What's the colour code for a Moleskine sketchbook?

Friday - early evening on the terrasse en plein air at the Restaurant la Gare, Paris

8" x 10", pen and sepia ink in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Travels with a Sketchbook in...... has had a major makeover following introduction of The Blogger Template Designer. It now has a pages bar at the top and a whole new colour scheme.

It took ever such a long time tweaking the colours to get what I wanted. In the end I decided to go with the colour of the paper in the Moleskine sketchbooks combined with the colour of my kitchen cupboards - because I like duck egg blue!

I'm still trying to find the right shade of Moleskine so if anybody hits on the code by accident I'd be gratful to know what it is. My best guess at the moment is LightGoldenRodYellow which is #FAFAD2. [Update - changed my mind once I got the sketch up. I now think it's Cornsilk which is #FFF8DC and comes in these Shades.]

Now here comes the magic trick. The colour names and codes are from the W3 website which advocates good practice standards in web design and coding. If you right click on either of these links, you can see what all the other colours which are recognised by web browsers looks like when matched with this colour. Neat huh? (OK - all the web designers can stop chortling! I've only just discovered this for the very first time this morning and I think it's great!)

The sketch was done on my way back from the Musée Marmottan‎ during my last meal in Paris on the terrasse en plein air at the Restaurant la Gare in October last year (the link is to Streetview). It has a very musical website!

I must get back to finishing the story of that French trip - see Paris, Normandy and the Loire (September/October 2009). I've not done the Chateaux of the Cher et Loire yet!

A Day in the Musée du Louvre

Louvre: crowds lining up to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo
photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

On the Wednesday, after my A day in the Musee d'Orsay, I spent a day at the Louvre Museum.

I find the Louvre to be a complete maze and I always get lost in it. It's difficult to get to grips with just how big the Louvre really is, how difficult it can be to navigate or how utterly frustrating this can be on occasion!

Passage Richelieu

This time we came in via Passage Richelieu. We started with the Italians in the Denon wing and worked our way across to the Dutch and Northern Europeans in the Richelieu wing. My niece naturally wanted to see some of the very famous works eg Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. You would not believe the crowds - so I photographed them!

After which I stayed longer and did a tour of the Richelieu wing as that was the part I'd not seen a lot of on previous visits. I began to appreciate far more than I ever done before just why the late ninteenth century saw a revolt against the history paintings which had been regarded as "the best painting that there could ever be".

I focused on the still life paintings and built up a collection of photographs which you'll be able to see on Flickr when I get them sorted!

Rembrandt self portraits

One of my habits is to copy Rembrandt self-portraits - working on the principle that if you're going to copy somebody you might as well copy somebody who was rather good at what they did! The challenge is also that I never seem to get his face right - so I just keep trying!

Salle 31 on the 2nd floor of the Richelieu wing of the Louvre has THREE Rembrandt self-portraits hung next to one another. You can see my sketches of two of them on the right. Frankly I think it's another case of needs to try again!

• Portrait de l'artiste à la toque et à la chaîne d'or
  1633
• Rembrandt à la toque sur fond d'architecture
  Peint vers 1640 (sketch on left)
• Portrait de l'artiste au chevalet
  1660 (sketch on the right)

This is a virtual tour of the Rembrandt room on the museum's website.

Lunch at the Café Marly

Ming Pei Pyramid and Pool, The Louvre (from the Café Marly)
pencil and a little coloured pencil in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The only thing to recommend the Café Marly is the view from the terrace where I sat to draw the above sketch. It's located at the base of the Richelieu wing and I had lunch there. The food was OK but very expensive and it had really terrible service. I'd still be sitting there if I hadn't commandeered a waiter to bring me a menu, again to take my order, again to take it make sure it was served etc etc. I thought I might have been there on a bad day but I checked with Trip Advisor review of the Café Marly and found lots of comments from people who summed it up as great view, nice but expensive food and quite appalling service. I've got a lot of time for Trip Advisor as I've found them very reliable as a guide in the past and I thought the range of perspectives offered got it about right. I have however very rarely seen a place which has had quite so many people give it the lowest or a low rating. I know I took great delight in finding the right change to leave the precise amount for my meal and no more. Let's just say this was an experience which left me realising just how much places must pay for a good write up in some guides!

