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

November 18, 2015Leave a comment

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!!

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 495 -🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 Last leg home 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015Leave a comment

🇫🇷So sharing some photos I took from the terraces at the Pompidou Museum which is just a few blocks south of the bombing sites at Place de la Republique.

🇫🇷Almost done with my repacking. Could have taken what I packed for Atlanta because it was warmer in Paris and rainy instead of leaving it behind in wet cool Atlanta. The last day in Conflans near Paris was the only day we needed warm clothes.

🇫🇷 But first a WIP of the different meringues I are from Paris to Normandy and back. Yummmmm
🇫🇷My favorite snack while in France. No idea how many meringues I ate while in France. I should have counted. Enough for a diabetic coma when u add in the wine we drank like water. Ps no hangover. Supposedly the lack of sulphate a makes all the difference.

🇫🇷 From the Eiffel Tower our view was rain rain and more rain but those preordered tickets worked like a charm.

🇫🇷Straight to the head of the blocks long admission line for a quick zip up the tower where it actually had the gall to rain on us!!😢

🇫🇷The tracadero. Still Gray and rainy.

🇫🇷L’ecole militaire. No sun insight.

🇫🇷Saturday at the Pompidou the views were amazing. The sun was finally out!!! So was the art.

🇫🇷Eiffel Tower on the left far far away.

🇫🇷My favorite. Montmartre and Sacre Couer glowing in the morning sun. Yes we finally saw the sun after two days of rain. 👍🏻😊

🇫🇷The plaza in front of the Pompidou

🇫🇷 Lower level. Paris was out doing what Parisians do on a warm sunny fall day. Enjoying the city.
🇫🇷 Bubble fun
🇫🇷 I want one. The kids loved it.

A few more from the fifth floor of the Pompidou.

Interesting square with several kinds of buildings gothic to modern. Quite startling. There were very cool acrobats and a lot of street artists on the square.

The wild assortment of buildings on the square next to the Pompidou.
Awesome art work in the fountain. Looks a lot like Nikki in the gArden a few years back at the Atlanta Botanical Society.

One more drool over the meringues. Isn’t the cat face to adorable. I have to get these painted I think. A little cerulean and yellow ochre will make them even more delicious.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 494 -Vive La France!! 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

November 16, 2015November 16, 20152 Comments

🇫🇷Feel free to use this image. Posting France sketches on my website and will continue til they are done. 🇫🇷

Gussie and Bob in front of pregothic Saint Sauveur Eglise in Les Andelys.

First a Bob joke. We discussed whether or not to do the climb to Chateau Gaillard. Bob told me it was the third worst climb on the trip and many were known not to ever return from it. Lol.

Started in 1220 and finished 100 years later Saint Saveur Eglise was one of the first churches with Gothic elements. A rooster or chanticleer tops the spire as they do most churches in France. They represent the denial of Peter and from the blog myfrenchheaven.com “Thereafter, the kings of France will adopt the cock out of bravado. When meeting their rivals who treated them as roosters, they would say that the cock is a brave and early rising fighter.

The cock is also the bird of light and faith, the enemy of evil and darkness, etc….”

🇫🇷As most of you know we are just back from the best trip ever is Viking from Paris to Normandy and well not quite back because of the bombings. We stayed in Conflans near Paris and disembarked from there instead of a few blocks from the awesome Eiffel Tower. 😒🇫🇷

Leonard Porkchop Zimmermans Happy sticker I stuck on a street post near the Eiffel Tower. He’s blanketing the world with these free stickers. Check him out on Facebook.

🇫🇷A chilly nite in St Germain en Laye section of Paris. 🇫🇷

The day after the bombing Parisians were out doing what they do best enjoying the city.

Richard the Lionhearted’s Chateau Gaillard in Les Andelys. The chateau and the town were built in the lye twelfth century. Of course they had to build the chateau before he permitted them to build the town. Hmm

Les Andelys from the boat. So charming. Did I say that already!!?

Map of Les Andelys borrowed from the Viking bulletin board. It changes with each port of call.

Garden in Conflans
  The rooftops of Conflan From the Chateau Mountjoie. All the chateaus sat above the river to command the river.

The Cpunt of Montjoies tomb in the Conflan church. Too cool. i have read about crusaders tombs but never seen one.

The tomb below the church window. The Viking chefs favorite fromagerie in Conflans and Tetons de Venus. Yes it means nipples of Venus. Wonder if hers were encrusted with mold? Guess they are by now. Lol

More mold encrusted cheeses.

That’s a lot of mold to make that delicious cheese!! 😳 Of course my son Ben said that’s how they make cheese. I guess like everything else in the US ours is sanitized before we see it.

The Viking chefs favorite chocolate shop in Conflans. Lots of deliciousness there.

My sis at the Eiffel Tower on a rainy gloomy day.

Sacre Couer.

Well enough photos for the day. Go forth and book a Viking cruise. They are awesome. There were people on our cruise who had been on six or seven. Some had done the Seine cruise more than once.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret in Atlanta recovering jet lag!

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?!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret who is taking clothes I her suitcase and backpack too!!

Day 478 – finishing up

November 1, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

WIP??? Mermaid Lorelei and Mermaid McKenzie 11×14 super Aquabee tablet

Not sure these are done but at least they have some color now. Getting into travel mode so I used my travel Palette with Winsor Newton colors and my cotman palette with quinacridones.

The background in this painting is cerulean and yellow ochre. I may darken with ultramarine or inathradone to make the mermaids pop.

Remember this is what it looked like?

WIP – Mistress Princess Augusta – 11×14 drawn when I was done with one of the long mermaid poses. Her right arm still has problems. She was not posed so she was moving a lot and I drew her right arm too long. I shortened it with negative painting but now I think it is a smidge too narrow.
TIP: Really love her skirt. Both of these paintings were done wet on wet after watching a how to impressionistic watercolor video on Marcon Chews website http://www.marvinchew.com/ (You will have to scroll down for the video. Could not copy the exact irk for u! 😐) about wet on wet painting.The skirt turned out especially well I think. Done with ultramarine and burnt umber added to a wash of water that I painted on the skirt first. The background was done the same way.