The varieties are infinite.

Tomorrow off to the Jewish quarter of the Marais with more sightseeing on the way.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 514 – bored yet?

December 7, 20152 Comments

A bit more Rouen. How fancy is this for a postcard shop on the Rue de la Gros Horlage? Nothing like that here.

Am art nouveau shop front? No not here either. I wish.

A leaning 700 yr old house. We only had wigwams then. And yes the posts are that crooked leaning at 85 degrees? They straighten the insides and square the floors and Windows but keep the lean in the old houses! No idea how.

A door a couple of houses down from the leaning building. That lean must be so contagious.

Where else would you find this charming old French car parked in front of that awesome green door. Not in America who we need everything brand new.

Bytw we waited for Audrey Hepburn to show up but she never did. We thought it might be her car from Sabrina or Charade.

Turn another corner and you can buy fresh scallops for your dinner.

And some fabulous fresh flowers nearby for your table.

Wandering back to the boat the way I came I decided to change course. One left turn and there was the back of Notre Dame. Not a bad sight to find by accident.

You know they added that spire recently – in the last 100 years – to make it the tallest French cathedral? These things are important! Oui?!

The Normans still guard the bridge but the Quai out boat was moored at. Normandy was given to the fierce Norseman by the French kings back in the 900s to keep them from attacking the rest of France. 5% of the people that live in Normandy still speak Norman. Hmm who knew?
Guess that’s it for Rouen. I do hope to get back to try that sole meunière. What was I thinking not going there for lunch?

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.