Visiting the Louvre

If you're thinking of visiting the Louvre or would just like to pay a virtual visit try consulting my new information site The Louvre - Resources for Art Lovers

Jardin des Palais Royal

Late afternoon in the Jardin des Palais Royal
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

On leaving the Louvre I walked across the Rue de Rivoli to the gardens of the Palais-Royal. Apparently it was originally called the Palais-Cardinal and was the home of Cardinal Richelieu. Which I guess explains why the wing of the Louvre nearest to the palace is called the Richelieu! This link provides an interesting description of the background to the gardens as does this wikiepedia article

I'd started to get into the way people sit around in Paris gardens. The big trick seems to be to get hold of a really armchair like chair, get it right up to the wall around the pool and fountain and then settle down with a good book or have a snooze. Next to the pool was also a good place for couples to have conversations without being overheard due to the noise of the fountains!

I've only just realised that I've done two sketches of people sitting around fountains - but you do see a lot of that in Paris!

I'll be back to insert a link in this post to a post on Making A Mark about the Louvre (when I've got it finished!)

The next post about our French trip will be about our visit to Giverny - and will include links to videos of the gardens.

Links:

• Louvre Museum website
• The Louvre - Resources for Art Lovers
• Wikipedia - Louvre
• Wikipedia - Palais Royal
  

Dining out in Paris - Montmartre and Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Half a niece - dining out in Montmartre
8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've got to be honest - these aren't my favourite sketches of the whole trip to France. However I though I'd post them on the basis of showing you not all my sketches work out - for various reasons.

We visited Montmartre for dinner on Tuesday evening and the first sketch was done while eating dinner in a small but very crowded restaurant. A very cheap meal and, as we were sat very near the serving hatch, it provided my niece with an education about catering size jars and how food gets plated up!

However I was very tired from spending all day in the The Musée d'Orsay and I think I was experiencing visual overload.

See the following to see the reasons for the visual overload!

• The Musée d'Orsay
• Video: Vincent van Gogh at the Musée d'Orsay
• Video: Claude Monet at the Musée d'Orsay
• My Flickr set for the Musée d'Orsay

The second one is of the view from my seat in Le Petit Zinc, a very nice Art Nouveau style restaurant just off the Boulevard St Germain which I ate in once before when visiting Paris and where I remembered the food was very good. The food was still good but for some reason, midweek the restaurant wasn't very busy and what I had planned as an animated sketch with diners off to one side turned into being one of an empty table and a cheese trolley!

Much more interesting were the places we visited - which are quite a contrast

• Montmartre
  
• Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Montmartre

Montmartre, which is the highest point in the city. I'm currently reading a book (bought in the Musée d'Orsay) about the decade of so before the Impressionists took off and have just got the part about the Paris Commune, how Montmartre was a base for the Communards and played a very impotant part in the in the events of the Paris Commune.

In the past Montmartre has also housed the studios of famous artists.

In the mid-1800s artists, such as Johan Jongkind and Camille Pissarro, came to inhabit Montmartre. By the end of the century, Montmartre and its counterpart on the Left Bank, Montparnasse, became the principal artistic centers of Paris.

Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and other impoverished artists lived and worked in a commune, a building called Le Bateau-Lavoir during the years 1904–1909.

Artist associations such as Les Nabis and the Incoherents were formed and individuals including Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Brissaud, Alfred Jarry, Gen Paul, Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Suzanne Valadon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Maurice Utrillo, Toulouse-Lautrec, Théophile Steinlen worked in Montmartre and drew some of their inspiration from the area.
History of Montmartre

Places in Montmartre - such as the Moulin de la Galette - have also featured in famous paintings and a number of films.

The Basilica of Sacré Cœur is located at the summit of the butte. What I didn't realise was that..........

The Basilica of the Sacré Cœur was built on Montmartre from 1876 to 1912 by public subscription as a gesture of expiation of the "crimes of the communards", after the Paris Commune events, and to honour the French victims of the 1871 Franco-Prussian War.
Wikipedia Montmartre

My dodgy feet don't like lots of steps so I rode the the Funiculaire de Montmartreopened in 1900 and operated by RATP, to the top of the Butte and the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart). You don't need to queue at the funicular for a ticket if you have one of the metro tickets from a carnet of 10. However I did manage to do a very careful - and slow - descent.

I do recommend visiting Sacré Cœur at night. There are very few tourists - unlike during the day - and it's very quiet and peaceful. Or or rather it would be if there was no music being played loudly outside where there was large crowd of youngsters (swings and roundabouts!). Also if you've seen the magnificent view from the terrace outside before then it's interesting to see it again at night although it's pointless trying to take photographs!

