Paris~ Shakespeare & Co Bookstore

“Why would I want to go to an English language bookstore in Paris?” I had thought.  After all, I had my Gibert Joseph on Boulevard Saint-Michel for blissful French book browsing (& buying).  So I didn’t visit Shakespeare & Co. until after several previous visits to Paris. Even then it was only because we had spare time before a Chopin concert at nearby Eglise Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. 

I wasn’t surprised by the floor to ceiling books & books spilling out from every nook...But the courtyard (that looked like it was dressed up for a fête), & the colorful facade, they were not at all what I had expected!

At the top of the dark narrow stairs, an enchanting surprise! 

Messages posted on the wall (& on the ceiling too!) of a children's alcove, in so many languages & so many alphabets! "Never be afraid to love & be loved." I HEART books." A mishmash of incredibly positive expressions!

I watched a young teen write & post her note. “Sometimes you got to forgive & forget. Long live me & my friends.”  It sparked memories of notes & letters profusely exchanged between me, the young teen, & my friends.  And how about  those peace & Yin Yang signs? When I looked at this photo once back home, I discovered (on the right side) a Polish "Legitymacja Szkolna", a school document of a young Polish woman. I was deeply touched, but that is another story...

Piano music had been floating through the 2nd floor. I followed it to find a young person playing, so beautifully! And, in the next room there was a poetry reading in progress!! I'd read some of the history & lore around Shakespeare & Co. so I knew it had always been more than just a bookstore. Still, I hadn't expected what I'd walked into!

On my last trip in April, 2 years after the 1st visit, I ducked into Shakespeare & Co. to get warm. I headed right for the message board. "This is the best place I've been in my whole life!!" & "I feel alive every time I see Paris. I've never seen this shop but it's like stepping into another world." ...& one of my favorites: "I thought I loved nothing more than books & writing 'til I met my wife. I still love books though..." 

Voilà. A bit of magic. Stepping into "another world." And then, you get to step back out into Paris!

Walking (Fast) By the Sea

I've started walking for exercise again after many days (months) of a sedentary way of life. In France I walked everywhere, all the time, but since returning I've gone back to being a daily slug (at least with an active mind...) I began this day at beautiful Fort Williams Park. I walked fast on the shore path, I even (almost) ran up a few hills. Why have I not been doing this continually over the years??? (because... because... because... mostly because I get caught up in things like reading & art.)

The ocean waves & early morning breezes filled my being with the power to move, to live!  I give big thanks, un grand merci, to a running coach I know who shared tips with me recently for getting back into shape. She reminded me of the beautiful places we have nearby to walk & to run. Motivation, & Support, very powerful stuff for creating & maintaining health habits!
I have so much gratitude for my health!

Watercolor Class Mid-Coast Maine

In my coast of Maine watercolor class with teacher David Dewey I was the wide eyed Junior Dabblerette in the midst of accomplished master painters. I was OK with that (Yay!) & the atmosphere was welcoming. David geared his demonstrations so that I the beginner as well as the experienced painters received a lot of concepts, understanding & inspiration.

Photo of one of the painters

Gray days (the majority) were soft & calm & made certain colors POP! You got to see & paint quiet nuances of grays. David would say "medleys". Warm, cool, light, dark, so many colors can come from so few...

One misty day while the others painted elaborate harbor scenes (oh, such draftsmanship they had!), I set out to create a chart, mixing grays from 3 colors & exploring some characteristics of water COLOR that David had demonstrated. David says, sometimes you plan with your left brain, other times intuition rules. A bit of both, above. David says he still makes color charts... 

(Thanks to Carol G, Paris Breakfasts, not only for introducing me to David's class, but for showing in her blog that it's OK to mess up, or to follow your own direction, integrating what you've learned...)

We had one vivid sunny clear day, sea winds galore! So wonderful to watch kayaks, canoes & sailboats, instead of the motor traffic of my city's harbor... Above is a photo of more or less the scene that David painted as a demonstration. Oh, but his painting was gorgeous & I learned so much: anchor your painting, keep colors & shapes simple, create multi-toned luminous shadows, drop in color so it releases, saturate your brush, pay attention to pairings of tones & values, create patterns & repetition.It's less about the scene, more about the painting, though he depicts a scene beautifully.

We had Weather. One day we had to pack up & RUN because of a storm that brought buckets of rain, lightning & thunder! Plein air painters are a hearty bunch! I realized how I had started out totally disorganized, having to make multiple trips from my car, not experienced at outdoor painting. Day by day I pared down my stuff & repacked. It's OK to be a Greenhorn. 

I didn't come back with large finished paintings. But I did come back with tons of new learning. Above a thumbnail that is in a style with which I'm comfortable...Fast, Quick & Sketchy! Totally intuitive.

