2 More Paintings

 These are the last 2 paintings from the Landscapes course, which ended about 2 weeks ago, but I only just finished the homework :-S

2 versions of Sonya With Tree on Mayne Island.

Sometimes it's hard to know when a painting is "done".  I've been futzing with the last one for about  a month.

Some Paintings from my Landscape Course

I just finished Canadian Landscapes 1 at VISA, here are some of my paintings from the course:

Victoria winter (not really winter but the exercise was "snow"):

Shabomeka Sunrise, based on a photo by Elmer Strong:

From an anchorage off of Saturna Island, sailing with Chris:

Mayne Island Christmas (not really snow, but the exercise was "snow"):

Brentwood Bay autumn:

Stormy Weather (copy of a Frederick Varley):

Vernon Summer:

 

Paris Landscapes

Does your phone have a "landscape mode"?

Here are 3 landscapes I took in Paris.

Final Days in Paris

Sunday was an eventful (and exhausting) day for us! 

In the morning we did another walking tour from our "Paris Walking Tours" book.  This one started at the Paris Natural History Museum and the neighbouring Jardin de Plantes.  We didn't go into the museum but I think if we visit Paris again we'll make an effort to.  There are actually 3 or 4 separate museums including the famous Grande Galerie de l'évolution (in the distant background in the photo below) and some massive tropical rainforest greenhouses.  The garden itself is spectacular enough, here is Sonya coveting all the plants.

Later we visited the Pantheon and the neighbouring Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.

The pantheon houses the remains of many famous Frenchies, and you can climb up the dome and get a spectacular view of Paris, however by this time in our trip we're pretty much burned out on climbing stairs.

Here is the view of the Eiffel Tower from the square in front of the Pantheon.

We aborted our walk when it started to downpour, and ducked into a covered patio.

This is the third downpour we've experienced on this trip, and the third time we've escaped into a nearby restaurant.  This was Tour de France day, however, so the consequences were a bit more serious!  Fortunately it cleared up and by the time the cyclists arrived the roads were dry.

We watched the Caravan again (our third caravan).  For some reason there was no swag in the Paris version of the Caravan, which kind of bummed me out, but Sonya was glad because there would be more room in our luggage for shoes on our return trip to Canada.

We went downtown to watch the final tour - they do a big loop at the end of the course (actually 9 loops of the loop) so we figured we could see the cyclists for more than the 20 seconds we saw them on each of the previous 2 stages.  By the time we got downtown it was packed!!! and the police had shut down access to many areas for crowd control.  So this was our view:

Can you spot the yellow jersey?  We watched 2 laps and then had to leave to go to our concert - Vivaldi 4 seasons at the Sainte-Chapelle - spectacular!!!

The next day (Monday) - another walking tour!!!  This one started at the Louvre.

At the start of the tour - the Gothic church - Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois.

The Louvre, crowded as ever.  I can't imagine standing in these kinds of lineups (although it was by total fluke that we ended up with our "skip-the-line" tickets).

The Place de la Concorde, at one end of the Av. des Champs-Élysées, with its Egyptian obelisk.

And at the other end, L'Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile (it is MUCH MUCH bigger than you expect).  You can climb to the top for a spectacular view of Paris, but by this time we're pretty much burned out on climbing stairs.

Later on we were doing some shopping, and when we turned the corner ...  the Finger!!!

A nice way to finish off our day!!!  (You can climb to the top for a spectacular view of Paris ...  etc.)

Tuesday was our last day in Paris!!!  We were flying home Wednesday so had booked a room at an airport hotel Tuesday night.)  So of course we decided to finish off with yet another walking tour!

We walked past the National Assembly, patrolled by a bunch more machine guns.

This is the Hôtel des Invalides, built for the veterans of France's wars.  The rules were very strict - the veterans had to attend mass twice daily - and they had to work sewing uniforms and probably making souvenirs for tourists, so I feel it really should be called the Sweatshop des Invalides.

Have you ever been concerned that your courtyard contains insufficient cannons?

Next on our itinerary, some other landmark, I can't remember what it's called ...

... however it has 1872 stairs, and you can get a spectacular view of Paris!

Here is George Washington, shouting at windmills.

Finally the Freedom Flame, a gift from the USA, but it has become a tribute to Princess Diana, who died in Paris in the tunnel underneath where Sonya is standing in this picture.

Before we took the train to the airport, we took one final walk through the Luxemburg Garden, our favourite garden in Paris, and featured in the latest John Wick movie!  (I watched the beginning of this movie on the flight home, my recommendation is don't bother.)  Here is one of the modern (or contemporary) statues in the garden.