This is a link to photos of Montmartre in the 1900s.

[Note: Who remembers the flight of steps in Le Ballon Rouge (The Red Balloon) - a 1956 film with almost no dialogue about a little boy and a ballon which begins to follow him? I was always convinced that the steps were in Montmartre but after researching this post I've learned that this is not so and that they've actually disappeared - see this link for an explanation A colour record of a long lost part of Paris - Belleville !] Incidentally the film is a true exponent of the art of "less is more" - it won an Oscar for its screenplay!]

Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Boulevard St Germain

Le Petit Zinc - and what happens when the diners sit somewhere else!

8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

St Germain was established around the Benedictine abbey of Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. In the nineteenth century, the Boulevard Saint-Germain was built by Baron Haussman. The area around the church is known as Saint-Germain-des-Prés

The Boulevard Saint Germain is home to some famous cafés, such as Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore, which used to be home to the philosophical literati.

Since the Avenue des Champs-Élysées stopped being the prestigious place it used to be, the money seems to have moved to Saint-Germain. I know I've noticed a big difference on every visit.

Le Petit Zinc is a restaurant on the Rue Benoit which has a splendid Art Nouveau exterior and interior. One those places where your visual appetite also gets nourishment! I was too preoccupied with the classic French fine dining to do much sketching! (Read a review)

Plus I'd spent virtually all day in the Louvre (more overload) - of which more this next week.............

The exterior of Le Petit Zinc - I had the duck!
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Links:

• Wikipedia - Montmartre
• Montmartre Guide (in French, English and German)
  
• Trip Adviser - Montmartre
  
• The Independent - 48 hours in Montmartre
• Le Petit Zinc 11 rue St-Benoit 75006 Paris Tél. : +33 (0)1.42.86.61.00
  

A day in the Musee d'Orsay - tips on sketching

Sacré Cœur and the butte Montmartre from the roof terrace of the Musée d'Orsay
(aka the sketch I wish I'd done while I was there! - see below)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

On our second day in Paris I visited the Musée d'Orsay and the Sennelier shop at Quai Voltaire (on the Left Bank, opposite the Louvre). Click this link to see a Google map of the places I visited - also shown below.

You can read blog posts on my two other blogs about:

• Making A Mark - The Musée d'Orsay
• Making A Mark - Video: Vincent van Gogh at the Musée d'Orsay
• Making A Mark - Video: Claude Monet at the Musée d'Orsay
• Making A Mark Reviews - Art shop review: Magasin Sennelier, Paris

As you will see from the above posts you can take photographs and video the work in the Musée d'Orsay - within limits (see The Musée d'Orsay). You can see:

• Flickr set: Musée d'Orsay
• YouTube: my videos of paintings in the Musée d'Orsay

Feel free to leave a comment!

Sketching in the Musée d'Orsay

You can also copy works in the museum as follows. The museum makes a distinction between freehand drawing (including sketching) and people who want to set up an easel and copy paintings (by sight-size methods presumably).

An artist copying a painting in the Musée d'Orsay
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Freehand drawing
Freehand pencil sketches, not exceeding 30 x 60 cm, are allowed in the museum. However, for groups, previous authorisation must be requested when the booking is made.

Copyists
Copying museum works of art, by professional or amateur copyists, or by art school students, requires an individual authorisation. This is issued to one named person, and for a single work. The request must be submitted at least one month before the required date of entry to the museum. The permission is valid for three months, and may not be extended.
Copying

The main issues for those wanting to sketch are as follows:

• you can only to enter the museum with a handbag. So my sister's very large shoulder bag got in but my sketching backpack had to go in the cloakroom. I'd pared it right down so it wasn't in any way bulky as I've had this problem before but they were still adamant that all backpacks had to go in the cloakroom. (If I'd had a handbag inside the backpack I would have been able to take a basic kit in).
  
• the museum can be incredibly busy in certain areas - which means a lot of potential 'visual interference' while sketching. Plus you need to get yourself set up somewhere where you aren't in the way of other people as otherwise you'll be jostled on a fairly frequent basis as people tend to look at the pictures rather than where they are going!
  
