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
. 
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
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
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
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
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!!
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!😳
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.
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
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
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 