As I write this final blog entry, we are home in Canada, dealing with jet lag, laundry, and a vastly overgrown garden!

Wandering about Paris

For the past couple of days we've mostly wandered about Paris.

(Friday) We took the metro to the Sacré Coeur (Sacred Heart) and climbed the 300 steps to the viewpoint in the dome.  (The cathedral is already on the top of a hill - the highest point in Paris - so we had already climbed 300 steps even before we entered the church!)

Here is Sonya trolling an influencer with Sacré Coeur in the background.

And here are some views from the dome.

Note both the Eiffel Tower and the Finger dominating the view.

Afterwards, lunch!  This is a few blocks from the throngs of tourists around the Sacré Coeur.

We did a bunch of walking and shopping in the afternoon, and we had dinner in the courtyard of the famous Odeon theatre.

The next day (Saturday) we started with a walking tour of our very own neighbourhood.  Who knew it was so famous!  In fact this was our very first view of Paris, emerging from the metro at the Vavin station (our apartment is on Rue Vavin) last Wednesday.  Le Dôme Café and  La Rotonde are very famous cafe's in the history of Paris art and intellectualism, frequented by artists, writers and philosophers too numerous to mention.

We visited the Square Yves Klein, dedicated to Yves Klein who apparently invented the colour Blue.

The Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde in the Jardin des Grands-Explorateurs (near the Luxemburg Gardens).

We visited the Church of Saint Sulpice, which starred in The Da Vinci Code, so now we have to watch the movie.

Inside it's quite spectacular, possibly one of my favourite churches.

In the afternoon I visited the catacombs, and Sonya went shoe shopping.

The catacombs were originally limestone quarries under the city - the limestone was used to build the buildings of Paris.  Back in the day it was a free-for-all, and no one really knew the extent of the mines.  Once they started collapsing the King ordered an inquest and they filled in the quarries, leaving most of the tunnels.  The tour started with a fairly length walk through these tunnels, about 20 metres underground.

When the cemeteries in Paris started to become a health hazard (beer would spoil in 20 minutes in the proximity of a cemetery) they were empties of bodies and the bones moved to the catacombs.  Over 6 million bodies were moved, and the bones stacked in the tunnels.

One the way home we walked through the Montparnasse Cemetery - guess that is dominating the skyline!

Impression Paris

We weren't sure what to expect of Paris, because we've alternately read (and heard) that Paris is one of the most interesting cities to visit, at the same time it's also one of the most over-rated.  And I've read many articles that Europe is currently overrun with many more tourists than usual and France is even considering limiting tourism!

For the most part we haven't experienced that.  Other than a few sites - the Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle and Sacré-Cœur, where the air was so thick with tourists you could hardly breathe - Paris has been great.  There are lots of tourists for sure, but not more than you would expect, and certainly not more than the city can handle.  We haven't been to the Eiffel Tower yet, or the Arc de Triomphe (we're going to cover those in a walking tour on Monday), and I expect the Tour de France finale will be a gong show, but so far the level of tourism in Paris has been a pleasant surprise.

I've also read that the garbage strike is still on and the city is overrun with garbage!  Something we also haven't seen.  According to our guide from our walking tour a couple of days ago, there are two types of garbage service in Paris - municipal and private - and it's the municipal service that's on strike.  I guess our area (and every area we've walked so far) is covered by the private service, because we've seen no issues with garbage at all.

On the topic of garbage, the service doesn't come house-to-house like in North America, rather you drop off your garbage and recycling at communal neighbourhood bins, and then the trucks just pickup from these common bins.

Here is Sonya in Bonneville sorting glass from the rest of our recycling.

Each bin sits on top of a giant cube which is underground, and the truck lifts up the whole contraption by the little metal connectors protruding out the top of the bin.  Fascinating to watch!  (I thought so Sonya wasn't so interested.)

Two other things we haven't experienced are the riots (I haven't read anything in the news recently so they may have dies down for awhile, and I think they never made it into any of the tourist districts anyways) and the famous European Heat Wave.  We had one day in Bonneville where the temp was up to 36C, and many days where it is hot (but not HOT), but here in Paris it is very pleasant.  16 or 17C in the mornings and evenings, and it gets up to the high 20's during the day.

This afternoon (Saturday) I'm going to see the Catacombs (most useful google review - "Have you ever been concerned that your underground visit will have insufficient bones?") and Sonya is going shoe shopping.