• there aren't a lot of places to sit down. Fine if you can stand - but people like me who have a limit on standing still will have a problem. I also didn't see any sketching stools in use, nor did I see any store of them. You also won't be able to take in your own. (Has anybody ever used a museum sketching stool? If so, where did you get one)

I have to confess! This sketch the top of this post is a total cheat by me! It's the sketch I would have done from the roof terrace of the Musée d'Orsay - if I'd just had my backpack with me! Instead it was done back in London from a photo I took from the terrace.

The terrace is reached a door at the side of the cafe at the top of the building. The door to the terrace seems to be locked after summer is over. I've visited on a fine day at the end of October and was unable to get out on the terrace. However it was a fine warm day at the end of September when I visited. The door was unlocked while I sat eating lunch in the cafe and hordes of people immediately poured out and on to the terrace!

A visit to the Sennelier shop

Art shop review: Magasin Sennelier, Paris provides my perspective on the Sennelier shop I visited after leavingthe museum. I've also got a Flickr set of photos taken in the Sennelier shop.

Links:

• Musée d'Orsay 62, rue de Lille, 75343 Paris
  
• Musée d'Orsay - details for visitors
• Sennelier - 3 quai Voltaire 75007 Paris

Musée de l'Orangerie, Tuileries, Notre Dame and St Germain

On Monday morning, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and we set off to walk across the very centre of Paris so we could visit some of the places my niece wanted to see.

Here's our route (which seems to be misbehaving at the moment) - I said we walked a lot ! This is a link to a larger version of this map (where you can see the route!) of where we went - starting at the Place de La Concorde and finishing up at the Boulevard St Germain.


View Place de la Concorde to Saint Germain in a larger map

After getting a good look at the Place de la Concorde and the view down the Tuileries in the morning haze, we started with the Musée de l'Orangerie. This is where Monet's famous large panels of waterlilies are located in two oval shaped rooms which were specially built to house them. You can read more about them in Gardens in Art: Monet's final Nympheas.

The Clouds by Claude Monet
200 x 1275 cm, (three adjoining panels 200 x 425 cm)
Salle 1, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I wrote about our visit yesterday on Making A Mark - see Monet's Nympheas in the Musée de l'Orangerie

You can also view a video of what it was like to be in the two rooms viewing the Grand Decorations on my YouTube channel. I've also got two slightly different slideshows - which provides close-ups of the brushwork and way he painted - which you can view either on Flickr or YouTube

After the waterlilies we visited the paintings collected by Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume

I'm skipping fast through the rest of the day because if I don't I'll never complete it. (I'm completely inundated this week with trying to prevent my council ruining my neighbourhood with some thoughtless proposals!)

I should also explain that I'm very bad at sketching when I first get to a place in terms of the wide open spaces and big buildings. Small stuff - what's on my plate - I can cope with (hence what I sketched on Sunday). However big urban scenes need some time for my eyes to accommodate the different visual language of my surroundings. Even the parks and gardens look different in Paris. However for those of you who would like to go on a virtual journey I can provide you with sets of Photos on Flickr which I'll be linking to in my bullet point highlights below.

• we lunched at the fountains at the western end of the Jardin des Tuileries - see Jardin des Tuileries, Paris on Flickr.

Two ladies in the Tuileries
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• After lunch we walked through the Gardens towards the Louvre. We decided that the practice of having very comfortable but movable metal chairs in the parks was an admirable practice. Mostly because it enabled you to sit where you wanted to rather than where the park planners wanted you to.

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is at the easternmost end of the so-called Axe historique ("grand historic axis") of Paris, a nine-kilometre-long linear route which dominates central and western Paris. Looking west, the arch is perfectly aligned with the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe and (although it is not directly visible from the Place du Carrousel) the Grande Arche de la Defense.
Wikipedia - Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

• past the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and into the coutyards of the Palais du Louvre with its glass pyramid main entrance to the Louvre Museum (of which more in later posts). I stopped to do a video which you can see here Panorama: Louvre and Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. For those who have not visited Paris, bear in mind this video only shows the exterior of about half of the Louvre - which sort of explains why people can get lost in it and you can spend days in there and still not see everything! (I'm interested as to whether my filming is improving!)
  
