Last Wednesday the homeless viruses of the area decided they needed a place to hang out, and I was chosen to be their AirBnb. In spite of the efforts of the Airborne that we took I succumbed to their invasion for a few days of coughing and sniffing. Thankfully for me, they checked out yesterday, but sadly for Tricia they chose her for their next encampment, I hope she recovers quickly.

The day before my appetite was surrendered to my temporary visitors, we visited the market and ate well. At our favorite produce stand we loaded up, then we were fourtuante to find Buffalo Burrata at a cheesemongers. Tricia turned it into a meal that was evidence that vegetarian is amazing – BTW it is also less expensive and really easy. The roasted spring onions were the star of the event.

For the next few days nothing much sounded good. We didn’t get out so my sketching on location screeched to a halt. I was able to finish a book that Tricia recommended – Time Was Easy There, a tribute to Shakespeare and Co., by Jeremy Mercer. One of best reads in a long time.

Procreate has so many features that I still do not know how to use, I doubt I will ever use them all as it is such a powerful app for art. Thanks to YouTube I was able to explore “masks” and learned a few new techniques, now of course the challenge is to apply them. So I just did a couple of paintings, as well as working on commission from Tricia, a map of our cruise in Croatia. She of course gets the friends and family discount, actually I think those roasted vegetables make us even.

Sunday we both felt good enough to head to Paris for lunch and a card shop we like near Bastille. We tried a new place, Grande Brasserie, and were delighted with both the food and our server – we all laughed together at our French and her English. The food and ambience are what makes Paris le meilleure.

Before catching the Metro back to Nanterre we stopped off next to Bastille. If we ever leave France it may be the cafe-culture that I will miss the most, areas like this are perfect and they just don’t exist in Portland and Seattle.

Unfortunately, the viruses that are camping out with Tricia don’t like to travel so they started une manifestation. Now we are drinking tea, I went foraging and made vegetable soup, and we watch movies on Netflix.

The micro-interlopers only have a short reservation so both of us will be back to top form soon, which is good because Dublin with its music and Guinness is just six days away.

If you are in the US I pretty much hope you did not travel over Memorial Day as the news was pretty bleak about the crowds. If you did, I hope it was a joy, and I do hope you captured it in a sketch.