Monthly Archives: November 2023

We Are Home…More Blog Posts to Come

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Tuesday, November 28, 2023

We are home after a long 24 hour travel day. We had a fantastic time in France for three months but we were ready to come home.  Now we just need to recover from a 24 hour travel day and a 8 hour time difference.  We are both rather  jet-lagged…and waking up at 3:30 in the morning!  It usually takes at least  a week or so to adjust to the time difference.

I love looking out the window when flying.  

Approaching Calgary. We flew to Calgary in a Dreamliner.  It is a huge plane that holds 320 passengers and the plane was full.

I am horribly behind on my blog, partly because it takes quite a while to do each post and partly because I was not feeling all that great after getting Covid the beginning of November.  I will finish blogging about the last three weeks of our trip, but it may take a while. December is a busy time getting ready for Christmas celebrations.

We Are Home!

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Day 91  Monday, November 27, 2023

We are awake at  6:30 to begin our journey home.  An uber ride takes us to the Denfert- Rochereau train station where we catch a train to the Charles de Gaulle Airport.  The morning commute is a busy time…our first Uber ride cancelled after we waited almost ten minutes, so we ordered a second uber.  Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long for it to arrive.

I was able to carry on a conversation with our driver who is from Tunisia.   I have been learning and practicing French online with Duolingo and it has certainly helped with my vocabulary and grammar.  Being able to converse in French, even imperfect French has been really useful on this trip, and I have really enjoyed it.

There has been a bigger police presence the last week or so, in the metro and on the streets.  Makes me wonder what they know that we don’t.  Police officers in Paris come in all sizes.

It is an interesting morning. In addition to the heightened security, we see three people in need of medical attention this morning, while waiting for our train to the airport. A young man who collapsed on the ground, a woman sitting surrounded by people trying to help her and an older man who was being helped to a seat after he fell.  I wonder if there is something in the air this morning?

We arrive at the airport after a very crowded train ride.  A young lady standing near us, almost faints, and we offer her what help we can.  At the airport there are groups of soldiers patrolling, armed with machine guns!  Maybe it is a good thing that we are going home?

This sign speaks to me…I’ll never forget Paris either.

It is a wet rainy day.

I do enyy Bob his ability to fall asleep almost anywhere.  After a bit of a wait at the airport…

We are on the plane and starting the journey home.

Good bye France. Good bye Paris.  À bientôt.

I love looking out the window on a plane…

it is so strange seeing the world from this viewpoint. We land in Edmonton just as the sun is setting. It is good to be home, but I can’t wait to return to Paris…one day soon I hope.

Thank you so much for following along on our trip to France and a special thank you to everyone who took the time to write a comment or two.  I can’t believe it took me over a year to finally finish these posts, but better late than never!
Till next time…

Packing For Home

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Day 90, Sunday, November 26, 2023

My original plan was to attend one or two last figure drawing session today, but the reality is that I am just too tired,  Instead, I stay home and spend the day packing…yes, the whole day!  It shouldn’t be that hard.  All I have to do is put everything that is going home into our suitcases but the reality is that somehow this takes me the whole day!

I had planned on drawing these lovely seed cones that I picked up near our B&B in Cannes, but it never happened.  I am so tempted to take them home but I really don’t want to get in trouble for bringing plant life back into Canada, so, sadly, they go into the garbage.  We spend the evening tidying our apartment and getting everything ready for our early departure tomorrow morning. I am sad to be leaving Paris, but it will be good to be home.  I am just not looking forward to the long travel day tomorrow.

 

 

Boat Ride on the Seine and the Orangerie

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First of all, if you are a subscriber and you are having trouble seeing the photos in yesterday’s post you should be able to click on the “View on Blog” option on the top right side of your email notification, or just type trudymason.com in your browser and you can see it properly there.  No idea why the photos aren’t showing up!  Sorry.

Day 89,  Saturday, November 25, 2023

I am out of the apartment early to go shopping for those conté crayons I promised to get for my friend.  Then I need to meet Bob near the Eiffel Tower for Bob’s birthday boat ride.