• then through the next courtyard of the Louvre and out on to the road that runs alongside the River Seine. We dropped down to the riverside but discovered you can't walk along it in the same way as you can walk alongside the Thames in London
• over the Pont Neuf, the "new bridge" that is now the oldest bridge in Paris and on to the Île de la Cité - the larger of the two islands island between the left (south) and right (north) banks of the River Seine
• we then had a debate as to whether to queue for Saint Chapelle and decided to go and see Notre Dame first and then return and see whether the queues had improved. This is my Flickr set for Notre Dame de Paris. I'd been reading about the carvings on the west front and took rather a lot of photos! Notre Dame also started a bit of a Joan of Arc trail we followed across France.
• Back outside Saint Chapelle the queues were exactly the same - was it ever thus! At which point I rememberd that I've always seen it first thing in the morning! I'd already decided that my feet were not going to hold out if I shuffled in a queue. So as I've seen it twice before (and it is STUNNING!) I decided to join Parisian cafe society and wait over the road at the Les Deux Palais where I sketched what looked like important men in grey suits in the later afternoon and sipped a Citron pressé (no sugar!)

Cafe society at the Brasserie Les Deux Palais
11.5 x 8.5, pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• after which we walked over the river to the left bank and in to the Latin Quarter of the sixth arondissement.
  
• Time for a little shopping followed by dinner at the Relais de l'Entrecôte Saint Germain - that's entrecote, frites and the famous 'green gold' sauce! By this time I was too tired to sketch plus although I got my sketchbook it out the service was too fast!
  

Addicts of a "mythic entrecote", "crip, hot frites" and "secret-magic sauce" "stand in line" (no reservations taken) and sit "on top of each other" at these "outstanding" steakhouse "staples" in Saint-Germain and near the Champs; when ordering from the "friendly but no-nosense servers","rare", medium or well done are the only words you need to know" because the "reasonably priced" beef’s the only game in town here; but "when they have perfected this so well, why serve anything else?"
Zagat Survey

Then back to the hotel via Metro - Châtelet where I really could have done without the massive underground hike to change lines - and so to bed to read my new book about Monet's Nympheas!

Sketchercise: probably about 4+ miles altogether with more exercise than sketching!

Petit déjeuner @ Dolce e Amaro

I don't like conversation at breakfast time so we took breakfast separately each morning. I found a delightful Italian cafe called Dolce e Amaro in the Rue Bourdaloue just around the corner from the hotel and right next to the entrance to the Notre Dame de Lorette Metro station. Lovely people and a peaceful breakfast. A petit déjeuner of a hot drink (Earl Grey tea), orange juice and a croissant was €4.50 - which was cheaper than the cafe opposite Hotel France Albion where I was staying. They also do very nice filled Italian breads for lunch.

The view of the Rue de Châteaudun and Notre Dame de Lorette Metro from my stool in Dolce e Amaro
8" x 10", pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Naturally I took my sketchbook with me

• on Monday I sketched the view from my stool - a contre jour view looking out the door to people making their way to work
• on Tuesday I sketched my breakfast

petit déjeuner
8" x 10", pencil and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• and on Wednesday I sketched the arrangement of confiture on the top of the counter
  

Les Confitures
8" x 10", pencil and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I also had to pass this boulangerie on my way to it each morning. One of the things about groing to France is seeing proper 'baked on the premises' bread shops again. They've virtually disappeared in the UK.


Links:

• Dolce e Amaro, 1 Rue Bourdaloue, 75009 Paris, France (+33 1 48 74 3188)

Sunday afternoon in the Jardin des Plantes

Après repas, dimanche (Jardin des Plantes) - 27th September (pm)
8.5" x 11.5", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I wanted to see the Jardin des Plantes which is the botanical garden in Paris. So after Sunday lunch my sister and niece headed off to see some of the landmarks of Paris while I journied east of the Latin Quarter to the Jardin des Plantes.

En route I spotted the Grand Mosque in Paris just as a lot of people of North African origin were arriving in their best 'going to mosque' clothes - which made for a very colourful scene. However not one which I felt was appropriate for sketching given Islamic thinking about the portrayal of people.

Minaret of the Grand Mosque, Paris

I'm maybe spoilt by having the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew for my local botanical garden but I couldn't help thinking that the Jardin des Plantes wasn't a patch on Kew. There again I guess a very large number of botanical gardens would struggle to compete with Kew!

It did have a nice little potager and I loved the walks under the trees which seem to be a required feature of all the parks and gardens in Paris. The white (limestone?) shale covering of the ground makes for magical shadows!

