We have been back in La Thebaudiere, our tiny village in Normandie, for just a week – so what have we been up to?
Well of course we have spent time remembering our long trip, which for me includes some sketching. One of the best hotels we stayed in was the Central Heritage Hotel in Split.
After walking along promenades and narrow medival streets it is quite different to go for walks here. Tricia connected with one of our neighbors on one of these strolls.
When we travel my sketches are of course travel-sketches, yet when most of our travel is just to the Intermarché or down the cow-lined impasse to our cottage I do a bit of experimenting and creating – an iPad sketch recalling palm trees just seemed right.
Watching the news in the USA put me in a bit of a dark mode. You get some bonus points if you can name what artist or painting inspired this one.
My first art was in pen and ink, which I still enjoy. A new tan-paper sketchbook and memories of the fir trees in the PNW fit together well.
Of course we cooked. If you follow this blog you know that for many years we have done our version of déjeuner du dimanche, Sunday lunch.
Our herbs flourished while we were gone, so Tricia went harvesting.
For our entree I put together une assiette de saumon.
I roasted petites pomme de terres with the rosemary from our garden.
For the main it was bay scallops done in theTravelsketcher style.
It was so good that Tricia suggested I write it down in my recipe book while she did the dishes. I actually don’t mind doing the dishes or the “washing up” as our Brit neighbors call it, but I took her up on it and considered it a compliment. Modesty aside it was trés bonne.
Today we had brunch, just because it was Tuesday.
There was one more iPad sketch, dreaming of Ireland and the UK. Why? Well because we are already planning our next trip. In two weeks we go to Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, for three weeks, where we will sell our car and just hang out. Then we will head for Dublin, Cardiff, and Cornwall.
Everyday we are so thankful that our retirement is allowing this, along with the ease of travel thanks to living in France – it has been:
We never tire of traveling, we may get tired while traveling, but never tire of our curiosity to see what is around the next bend. I hope your journeys are safe and peaceful, whether far or near. And as always I encourage you to sketch, eat, and meet new people.
theTravelsketcher 
It is nice to be home even for a little while. Lovely sketches and photos. I enjoyed the meals too. 😉
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We do enjoy food home and away, thanks.
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Fab.U.lous
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Great sketches! – Cheers.
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Thank you so much.
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Great neighbours! 😉 And those meals! Look so delicious. Asparagus is one of my total favourites. As to the painter, I’m thinking Cézanne, but I’m not sure. It’s certainly not Whistler and his mother. 😉 Beautiful sketches.
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We only eat asparagus when they are local and in season, the rest of the year they just don’t taste as wonderful.
Nope, I was think of the darkness of things and the image that came to my mind was the Potato Eaters, dark and rustic. It grew from that image.
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Van Gogh! Yes, the atmosphere; I see what you mean. I was thinking more about content and therefore of painters who did seated subjects.
Yes, asparagus in season! When I lived in Germany I loved finding the white asparagus. So good!
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Enjoyed every single sketch and every single photo of food. (Why didn’t you invite us to dinner….?) The photo showing Tricia with ‘neighbors’ will be a memory for both of you of your time in Normandy. And your final paragraph served to further inspire us to follow our own ‘Votre Grande Aventure”–(nice pillow from C & JJ 🙂)
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The dishes you create in the galley-ish kitchen in your 250-ish year old cottage (with its WAAYY too tiny refrigerator) look as beautiful and delicious as the meals you enjoy in the wonderful eateries of your travels. I often say my mother had a flair for happiness; you and Tricia have a flair for living life well.
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We do enjoy life and many of the things it brings us. And we like so much the friends that are part of that life.
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