I did come back with a little sketchbook journal filled with notes & terrific David Expressions & Explanations & quicky line drawings. I'm using them now to practice. My new learning involves using my (weaker) left brain: conscious choices, planning based on learning principles of color & the medium.  Above, a thumbnail of a boat, but don't think about the boat as much as shapes, lines, rhythms, says David.

A value study. I have rarely done those. They are invaluable I now see. 

Partly finished painting using the thumbnail, value sketch & a photo reference... Color as structure, patience, discipline, slow, conscious selection & planning...

My finished painting, though I still call it a sketch...I had the feeling that there'd be a learning curve in this class. Yes, indeed! Lots of learning & wonderful fun!

The First Trip to France

If I were allowed to keep only 1 journal, I think it would be the one from my first trip to France: Paris & Provence, 2003. 

I made this trip many years after I first experienced, in my youth, the longing to go to Paris. As they say, "life happened" inbetween.  

My French classes  at The Language Exchange, beginning in 2002, had been the spark that re-ignited the dream.

I have few words at the moment to describe the magnificence of this trip, but it's OK. I have the journal...

I'm glad to share a little bit of it here in this way. And I love the blogs I read here of the trips & homeplaces of others.

Pizza Pierrot & His Van

"Pizza Pierrot: Artisanal Pizza",  April 15, St-Rémy-de-Provence. My first thought was, "Oh, No, not American fast food in traditional St Rémy!" Still, I was attracted to the little van which only comes several times a week, & compelled to sketch it. And then I was drawn to wander over. After a friendly set of "Hello's" in English with an Asian couple, I had a slice of the most delicious pizza I've ever had, ordered from the most handsome & good natured pizza man I've ever encountered. It's good to look beyond pre-conceived judgements, isn't it?

Penobscot Bay, Maine

Twelve years ago we "got away from the city" & spent a week at a cottage on Penobscot Bay.

For me it was a return to a beloved area from a "previous life", for J it was brand new.

 Sea breezes, clear days as well as beautiful fog...walking, kayaking, bike riding, watching birds & wildflowers... 

Seafood dinners by the picture window, nightime wood fires in the fireplace. And, of course, sketching...

A sort of imaginary bird's eye view of our adventures...

Lobster fishing boats & small spruce & granite islands...Changing light on the sea all day long...

Oh! the floating colors & reflections of sunrises & sunsets!!

Views from the cottage. Sometimes the fishing shack was completely shrouded in fog...

Fog rolling in & out of a cove is a marvel...How lovely to just sit & watch...

Lately I am being pulled back up that way. Yesterday I attended a French immersion class on humanist philosophy (formidable!!) at the Penobscot Center for Language Learning & International Exchange in Rockland.  

J visited the library, restaurants (Blueberry Pie!) & The Farnsworth Art Museum. 

In a week, I'm going back to Rockland & Owl's Head for a David Dewey watercolor class (learned about from Carol at Paris Breakfasts.) There will be new sketches &, I think, some new challenges in a favorite old place. 

My Paris Paper Dolls

Me, as I was getting ready to go to Paris one year...

I dream of going to Paris, I go to Paris, & I dream of going back to Paris...

So I play with Parisian images...A gentleman on his way to market...

A bientôt, Paris! See you soon, I hope & dream...

Being in Paris Without Being in Paris

Even though I didn't bring my camera on my last trip, I am lucky to have photos from other trips. I couldn't be in Paris sketching today, so I sketched from one of my photo images.

The Sketch Artists at Place Favier

A most delightful memory from my French Trip: One morning a tourist couple at my hotel invited me to ride down with them to Aix-en-Provence. Reluctantly, I said no, because I wanted to do more wandering in St. Rémy. I hadn't yet found a certain square & fountain that I'd remembered as being quite magical on a previous brief visit, & soon I'd be heading back to Paris. On this day I stumbled upon a postcard of the square, which I learned was Place Favier. I asked the shopkeeper where it was. She took me to the door & pointed: 

"C'est par-là!" Right there!

I set to sketching when all of a sudden I was aware of some people standing near me. As I glanced up, I saw one black Moleskine sketchbook, then another & another. It was a Travel Sketching class, "Croquis de voyage" from L'Académie Libre d'Aix-en-Provence!  

Aix had come to me!

We shared drawings & our books, discussed art, shared tips,compared pens & materials...My sketchbook & I were bursting with joy as we had been feeling a bit lonely. I was touched by these folks' warmth & excited by their drawings. And there was extra happiness because I was conversing in French, this language that I love so dearly & which I study back home, conversing on the subject of a shared passion! Eventually they dispersed to sketch in the square, while I stayed where I was, sketching them. 