Views of the Jardin des Plantes
all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The flowers and other areas of planting were somewhat less impressive - although as Laura (Laurelines) predicted there were lots of dahlias around. However I kept reminding myself it was very much the end of the summer and the beginning of autumn. That said, when I got to Villandry later in the trip I saw an incredibly impressive French garden and what can be achieved with a bit of effort!

One of the things I like about sketching is that you get to meet nice people!

I sat on one of the seats under the trees and looked round for something to sketch. I spotted some people sat opposite me who seemed to be dozing and decided to limber up by seeing how far I could get before they woke up. Little did I know that they had spotted me sketching them!

One of the gentleman came over to look and turned out to be English - so naturally everybody then came to have a look at the sketch. What was very funny was that both couples had been on the same Eurostar train as me and, just like me, were experiencing that dozy feeling in the middle of the afternoon when you've got up at 5.00am to catch your train! Having spotted me sketching them they decided not to move until I'd finished! It's not often I get such cooperative models! ;) The general consensus seemed to be that anybody knowing them would immediately recognise them from the sketch - despite the fact the sketches are about posture rather than faces!

It turned out that two years previously they had rented a boat for accommodation when the 2007 Rugby World Cup was held in France and had moored it on the Seine not far away. They had used the Jardin des Plantes as their local garden! This time they were back to celebrate a significant birthday.

So Jock and Jenny - here's your sketch and a larger copy of the original is about to be emailed to you!

The afternoon was very warm and I made the mistake of forgetting to carry enough water with me. So before leaving I stopped at the cafe in the grounds and had a very expensive bottle of water. However I did get to sit down and sketch a super active dog at a nearby table which I thought might be a pug but I'm now inclined to think he was actually a French bulldog.

These very quick sketches took as long as it takes to drink a demi-bouteille!

Links:

• Travels with a sketchbook in France - a summary of all the posts about the trip to Paris, Normany and the Loire in 2009
  
• Katherine Tyrrell travels with a sketchbook in France - a gallery of all the sketches
  

Eating international in Paris

Tapas at La Family Restaurant, 20 Rue des Martyrs, Paris

pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

We didn't get off to a good start with French food on our first day in Paris - but that was partly because it was a Sunday.

After we had left our luggage at the hotel, we walked up through the Sunday morning food market in the Rue des Martyrs - and I admired and photographed lots of the food as we walked. Thinking all the time that one of the huge bonuses of a holiday in France is the French food!

pasta, chanterelles and plums in the Rue des Martyrs, Paris
photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

However when we spotted a restaurant that we liked the look of we also discovered that their particular theme was international food - or as they put it "Le restaurant des cuisines du monde".

Côté cuisine, toutes les recettes et les pâtes sont faites maison à partir de produits frais, naturels et de qualité, favorisant l’agriculture raisonnée voire biologique.

What I liked was its emphasis on natural fresh and responsibly sourced food and what my niece liked was that it had a good range of pasta and noodle dishes - so with a hungry fifteeen year old to feed in we went!

I got stuck into sketching as soon as we had ordered. The sketch below was done during lunch as we sat near the window and ate our Pad Thai. Note the doggy participant! My sister (the dog owner) was amazed at dogs we kept coming across in restauarants in Paris. This particular one was sat outside beyond the huge open window doors. I got about 10% of my sister into this sketch!

Thaïlande - Pad Thaï 14
Noodles sautées au poulet et aux crevettes, Thaï chili pepper, pousses de soja, citronnelle, cacahuètes pilées et nuöc màm.

Dog and people watching at La Family Restaurant, 20 Rue des Martyrs,

pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Another bonus of this restaurant (for anybody familiar with trying to eat in France on a Sunday evening) is that it is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner (midi 12:00-15.00; soir: 19.30-23.00). Which explains why we were back there again in the evening for our second meal! We did look for an alternative - honest! Being a couple of minutes walk from the hotel also swayed in its favour.

The sketch at the top of this post was done that evening when I tried the La Planche de 6 Tapas.

Seriously it's a great little restaurant if you like places which lean towards organic and it can also be found in three other locations in Paris (addresses on the website).

Links:

• Family Affair - 20, Rue des Martyrs, 75009 Paris, France. Location, details and reviews on Google Maps
• Travels with a sketchbook in France - summary of all posts about the 2009 trip to Paris, Normandy and Loire
  
• Katherine Tyrrell travels with a sketchbook in France - a gallery of all the sketches
  

Travelling to Paris

Last time I tried to catch an early morning Eurostar I managed to oversleep and leave myself with just 35 minutes to get from bed to the platform!