We arrived back in Paris on the 16th but other than going to my life drawing sessions I haven’t been out and about very much. Having Covid hit me much harder than Bob, and I have been pretty low energy ever since, so it is nice to wander the streets of Paris at least one more time before we head home. I check out a couple more art stores, but only find a stick or two of conté at each one! I head towards the main Sennelier store, hoping I will find what I need there.  On the way I pass several little galleries and peak in the windows.  I liked these large drawings by Diana Quinby at Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre.  I wonder if I will ever try doing such large drawings? Luckily the Sennelier store has all the conté crayons I need!  Yay!

The Louvre on the other side of the river.  We didn’t even go inside this trip…just too many other things to do and see.

This sculpture is titled The Bird of Peace by Mira Morić.  We could certainly use a lot more peace in our world!

The front of the Musée D’Orsay with posters of the two shows we visited.  I do love this museum…it is big but almost doable in one day, unlike the Louvre, which is sometimes overwhelming.  The Louvre definitely needs several days to even begin to see most of the exhibits.

Even though it is cool today there are lots of people out walking and exercising along the Seine River. There are several group classes taking place as well as people working out individually.

I walk by the entrance to the beautiful Pont Alexandre III, on my way to meet Bob.  I have never walked this route before so I enjoy seeing a bit more of Paris.

I am almost at the boat docks for Bob’s birthday lunch cruise.  It is near the Eiffel Tower.  I arrive before Bob and I am worried that we might be late, as people are already boarding, but all is well.

A selfie as we enjoy a glass of wine before our meal.  

and then a photographer comes by and takes this picture for us. Because this trip is for our 50th wedding anniversary and today is Bob’s birthday we had almost a dozen photos taken of us, while everyone else only had two or three!

Our menu. 

Bob is enjoying his birthday treat!

Bob’s Fondant Beef, onion cream, potatoes with mushrooms and rich jus, and my Glazed salmon steak with red cabbage, black rice and lobster coulis.  Both meals were delicious!

They are still working on restoring Notre dame and the building is covered in scaffolding.

We headed east on the Seine River and see some of the more modern part of Paris before we turn around and head back towards the Eiffel Tower.

Bob’s dessert comes with a sparkler and the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ and lots of clapping.  He definitely enjoys all the attention!

Bob has the Chocolate and vanilla pot with praline crisp and I love my Coconut cream, raspberry and pomegranate coulis with soft almond biscuit.  All our food was delicious.

We purchased this photo as a keepsake. I would have liked to buy a few more photos but they were €20 (about $30) each!We pass the dock near the Eiffel Tower…

and the Statue of Liberty!  Bob was surprised to see this statue but I remembered her from my last trip.

We pass under Le Pont de Bir-Hakeim with its  beautiful decorations before docking.  We both had such a great time and enjoyed seeing Paris from the Seine River.

This map shows our route, the lunch cruise follows the black line on the map. You might have to zoom in a bit, I couldn’t manage to make this image any larger.

Screenshot

After our wonderful luncheon on the Seine we do a bit of exploring. As we walk along the north side of the Seine we see several monuments.  This one is dedicated to the Russian soldiers and officers killed on French soil between 1916 and 1918.

This monument was erected by the school children of the United States.  This link https://www.unjourdeplusaparis.com/en/paris-insolite/detail-insolite-statue-la-fayette shares an interesting, often overlooked detail about this monument, one we did not notice until I was doing a bit of research while writing this post.

As we make our way back towards the Louvre, we stop for a photo of Le Pont Alexandre III.  It really is a magnificent bridge!Jeff Koons gifted his Bouquet Of Tulips to Paris in 2019. I did a bit or research trying to find out a bit more about this sculpture and came across this interesting article. https://www.museemusings.com/blog/jeff-koons-goes-to-paris

Parisien’s love their ‘baskets’ or running shoes.  Seems like everyone wears them now.

Next, we line up to enter the Orangerie to see Monet’s “Water Lilies”.  It is a good thing we have purchased our tickets in advance, because once again, the line up for those who do not have tickets is very long.  Our line was long enough…can you see Bob in his blue coat?

I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is now permissible to take photos inside the Orangerie.  When I visited in 2014 this was strictly prohibited.  

The paintings are enormous, and there are eight of them displayed in two oval rooms designed expressly for this purpose.  Bob is not as enamoured with these paintings as I am.

I was thrilled that there was a Modigliani show downstairs!  Amadeo Modigliani is one of my favourite painters and there were many paintings that I knew and many that were new to me.

I wasn’t feeling well, so we left the Orangerie and walked a bit outside and the fresh air helped.  This is the fountain that Bob took a photo of several days ago…The Fountain of Rivers.  It is extremely ornate.

We decided to walk and see some of the Christmas lights on the Avenue des Champs Élysées before going back to our apartment.

Nearby we see a small stand selling crêpes.  I simply have to have at least one crêpe, before I leave Paris… they are delicious.

It is a bit chilly but the yummy crêpe warms my hands and tummy…now we can go home.

Académie de la Grande Chaumière

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Day 88,  Friday, November 24, 2023.

Rodin’s statue of Balzac is just a couple of blocks from the Académie de la Chaumiere. I wanted to take a photo of this famous statue but I kept forgetting, so I planned on doing it today. Wouldn’t you know it…there are workmen putting scaffolding up and most of the statue is hidden! Guess I’ll have to return one day to take this photo!  I stopped at an art store nearby to get some conté crayons for a friend but they had almost none left!  Darn, there was a good supply when I checked in September.  I guess I should have bought them then.
My favourite spot for drawing, when I get here early enough to claim it, is in the second row on the left side of the room.  You can see the stool I use for a little side table with my blue cup and some of my drawing pencils beside my chair. I also come early so that I can snag one of the two available chairs… they are so much more comfortable than the stools.  Kamelia, the young woman with the long red hair is our lovely model today.These stairs have been worn by countless footsteps, by countless artists over the years since the Académie opened in 1904.  I hope they never renovate and repair these step… I love seeing traces of those who have come before.The bulletin board by the front door lists all the life drawing drop in sessions.  When I was here in 2014 there were more sessions offered, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays there were two sessions back to back…one at noon and one at three o’clock.  I liked attending those days and really enjoyed spending most of the day drawing.  The sessions were also longer, 2 3/4 hours compared to  2 1/2 hours.  The sessions I attend back home are 3 hours long with one 15 minute break…2 1/2 hours flies by very quickly, especially with two 15 minute breaks for the model.  I was told that the hours changed after Covid which is too bad, but hey, I am still drawing in Paris!

Two 10 minute and a 20 minute pose

Three 5 minute poses

A 30 minute pose

And my favourite drawing of the day, the final 30 minute pose.Bob did a bit of exploring today but it was a cool day and he didn’t take very many photos. The Pont Alexandre III is considered the most beautiful bridge in Paris. The glass domed building is the Grand Palais. It was built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition and houses many of Paris’s large scale exhibitions and events.  I haven’t been inside yet, and I don’t suppose we will have time this trip…another trip to Paris is definitely in order!

This sculptural sign is counting down the days until the Paris Olympics…Only 278 more days to go.

We both arrive home about the same time, make dinner and have a quiet evening.  Our trip is coming to its end, we leave for home in just three days!

Musée D’Orsay

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Day 87,  Thursday, November 23, 2023

Today is dedicated to the Musée D’Orsay, one of my favourite museums in Paris. It is in the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens. The museum is in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. So the building itself could be considered as the first “work of art” in the Musee d’Orsay, which displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914. There is a wonderful temporary Vincent Van Gogh exhibit that we really want to see, so we reserved a 12:00 time to enter the exhibit.  That was a wise move as the lineup without reservations is very long, and people are waiting for up to two hours to see the exhibit!  My friend, Ivy,  also told me about the Louis Janmot exhibit which she really loved, so I’m looking forward to seeing that too.

The Musée d’Orsay is a beautiful building, with two enormous clocks. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and  post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Berthe Morisot, Edouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gaugin and Van Gogh.

I think this is my fourth time visiting this fabulous museum and it is wonderful to revisit many of these paintings. There is always something new to notice and appreciate on return visits.  We are a bit early for our entry into the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit so we browse a bit. Here are a few of the main floor paintings.

The Gleaners (1857) by Jean-François Millet

I didn’t remember seeing this painting before, Goustav Courbet’s ‘The Cliff at Etretat After the Storm’,1870 but it caught my eye.  We visited this exact location on the north shore of France earlier in our trip.  I sat and drew this very same cliff!

Goustav Courbet’s, The Origin of the World was daring when it was exhibited in1866 and still draws a crowd and lots of interesting comments. 

At noon we enter the Van Gogh exhibit.

“This exhibition is the first to be devoted to the works produced by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) during the last two months of his life, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. Vincent Van Gogh arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise on May 20th 1890 and died there on July 29th following a suicide attempt. Although the painter only spent a little over two months in Auvers, the period was one of artistic renewal with its own style and development, marked by the psychic tension resulting from his new situation as well as by some of his greatest masterpieces.”  ~Musée d’Orsay website

I found this 12 minute video that has a walk through the exhibition…It takes me right back to our visit.  https://youtu.be/ntW7zadEEl4?si=aXna2cxoHvPw4lr-

Although I knew some of the paintings on exhibit here there were many new ones to discover. Here are some landscapes….

village and farm buildings….

Oh, did I mention that it was very crowded!  Bob kindly sat and waited for me when I needed a bit more time than he did to view the paintings.

In just two months, Vincent Van Gogh produced 74 paintings and 33 drawings.   The exhibition here highlights 40 paintings and 20 drawings.

Drawings of peasants working in the fields.1890

The church at Auvers-sur-Oise  

There were several of Vincent’s sketchbooks on view.  How I wished I could have held these in my hands, turned the pages and explored their contents.

One room held thirteen ‘double square’ paintings which I thought were particularly intriguing.  These paintings were produced in just over a month right before the artist’s death. I have included a close up shot to show the brushwork with each of these.  

I recognized ‘Wheatfield With Crows’ but it was much more impactful in person. I also really appreciated that I was able to stand very close to all the works and really study the brushwork and details…no museum guards came to tell me not to stand so close!

It was crowded but I was able to take my time and spend enough time up close with each painting and drawing.  It was amazing to see so many of van Gogh’s paintings and drawings.

Next we visited the Louis Janmot Exhibit.  It was not nearly as crowded but it was a  wonderful exhibit as well.   I was not familiar with this artist until my friend Ivy told me about this exhibit yesterday when we went for coffee after life drawing.

‘The Poem of the Soul’ is the great life-long project of the artist Louis Janmot in the 19th century. Begun in 1835 and completed in 1881, this ambitious work, consisting of 18 paintings and 16 drawings is accompanied by a poem of more than 2,000 verses. It recounts the journey of a soul on Earth.   This video explains the story behind all the works and walks the viewer through the exhibit.  It is in French but has English subtitles. It is long, almost 38 minutes but quite interesting.    https://youtu.be/yFImBcII72Y?si=oTBIhNgg6eqHP4eX

‘Nightmare’1849-50. The paintings were interesting, and well done but I was really intrigued with the drawings.

Details of some of the large charcoal drawings.  I loved them!

There were also studies that Janmot had made for his larger drawings.  These are particularly interesting as I can almost see the artist’s thinking and working process.

Study of a foot with interesting lighting.We decide it is time to find something to eat.  This restaurant is behind one of the Musées famous clocks but it is quite expensive and has a long line of people waiting for a table.  We do find a little cafeteria and we only have to wait about 15 minutes to get a table.  We are tired and hungry and it is so good to sit and rest for a while.  Museums are wonderful places to visit, but also very tiring.Refreshed, we head up to the top floor to see the permanent collection.  So many famous impressionist and post Impressionist paintings!  Cezanne’s ‘Still Life, Apples and Oranges’ and ‘The Card Players’, Berthe Morisot’s ‘The Cradle’ and ‘ The Dance Class’ by Edgar Degas

Gaugin’s ‘Tahiti Women’, Toulouse- Lautrec’s ‘The Clown Cha-U-Kao’, Van Gogh’s ‘Bedroom In Arles’, and an artist who I was not familiar with, Blanche Derousse’s ‘Two Little Girls’ which is a copy of Van Gogh painting.   VanGogh’s ‘Night Over the Rhone’.  We stood in the exact location where Vincent stood when he painted this. Check out the post here. http://Arles, France…Walking in Van Gogh’s Footsteps

I have always loved Degas’ ‘Little Dancer’ and was pleased to have another visit with her.

I am happy to see Renoir’s ‘Dance at the Moulin de la Galette’ once more…

and of course Edouard Manet’s ‘Luncheon on the Grass’, which caused quite a scandal when it was first exhibited. A nude woman casually lunching with fully dressed men was an affront to audiences’ sense of propriety at the time.  

We peek out a window at the museum and discover that it is pouring rain. We can see the ferris wheel set up in the gardens just outside of the Louvre, across the Seine river.

A view of the main floor of the museum. It is time to go home.  We have been here for over seven hours, and we still didn’t manage to see everything!  I guess we will have to return to Paris someday for another visit.

Académie De La Grande Chaumière and Les Invalides

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Day 86,  Wednesday, November 22, 2023

I have a life drawing session at L’Académie de la Grande Chaumiere and Bob sets off to explore a bit more of Paris.

Today he visits Les Invalides, which was built in 1670 by Louis XIV in order to provide housing and hospital care for wounded soldiers. Today it is a museum, a monument, a mausoleum that contains the tomb of Napoleon and a hospital for war veterans.

This was the tallest building in Paris before the Eiffel Tower was built.  Napoleon’s tomb is located below this golden dome.

Les Invalides is enormous, and was once a city that housed over 4,00 inhabitants.  This arial view gives an idea of its size.

The huge central courtyard, which can be seen in the above photo houses a collection of cannons.This is one of the building entrances that face the central courtyard.  Les Invalides houses huge military museums with thousands of artifacts in its collection.  We visited inside on a previous trip.  It took a whole day to visit the numerous museums dedicated to all things military from ancient to modern times. Today Bob wanders outside, in the gardens and the courtyards.

I spent the afternoon at my beloved Académie de la Chaumiere drawing a lovely model named Inez.  These are five 3 minute poses and one 15 minute.

Three 5 minutes, the portrait was a bit longer but I forgot to mark the time.

Two 20 minute poses

And a 25 minute pose.

I had arranged to meet a friend that I met years ago during my month in Paris.  Ivy met me at the Académie, we drew together and then went for tea at a nearby café. The same café that I visited in 2014!  We had a lovely visit, catching up on the last nine years!
image Finally I headed home where Bob had supper waiting.  Quite a lovely day.

Le Mans, France

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Day 85,  Tuesday, November 21, 2023

We are taking the TGV High speed Train to Le Mans.The train station with all the tracks and overhead electric lines that power the trains.

This link to a short video which shows how fast the countryside was flying by.  The vehicles on the highway are going 130 km an hour and we fly past them!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wt-AzdJG54

We are travelling 282 km an hour!

I thought I should snap a photo of our train.We are in Le Mans.

Just one of the many beautiful buildings in Le Mans.

We decide to wander and see where we end up.  Notre Dame de la Couture dates mostly from the 12th century.

We were the only people visiting the church, which seems even larger inside than it did outside.

The pillars in the church are beautifully decorated.

We don’t really get tired of visiting all these magnificent old churches.  Each one has something different and interesting to see.

So many of the churches we have visited are undergoing restoration of some type, this one is no different.  I think if you are in the restoration business in France there is no shortage of work.

I loved this simple sculpture.

We sat in the sun with a view of the Cathédrale de Saint-Julien de Mans to enjoy our picnic lunch.

This cathedral was built between the eleventh and the fifteenth century in a mixture of architectural styles and has some of the oldest stained glass windows in France still in their original location.There are also many sculptures in this church that retain their original polychrome finish.  We are so used to seeing bare stone sculptures that it is easy to forget that many if not most sculptures were originally painted in realistic colours.  These are some of the most beautiful that we have seen on this trip.