 They invited me to go to a café afterward for hot herbal tea on a chilly April day (the mistral wind was blowing). We continued to sketch & to share, & the teacher gave a lesson on using color to fill backgrounds.  Un grand merci à la classe de Nicolas Doucedame!!

A description of the class: 

"Apprendre à voir, donc à dessiner, à croquer. Acquérir des bases suffisantes de croquis et d'aquarelle 

pour poursuivre son carnet de croquis en autonomie." 

Delicious Color Charts

 

Color charts are often used as a means to an end. A way to get to know paints & how they mix with one another. A way to develop a color vocabulary or a palette for a painting. But they are gorgeous in their own right.  

There was a time when I made impulsive purchases, not knowing that it was the color that I needed rather than the objects. When I realized that, & when acquiring things was no longer a part of my lifestyle, playing with color 

became the way to satisfy my craving.

  One of the first published artist's sketchbooks I ever saw was that of Sara Midda. 

How imaginatively & sweetly she plays with color, as well as creating a beautiful diary.

Midda's color charts.

What got me thinking about all this color was the Quiller Color Wheel that was introduced in my art group. It can be used in a very  technical way. I was never big on science, but for my 7th grade science project I made a huge oil on canvas color wheel. So now (a "few" years later) my challenge is to integrate some "scientific" & organized experimentation with my more spontaneous approach. Hmm...

The French Country Horse

Class assignment: Write a poem in French...Much easier to do than in English because I don't have the knowledge or critical voice that I have in my mother tongue.  It's like being 8 years old, and being delighted that you can express your experience by writing words.

However, I wrote a translation.

The brown farm horse

Body undulating, a slow dance,

Steadily coming toward his destination. Me,

 On the side of the road.

Then he stood still and close,

Watching.

So I sketched him.

From time to time I spoke to him in French. 

He didn’t mind my accent.

I thanked him for his welcome.

I thought I heard him say,

“Do not hurry, Madame. Look and see what you can see.

My meadow here, the clouds behind the mountains. 

Poppies... olive trees... vines...

And me.”

“I won’t leave you, 

But when you are ready, continue on your path,

Look around you, see what you can see,

But don’t forget me. (And thank you for my portrait.)

Later, Sandrine asked me if I had gone all the way
To the end of the road.

“No, I failed to reach my destination,”  I said in hesitant French.

Wait...No. Without reaching my destination,

 Yes, I had arrived at my destination!

And my horse, from my sketchbook,

Looked up at me.

And winked.

Le Petit Nicolas at L'Hôtel de Ville

 

A sketch from 2009, when I had the surprise treat of attending the Le Petit Nicolas show at l'Hôtel de Ville. There are many reasons why adults love Le Petit Nicolas. Sempé wrote: “L’univers du Petit Nicolas est un monde idéal. C’est l’enfance que Goscinny et moi aurions voulu avoir.” (The universe of Petit Nicolas is an ideal world. It’s the childhood that Goscinny & I would have wanted to have.)

It was the 1st French novel that I was able to read, about 7 years ago. (not sure how much I've progressed since...) Students of French & native speakers, love Nicolas' informal & enthusiastic language. 

Little Nicolas interprets situations with an innocence that makes adults laugh. The boys are always getting into messes & fighting, but, as Sempé wrote, without real harm. “Ces gosses sont...toujours à se battre mais leurs coups de poing ne font pas mal.” The antics of the adults, as seen by Nicolas, are funny too. "On ne peut pas s'empêcher de rire lorsqu'on écoute le petit Nicolas raconter ses multiples aventures, avec la naîveté et la candeur d’un en enfant qui semble ne pas très bien saisir l’importance de tous ses actes et les réactions qu’ils entraînent auprès des adultes.”

On display were original drawings & text pages, as well as Goscinny's & Sempé's tools. Goscinny wrote everything on a typewriter, bought in NYC in the 40's, that he loved as a pianist loves  his or her piano. 

Photo from Wikipedia 

An extra treat for me was listening in on an interview by an American reporter with Goscinny’s son in law, Aymar du Chatenet. He said that French kids learn to read their language with Nicolas. He wasn’t sure why the translated English version didn't become popular in England & America, in the way that other foreign versions have succeeded. Indeed I had found that the English translation lacked the charm of the French, while the Polish one, Milolajek retained it. Translated editions in some 30 languages, were displayed at the show.

 You can buy "un tas de" Petit Nicolas products. I do like the postcards, but none of the spin off objects match the books themselves.

 The film version came out in 2009, but, à mon avis, the best part is the animated title sequence. To see it, click here.