This time - with two alarm clocks and an early morning wake-up call - I managed to get up at the right time to catch the train to Paris and everything was going swimmingly...........until we were locking the door and I realised I couldn't find the car key for "he who must not be bored while I sketch" ! You can imagine what happened next. Suffice to say key was found in a "really safe place" - in my purse - and I was driven to St Pancras International Station in recovery mode - heaving huge sighs of relief.

My trip companions

My trip to France is with my sister and niece and the itinerary in terms of places has been largely devised by my niece. They're going to remain nameless as they're not huge fans of being online - just like 'must not be bored'. I'm going to have to come up with 'names' for them or else they'll end up being called sister and niece throughout all the posts!

The journey

We caught the 7.52am Eurostar from St Pancras International Station to Paris Gare du Nord. Neither sister nor niece were enthusiastic about tunnels under the channel but the combination of time and money saved proved to be a considerable incentive - hence why we were on the Eurostar and why they spent a great deal of the journey with their eyes shut. Getting up very early might also have been a factor!

It did mean that I got to chat with a very nice couple who got on at Ebbsfleet in Kent who were on their way to the south of France to meet up with their son who has a very interesting job as skipper of the The Who's classic sailing yacht! Who knew Pete Townshend was a big fan of yachts and yachting?

Early morning balloons in Northern France (27th September 2009 10.15am)
pen and coloured pencils
in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrel

I did another one of my composite sketches of northern France from the train - flat, fields of different colours interspered with trees. However this time the sketch gained an additional feature - low flying balloons!

I also sat there trying to work out how to twitter with my mobile phone which I've not done before.

Paris Gare du Nord makes for a bit of a contrast with the shiny new and gleaming St Pancras. The main difference being that Gare du Nord is the busiest station in Europe. Once you get off the Eurostar platform you are confronted with 'stuff' and signs everywhere. I don't think I've ever seen a more cluttered station in visual terms.

We walked 15 minutes (downhill) to our hotel - the Hotel France Albion - which I can recommend. Although only 2 stars it was satisfactory and competitively priced for its location relative to central Paris. That said the twin room occupied by my sister and niece was small - but then that's the common theme to Paris hotel rooms!

It made a particularly good base for exploring Paris as it's a very short walk to two metro stations (Line 7 (pink): Le Peletier and Line 12 (green): Notre Dame de Lorette) which both gave easy access to key destinations in central Paris. I also liked that it was in a 'normal' non touristy district.

Postscript: The really odd bit of all this was I loaned "must not be bored" an anorak which I haven't worn for ages - and while I was away he found my second car key (which has also been officially 'lost' for ages) in the pocket. Weird or what?

Links:

• Travels with a sketchbook in France - summary of all posts about the 2009 trip to Paris, Normandy and Loire
  
• Katherine Tyrrell travels with a sketchbook in France - a gallery of all the sketches
• Travels with a Sketchbook - 27th September: Catching the Eurostar to Paris - includes a tip about booking tickets on Eurostar
  
• Map of St Pancras International - showing arrivals and departures
  
• St Pancras International - google map
• Paris Gare du Nord - google map
• Qype - Reviews of St Pancras International Station
  
• Qype - Reviews of the Gare du Nord
• Hotel France Albion 11 rue Notre Dame de Lorette 75009 PARIS (Location on Google maps and location on the hotel website)
• Paris Metro map

Travels with a sketchbook in France (2009)

I've done long trips before and know that it's difficult enough trying to fit in all I'd like to see and do without taking time out to post what I'm up to - even if I could! I've tried to resolve that problem this year by

• posting about where I was going before I went.
  
• Plus today I'm starting my sequence of posts about what I actually did on my recent trip to northern France.

I always start my record of my trips with a summary of the posts I'm expecting to do about my travels with a sketchbook (and camera). It keeps me organised and helps me to avoid missing anything out. Plus I get to work out how many sketches I need to scan! I'll insert the hyperlinks to the blog post titles and hyperlinks in this summary as I post them and this post will go in the summary of trips in the side column for easy reference.

I'm also going to be posting photos and videos to my Flickr account - so you might want to keep an eye on France - which is going to be the home of those photos and videos from the trip which i publish for people to see.

