
On Wednesday September 4th we took a quick trip to Paris for Tricia’s eye appointment. The surgeon said “c’est super.” It would have been my father’s 100th birthday, miss you dad.
Journal Thursday September 5, 2024 Last night we had dinner with our friends Pascal, Florence and their son at L’Archimedes, such a great time. Florence said my French was good (yeah). Their son (11 years old) gave us quite an explanation of a school project on the French Revolution during WWII – we were so impressed by his knowledge. (Much of what he explained was new to me, his detail of dates and what the resistance did was amazing, it seems the French do a lot more history teaching in the early grades than the US.)
We had to go to the TGV station near Disney Paris to catch or train back to Avignon. Tricia booked the tickets round trip – Avignon to Gare de Lyon. I don’t know how you interpret “round trip” but we usually think it means from point A to B then back to A… But for some unexplainable reason they ticked our return from Marne-la-Vallée Chessy TGV. We did not catch the discrepancy right away and when we did, changing it seemed just not worth it, it add almost two hours to our return trip. C’est la France.
I spent a lot of time this week on a sketch of La Cave Des Pas Sages – quite happy with the result.


One of the pleasures of Procreate is how easy it is to experiment. Digital sketching and painting is no easier than traditional mediums, in fact in many ways it is more difficult as there are so many options and a lot of technology to grasp, but it is well worth it.

Here is the narrow lane we take to reach the narrow road we are living on at the moment, our door is just to the right of the blue shutters in the distance.

When we moved to France I closed my Etsy site where I made prints of sketches available – however prints are still available, most any you see here or on Instagram could be printed for hanging. What I do now is send you a file with an image that has the right DPI etc. so you can print it as you like or I can have it printed and delivered to you ready to frame. Here is one that my niece in Utah just had printed and framed. She used Shutterfly and had it done on canvas, I think it looks quite nice.

We are well into fall now and welcoming the cooler temperatures. This is my favorite season and Provence is a delightful place to spend it. I hope your fall is going well, and that you capture the moments, with paints or camera, it is a magical time.
My posts are usually give a brief account of where we are at the moment, and of course my sketches. Tricia’s blog is where you can get a lot more depth about the places we have visited along with her wonderful photos, check out her blog.
Avignon in fall sounds idyllic
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It’s so nice to watch your sketches morph. I’ve especially noticed your people become more detailed and lively. Thanks for sharing your sketching life.
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Thank you, I think “morphing” is what artists do, we have been to a number of artist museums and been fascinated, Picasso did realism paintings as a youth then changed. Lots of factors play in, thanks for noticing.
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Your sketch of La Cave Des Pas Sages is fabulous. They need to display a copy of it inside. You know how I am about framing things–Yes, I’m a bit of a framing fanatic–but you HAVE to frame this memory!!! It’s wonderful.
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Was already thinking of doing that, finding a place to print it is on list.
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I love your work! I’ve been trying “slow drawing” – like meditative doodling – very relaxing, but nothing like your works of art. Inspiring!
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Well your Brookings photos were inspiring to me. Thanks
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You’re giving me such nostalgia for France
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We will miss it for sure.
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Your La Cave Des Pas Sages sketch is truly wonderful. You are adding more people to your sketches, and you are drawing them well. My favorite image of this post, though, is the very first. I so, so, so covet your travel journal. It truly should be published.
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Thanks, published is nice, but a lot of work.
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