Category: Usk

Day 517 Walk walk WaLk!!

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 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

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 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?

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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 513 A Little more Rouen

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Rouen brought us Julia Child. On the town square Sits the oldest auberge in France -La Couronnes founded 1345 – where she shook her first bite French cooking – Sole Meunière. The auberge sits on the old town square and still serves the sole for a mere 42 euros but maybe a taste of it could still change the world?
  

La Couronnes menu. Under La Mare on the right you will find the Sole Meunière an astronomical revelation that started Julia Child off on her quest at revolutionized American cooking and produced Mastering the Art of French Cooking as well made her the first tv chef superstar.  

 
The lawyers practice in a Gothic spired cake called the Palais de Justice.

 

  A panorama of the Palais De Justice. Fantastic glowing in the morning light. 

  
Turn left and walk down Rue de Gros Horlage aka the big clock which runs from Notre Dame to the Market Square. The big clock complete with sheep dates from the 1600s when Rouen was a wool capital.

  

Accordion players on the street corners.  They have to pay for a license. In Paris they even have auditions. Not everyone gets to be a street entertainer!

  

The town market square where you can buy candy or flowers or scallops, ride on a carousel, eat at a cafe or visit the site of Joan of Arcs funeral pyre. 

 

More village square. For some reason they stuck a great modern church dedicated to Joan of Arc in the middle of it. 

  

Magnificent old stained glass windows from a church destroyed in World War 2 were installed in Joan of Arcs new church on the market square. 

Thanks for reading.

Margaret having  ahard time being enthused about drawing her everyday life after France. Xxx

Day 503 – Grateful

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To know Paris is as lovely as ever despite those who tried to blow it up. 

 

A random street near the Champs Elusses  
  Les Invalides  

The Eiffel Tower. I do t get tired of looking at it. 

    
Chaps Elysses by rainy nite 

 
In a mob or 

  Or early morning  
Rue d’artois 

 
Quai Greinelle Out our cabins window 

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more French adventures

Margaret xxx ready to head back to Paris

Day 502 – playtime

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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 500 -Sky rockets?

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Old Watermill at Bayeux, France – Bold

  
Ce Tour Eiffel – Vibrant

Mushrooms at Pegasus Bridge, France -? 
 I almost forgot today to post today. Spent the weekend with NO wifi and NO internet. Notice a pattern here?! Is it a sign time to stop posting?!!

   Henry -Vibrant

   

Drew and Henry 

Leeanne and Livia. All vibrant 
 500 days of posting and I only meant to do 50-100 daily posts. And here I am at 500 daily posts. What a journey. No idea when I will stop. 

 

Bold 
 On the I planned what I would post. Two pieces of software- Waterlogue and Photoshop Express. I have them on my iPhone and my iPad. I think they are both FREE which is always a plus.

  Color Bloom

So what is Waterlogue?! You can turn any photo into a watercolor painting. How fun is that. I have seen some on Instagram that are unbelievable. 

  Blotted

I think it does a better job on architecture than people. It seems to leave out features such as an eye. Oops. 

But I just started using it and it has a lot of options I have not figured out yet. 12 different wc styles and then u can darken them or lighten them. Change the size. Fun stuff.  I made a dozen Eiffel towers in seconds. 

  
Blotted and illustration

You can save a “painting” open it and add more colors like I did with this one. Lots of fun. Tomorrow Photoshop express. Also a lot of fun. 

  Roche Guyon a medieval castle updated and used by Rommel during WW 2 to defend the Seine. 
  

 Here’s the original photo. 
Thanks for reading. Go make some watercolors. 

Margaret tired from driving home from the mountains xxx

Day 498 – On the Road Again

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Actually drew most of this while on the bus. Taking notes on what our guide was saying, drawing a sketch of the Bayeux tapestry which was incredible, a view of the French countryside around the D Day landing sites and our lunc in Arrowmanches at the 6 Juin restaurant. Best lunch of the trip. Baguettes to die for and fabulous chicken and of that gateaux. Delicious. 

A few things I learned from our guide: 

The French call the English Channel Le Manche or the Sleeve.  wHo knew?

The trees in France are full of huge balls of mistletoe. When our guide was asked why there was so much she said because in France we keep the mistletoe because we kiss a lot!

Thanks for reading.  Have a great weekend. I am in the mountains at a trout farm!

Margaret xxx 

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 Sketched during our dinner – Could be called “Waiting for the Bill!”

Jean Cocteau’s self portrait

We actually sat below some original Jean Cocteau sketches in a restaurant we ate at called Bouef Sur la Toit.  I have been meaning to share his sketches with you but the wifi on the boat made it impossible. So today seems like a good day to do it.

Beef on the Roof which was a Paris jazz hot spot of the glitterati called  Les Enfants Terribles back in the 20-40s. Coco Channel was a member of this circle as  were Charlie Chaplin, Arturo Rubenstein, Josephine Baker, Maurice Ravel and Maurice Chevalier, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Albert Camus, Igor Stravinsky to name a few..Bouef launched the careers of  singer Juliet Greco and singer/song writer Charles Trennet.

 

The restaurant on Rue des Ecoles…call for reservations…great food and music too!

Whimsical  – Three Men in a Tub?? Notice even the great Cocteau made mistakes!!!

  Mistinguett was one of the most successful French performers of her time 

  Coco Channel I think 

  Another Chanel?

 

  Probably Chanel????

Very rudementary but I like the lines…and the goat!!! Wonder if hes up on the roof too???

 

More about Le Bouef Sur La Toit ripped from the menu!!! 

Day 496 – 🇫🇷🇫🇷 The French remember🇫🇷🇫🇷

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  The Canadian D Day cemetery at Bény Sur Mer. It seems appropriate to post it today with the fighting in Paris. War again in France. Our guides grandfather was a French resistance fighter killed by the SS when he was caught. 

Today I heard a silly journalist on CNN say Parisians were not used to fighting in their streets. If you asked our guide she would tell you they still remember WW2. Bullet holes from WW2 still pock mark the buildings. The church at Ranville was full of bullet holes and huge chunks of it were missing from WW2 fighting.  

🇫🇷 The French remember with three museums to the D Day invasions. This is the Canadian museum at Juno Beach were 5000 Canadians died.

🇫🇷 There’s one at the American invasions site and one at Pegasus Bridges were British paratroopers had to seize a bridge BEFORE the D Day invasion. 

🇫🇷Our guide’s grandmother found bodies of 132 Canadian POWs who were murdered and buried in a mass grave in her yard.  They still find WW2 bodies routinely in Normandy. So yes they remember!! 

Stay tuned for more Frenxh sketches. There are at least 33 of them. 😳

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx