After a couple of raw, cloudy days where I also made bad choices in my pursuits, I had a marvelous day today. I had headed downtown thinking I'd go to the Orangerie or the Musee d'Orsay, but there was a gorgeous mist going when I got there, and I couldn't resist painting.

I did three pretty quick ones before lunch time.

After that I spotted a long line to get onto the Orangerie and decided to eat my lunch with a view of the Eiffel Tower instead. I love the multitude of chairs scattered around parks here. Very hospitable.

For dessert I decided to go to Angelina. My sister had told me it is the best got chocolate in Paris. It was worth a short wait to get into the elegant tea room founded in 1903.

I had been wondering for several years if the gloss of memory had elevated the hot chocolate I had in Florence as an exchange student into an unattainable Platonic ideal. But, no. Thankfully. Angelina serves the molten decadence I remember from my youth. What a marvelous find.

I walked on to the Opera and loved the teal dome, so I had to sketch it as well.

When I crossed the street to it, a street musician was playing. I continue to be stunned at how many upright pianos randomly appear on sidewalks in this city.

I visited the Galeries Lafayette department store behind the Opera, which my sister had also recommended. They know how to do department stores in this city.

And finally I walked home the length of the Rue des Martyrs, recommended by my host. A charming old Paris street. I got some amazing bread to go with dinner and ended up with a small detour to buy muesli just opposite Vincent and Theo van Gogh's house. Yep. We're neighbors.

A perfect day.

I've had a busy and social few days with evening visits cutting into my blogging and personal journal time. It's lovely to have some friends to meet up with, however. I had a marvelous dinner with one old high school acquaintance (and more recently friend) and her husband. They took me to their favorite neighborhood reataurant, and it was marvelous. As was the visit.

Anyway, I'm a little behind on posting. Above is one sketch from the Luxembourg Gardens, a favorite spot of my sister who loved here.

I went there Sunday morning after going to St. Sulpice to hear the organ concert that's a standing feature between services. I sang in the choir for years, and that church and its organists played a prominent role in 20th Century music.

Here's a quick sketch I did while listening.

It's been cloudy more often than not lately, which makes for less than ideal art weather. Monday morning was gorgeous, however, and I headed to Notre Dame to paint.

The cherry trees had burst into bloom since I had been there, and I couldn't resist.

I also painted it from the bridge crossing to Ile St. Louis, a view I had noticed while walking the day before. It was fun to stand and paint, using the wide stone parapet as a work table.

This is my favorite part of Paris. I live the neighborhood on and right around these two islands.

After a good morning of work, I treated myself to some marvelous fallafel at L'As du Fallafel in the nearby Marais district, another spot recommended by a friend. It's a tiny hole in the wall, one of my favorite kinds of places, and the fallafel is amazing. I had fun sketching as I sat.

I fell in love yesterday with the Rodin Museum. He chose the building himself and donated all his work to the state. It is a beautiful old hotel that used to house artists and their studios (including Rodin himself), and it is surrounded by a lovely garden, now dotted with sculpture.

I did one watercolor in the garden (I want to go back and do more) and then headed inside to see the collection. I did lots of sketches. I adore Rodin's work, and sketching helps me look closely and remember well.

The collection also included a painting by Edvard Munch of the Thinker in the garden of a German doctor who was a patron to both artists. I love Munch as well and have several books of his work. I had no idea this painting existed and was delighted to come face to face with it.

I ended the day with an hour plus walk along the Seine and a Nutella crepe from a sidewalk stand. The perfect Paris day.

I'm having a little trouble deciding how much sketching I want to so and how much time I want to spend seeing the sights. Yesterday I got out pretty briskly and sketched in the neighborhood since I had to take the cat to a vet appointment at 11:00.

Above is the town hall of the neighborhood I'm in, and it's the building where my hosts got married.

After the vet trip it was quite cloudy, so I went to the Louvre instead. It's overwhelmingly large. I was there for hours, was picky about the paintings I spent time with, and I still didn't quite make it through all of just the Dutch paintings. I'm going to have to do it in chunks.

Above is the page of sketches I did while I was there. I loved seeing the young, cocky, ambitious self portrait of Rembrandt next to the older one just in his regular painting gear and really owning his identity as a painter.

The other sketches are of small oils done by Peder Balke, a Norweigan artist commissioned to follow the footsteps of a previous expedition and paint the landscapes. What a cool job to get! I was charmed by the series. It was a good, if overwhelming, day.

I'm back in Paris and saw off my host family on their trip to America. It was a gorgeous day, and I decided to get out and walk and see some of the sights.

I started by painting the Gare St. Lazare. I found out today that the bus that sails downtown on a Sunday morning is painfully stalled in weekday traffic. So I jumped ship at Gare St. Lazare.

It felt a little silly to tear up in a train station, but I had the poster of Monet's amazing painting of this place on my wall all through middle and high school. It was powerful to be there in person.

After doing the sketch I hopped the Metro downtown and just walked to get my bearings and see the sights. Since I had gone towards Notre Dame last week, I walked down the Champs Élysées this time. It was busy and crowded, so not somewhere I'll revisit often, but fun to see.

I also hadn't seen the Eiffel Tower up close yet, so I found a quieter street and worked my way over.

There was a tiny spring festival going on just at the base, so I dived in to see and came our with a blue polka dot scarf and a little paella.

I walked back away from the tower and towards a metro station that would take me home. I loved seeing all the Parisians out enjoying their parks and public spaces.

After lengthy public transport rides yesterday I decided to stay closer to home and get my bearings in my new neighborhood. It's a lovely place, near both Montmartre and the funky shop neighborhood of Abbesses. I started there, cruising down the Rue Daremont on my way, checking out charcuteries and art stores as I went.

I set up to do my first piece of a corner building covered with vines I'd spotted out with my hosts my first night on France.

Then I walked on, visited the Art Deco church in Abbesses. It has lovely murals and stained glass, as well as the loveliest roll of honor I've ever seen, done in brilliant mosaic.

I wound my way up the hill of Montmartre to the Sacre Coeur and was surprised to find such crowds of tourists. It felt like downtown all of a sudden. That church also had lovely mosaics. I fell for the small, intimate, modern stations of the cross that line the ambulatory.

I finished having lunch at a cafe in a busy square, more for the view and the table to draw at than for the food.

I took a nap, did grocery shopping, and did a smaller circle of the neighborhood before cooling dinner. I now feel quite confident getting myself around the diagonal streets, so different from the grid of Memphis that I'm used to. It's nice to start feeling at home here.

I successfully made it to Chartres the second time. I've remembered this trip how much I enjoy train travel. Unlike plane trips, you show up maybe ten minutes ahead of time, and instead of being trapped in hermetically sealed buildings during layovers, you can just walk outside to sit in the sunshine.

I did the above sketch at Le Mans, and Tours had a gorgeous promenade with a double row of sycamore trees where I spent my half hour there.

Chartres was lovely. I grew up madly in love with gothic cathedrals, thanks to early visits to my mom's school chums (she graduated from the University of Edinburgh). Chartres has the added bonus of many, many intact windows of jewel-like Medieval glass. The deep blues and reds are amazing.

I spent more time as a tourist than as an artist. I pored over each window, trying to decipher the stories frame by frame with the help of two guide books (my totally dorky side).

I also loved the labyrinth set into the stones of the nave. Sadly, it was largely covered with chairs so I couldn't walk the maze, but it was powerful just to stand with my feet on that pilgrage place and, especially at this transition time in my life, think about walking a path that God has laid out for me.

I did finally do a watercolor as well. There's a lovely small garden beside the cathedral, and I'm enjoying formal gardens this trip.

One last night in my room at Azay le Rideau let me sketch it, since it's now much loved spot and something of a haven. I'd forgotten how much I love a slanted ceiling and a skylight.

I also painted the chimney pots at dusk. I don't think I've noticed such literal "pots" as I have on my trip here. Delightful.

So I was supposed to go to Chartres today, but I utterly failed to navigate the public transportation system. I looked up the train schedule on the French rail website, which has been beautifully reliable up until now, hauled my two packs the 20 minute walk to the station, and waited in perfect solitude for a train that never appeared.

Apparently the train website gives bus connections too, so somewhere (not at the train station), a bus was leaving that I needed to be on.

I took it as a sign that I was supposed to be enjoying the delightful Hotel de Biencourt, and my bed with both sun and moonbeams, for one more night. I had been sad to leave, so I'm quite happy for one more night.

I also celebrated by eating lunch from the marvelous patisserie one more time (though I may run get dinner there as well). I had a marvelous quiche and then this lovely tart.

I painted it as well, since I can't actually take it with me. That's it at the top of this post.

Her's a chocolate tart I had several days ago. Everything I've tried has been marvelous.

So tomorrow I'll try again for Chartres, but today I'm happily enjoying the sunbeam from the skylight over my bed.

I walked out from Azay le Rideau yesterday to visit a chateau garden. It was maybe three miles out there, which was good for burning off all the marvelous food I've been eating. It was a slightly less than pleasant walk, however. There was no shoulder on the road whatsoever. Pedestrians get great respect in towns here, but this road, at least, did not offer a good space for them.

It felt great to stretch my legs, however, and the gardens were fun. The French don't seem to have the robust topiary I'm used to in English gardens. I'd hoped to paint some of those funky shapes. The gardens do reflect the long history of delicate, courtly French art, which makes sense now that I think of it. And I found a high enough viewpoint to get some good pattern in my composition.

It was chilly and kind of late, so I only did one. Here are another couple of photos of the garden.

I loved that they had a garden of dance.