This was my actual itinerary in Paris, Normandy and the valley of the Rivers Loire and Cher.

Sunday 27th September - there are going to be three small posts

• Travelling to Paris (one sketch) - an interesting story plus an introduction to my companions and hotel
• Eating International in Paris (two sketches) - two sketches from a restaurant that isn't serving French food!
• Sunday afternoon in the Jardin des Plantes (two sketches) - in which I visit the main botanical garden in Paris

Monday 28th September - two posts

• Petit dejeuner @ Dolce e Amaro - I did a sketch every morning in the cafe where I took breakfast. This is the record of an Italian cafe in Paris!
• Musée de l'Orangerie, Tuileries, Notre Dame and St Germain - this was a major walking day and I only got one sketch done - while I sat out the queues for Sainte Chapelle. However I do have YouTube Videos of:
• Monet's Nympheas (the Grand Decorations) in the revamped Orangerie for those who have not seen them before. See 
  Monet's Waterlilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie Paris.
• Plus Monet's waterlilies (slideshow), Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
• a rather noisy Panorama of the Louvre and Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Tuesday 29th September - two posts

• A day in the Musee d'Orsay. No sketches because this time I actually had a camera which took decent photos but didn't flash indoors which gave me the opportunity to record masses of paintings on my camera - so long as I didn't flash(!) and I spent the whole day here - apart from a quick trip to the Sennelier shop!
  
• However I did manage to make a video of the Van Gogh paintings, Musée d'Orsay
• Dining out in Paris - Montmartre and Saint-Germain-des-Pres - Two sketches from dinners in Montmartre (Tuesday) and the Latin Quarter (Wednesday) plus photos.

Wednesday 30th September - Another day spent in a museum. This time it was A Day in the Musée du Louvre followed by a walk through the Jardin du Palais Royal. I've got two sketches of self portraits by Rembrandt two sketches of people taking a break.

The Water Garden, Giverny
11.5" x 17", coloured pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Thursday 1st October - Off to Normandy in our hire car. First stop Giverny (one sketch of The Water Garden at Giverny, masses of photos and a video of walking around the water garden); next stop overnight in Rouen. (See also The garden behind the paintings - Giverny on Making A Mark)

Friday 2nd October - Two sketches of Rouen Cathedral - at midnight and break of day. Both were done from my hotel bed (right next to the cathedral)! See Sketching Rouen Cathedral - from my hotel bed!

Plus a sketch of the Auberge du Terroir, Servon (near Mont St Michel) where we had the best restaurant meal of the trip.

Saturday 3rd October - a sketch of Petit déjeuner at the Château de Boucéel followed by a sketch of Le Mont-Saint-Michel (done from the back seat of the car in the car park!)

Sunday 4th October - lots of laundry and settling in - plus a sketch of the view from the dining room in our cottage at Chateau du Plessis and a visit to Ronell and her atelier in Montlouis-sur Loire

Monday 5th October - a visit to Château d'Azay-le-Rideau and two sketches of the gardens at Château de Villandry

Tuesday 6th October - a visit to Chinon and a sketch of people lunching in the sunshine under the trees in the town square in Dejeuner sous l'arbres. Followed by a visit to The Château d'Ussé which is the castle which apparently inspired Perrault's tale La Belle au Bois dormant (maybe better known as Sleeping Beauty)

Wednesday 7th October - a visit to market and medieval part of Tours in the morning, sketching over lunch with fellow Sketcherciser and Watermarks member Ronell van Wyk and another sketch of the chateau garden. You can already read about Ronell's post about this on her blog in Katherine in Touraine

Thursday 8th October - a sketch of the Château de Chenonceau

Friday 9th October - we travelled back to Paris, dropped off the car, my sister and niece headed off to L'aeroport Charles de Gaulle and I took the metro to La Mouette to visit the Musée Marmottan. Two sketches of Monet paintings of the water garden and one sketch while having a quick snack before boarding the Eurostar to come back to London - to be met by "he who must not be bored while I sketch"!

I'd just like to record before I get started that I actually finished the trip weighing less than when I went. Which means that Sketchercise very definitely works! I relaxed the diet just a little bit (odd glass of wine and a bit of cheese now and again) but did lots of walking as well as sketching.

So - I better get started! Sketches will be posted to accompany this post as I get them scanned. You can also see a gallery of all the sketches in France in Katherine Tyrrell travels with a sketchbook in France on my portfolio website.