This Madonna and Child was stunning, as were the other polychrome sculptures in this church.

Some of the buildings in town have started to decorate for Christmas.  This one was rather unique!

Another interesting old building…I wonder what the inside looks like? There are cobbled streets everywhere,

There aren’t many people out and about in the old town…we are the only people on the these streets.  It feels strange, like the place is abandoned.

The old town is on high ground and we walk over this road which somehow passes beneath us…a tunnel perhaps?

More very old buildings, but everything is closed…too bad.

We finally see a few other people!

Even this beautiful, ornate merry-go-round is closed!  I love riding merry-go-rides. Too bad I won’t be able to try this one out.

After much searching we find a Paul’s and have some hot chocolate and yummy pastries….only 22 euros, or $32.00 Canadian!!  At least it was all delicious.

We walked past this beautiful variegated holly bush which was very Christmassy on our way to find the Musée de Tessé.We have seen several tree sculptures in different towns by this artist, whose name I have forgotten!  I quite liked them all.

We find the Musée Tessé and are surprised that there is no admission fee.  It isn’t a big museum, but it is just the right size for an afternoon visit.  This museum opened in 1799, and is one of the oldest in France. It has a collection of French, Italian and Flemish paintings from the 14th to the 20th century and a unique space dedicated to ancient Egypt.  Each era has a room dedicated to that period with a nice selection of work…not too overwhelming which suits us well today.

I liked this little portrait by Théodore Gericault…

this tempera on wood painting of Saint Agathe from 1315…

and this terra cotta sculpture of Saint Antoine from the last half of the 17th century.

We make our way to the basement down several flights of stairs to discover an area which has the reconstructed tombs of Nefertari and Sennefer.  The photos with their light reflections do not do this area justice.  It really reminded us of our time in Egypt. We were able to visit the tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens.  This reconstruction is not the same as being in the real tomb but we really enjoyed seeing it all anyways.

These are canopic jars that contained the organs of’Ânkhouahibrê  that were removed from the body in the process of mummification: the lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach.

I thought these bird mummies were interesting.  I have seen cat mummies before but cannot remember seeing any bird mummies.

There are  bronze plaques of the ’24 Hours of Le Mans Race’ winning team’s hand prints set into the sidewalks of Le Mans.

All too soon it is time to catch the train back to Paris.  We didn’t have time to go visit the Le Mans Race museum as it was on the outskirts of town and it would have taken too long to go and visit, but we are happy with our day in Le Mans.

Catching the metro home…the station was very busy!  It has been full day and we are happy to be back home in our Paris apartment.

Life Drawing and Bob’s Paris

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Day 84,   Monday November 20, 2023

I want to attend as many life drawing sessions as I can these last few days in Paris.  I am still feeling quite tired after getting Covid the beginning of the month, so most days I am going to life drawing and then coming straight home.  I don’t have the energy for much else.

I am back at the Grande Chaumière again this afternoon.  Bob and I took the same metro.  I got off at the Vavin stop to go drawing and he continued towards the Place de la Concorde on the north side of the Seine River to do some more exploring.

The session is from 2:30 to 5:00 …only 2 1/2 hours, not the 3 hour sessions I am used to at home.  The time goes by much too quickly.  Today we have a wonderful model named Fanny.

Three 3 minute poses

I tried my Derwent Drawing sanguine pencil, but I didn’t like how it felt on the paper in this sketchbook.  Three 5 minute poses.

Fanny’s poses were naturally graceful.  Two 15 minute poses…

a  20 minute pose…

a 15 minute pose……and a final 30 minute pose.  Fanny was such a great model.  It was a good day!

While I was drawing, Bob explored the north shore near the Champs Élysées.  This photo shows the hoarding which looks like a giant trunk during renovation work on a Louis Vuitton building. How clever!  He saw a lot of the highlights in this area of Paris.

Bob checked out the Christmas tree in a Galeries Lafayette store.  I’m not sure I will have time to go see it for myself, so this photo might just have to do.

The 72′ tall golden tipped Luxor Obelisk on the Place de la Concorde was erected in 1829, on the very spot where Louis XVI was beheaded!  It has now become a symbol of peace and harmony.

The Fountain of Rivers is ornately decorated with mermaids and mermen.  

Jean Dubuffet’s Le Bel Costumé caught Bob’s eye in the Jardin des Tuileries.

This is a long street of shops near the Place Vendome…

with very expensive merchandise!

The original Vendôme Column at the centre of the square was erected by Napoleon I.  It was torn down on 16 May 1871, but it was subsequently re-erected and remains a prominent feature on the square today.

Too bad all these people who are lining up to get into the Louvre don’t know about the side door, where there is usually no line up at all!

The Roue de Paris is a 60-metre tall transportable Ferris wheel, originally installed on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, for the 2000 millennium celebrations. Too bad we didn’t have time to ride on it this trip, although it does look a bit scary.

The Pont Alexandre III is a bridge that spans the Seine in Paris.  The bridge is widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in the city.  It has been classified as a French historic monument since 1975.

We both arrive home in time to make dinner and relax.  Our days in Paris are fast drawing to a close.

Life drawing and Exploring Paris

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Day 83,   Sunday November 19, 2023

I have two life drawing sessions planned for today.  One at the Montmartre Life Drawing Studio in the afternoon and another at an artist’s studio from 5 to 7 pm this evening. Bob goes out exploring while I am drawing.  Today there is some sunshine, and no rain!

The Eiffel Tower is visible on the skyline.

This interesting exterior belongs to Stade Jean-Bouin. The 19,904 capacity stadium is used mostly for rugby, but is also used for American football and association football matches.

Pont Mirabeau was built at the very end of the 19th century and  is adorned with four bronze sculptures representing the City of Paris, Commerce, Navigation, and Abundance.

A clever shot through the tree branches.

Can you take too many photos of this iconic structure?  I don’t think so.I attended sessions with the Montmartre Life Drawing group in September so no problem finding their location even though I was coming from a different starting point.  The first thing I see when I leave the metro is this impressive statue in the centre of a traffic circle.

There is a flea market on the median.

There are lots of interesting items but I don’t have time for more than a quick look.

Next I cross a bridge that goes over the top of the Montmartre cemetery rather than cutting it in half… again no time to go exploring.  Life drawing awaits!  I later read that Nijinsky, Degas & Zola lie in this tree-lined burial ground that opened in 1825.

We have a male model for the afternoon, Guiseppé.  We start with five two minute poses

followed by three five minute and a 10 minute poseA 25 minute pose…

and a 15 minute one,

then we end the session with a couple 10 minute poses.  Guiseppé was an excellent model, and fun to draw.

During the break I was checking out Google maps to make sure I could find the second session and I discovered that I had no internet!  Panic!!  A very kind young lady lent me her phone so I could write down some instructions, but I was worried about being able to find the next life drawing location.  Luckily when I was ready to go to the evening session the internet was back!  I was very relieved that I didn’t have to rely on my hastily drawn map.

Life Drawing Montmartre posts on their Instagram page…Here I am!

Screenshot

The second session was at the photographer J R Franco’s studio/apartment.  These two photos are from his instagram site.  You can just barely see part of my knee and sketchbook in the bottom right corner of this one…

and the top of my grey head I this one.  

We started with two 5 and one 10 minute pose of our lovely female model…seems I forgot to note her name.  I like having that information in my sketchbook.

I loved this 13 minute pose, draped over a couch and chair with her torso hanging in the space between them

It was going to be a session with two models but the male model had to cancel at the last minute, so Jean Robert modelled for us. We started with two 5 minute poses. I concentrated on his face…he had an interesting face.

two 3 minute and one 5 minute pose.  Then we drew both models together in a 10 minute pose,

then one more 10 minute pose.

During the break we had goodies upstairs in a loft area and a tour of Franco’s studio which was also his apartment.

It was a wonderful, full day, and I head home in the dark, but the metro is close by and when I get home Bob has supper waiting!