La-la-la-la...guess where I'll be in a month?
Paris. Where I have never ever been yet. Ye gods!
And so, since I have the City of Light on the brain pan, I was doodling my memory of Chantal Goya(who I was watching in a darling Youtube interview over the weekend). Naw, she doesn't look just like this--it's just "inspired by".
She was in Godard's "Masculin Feminin", a great film. And of course she was a great yeye singer, a pop star of France in the 60s.
Anyone have a place of thing they want to recommend in Paris? Seems everyone's been there but me!
I suspect I'll be drawing a lot of Eiffel towers.
Or more yeye girls.
11 comments:
Hey Jenny
PARIS?!?! Envy envy.
I love Masc/fem. It's one of my first exeriences with Godard and really left a mark on me.
I hope to see some photos from your travels.
j
No, you are not the only one who hasn't been..I had a trip planned last Oct. but had to cancel due to a death in the family..I'm very curious about the Montmartre area which is supposed to have a really cool cemetary and Dali museum. I also wanted to go to a dinner and show at the Moulin Rouge...I am not really a "Francophile"...my heart belongs to the UK, but the turn of the century artistic activities in that area really have my curiousity up. So full report with photos and recommended stuff artists would like. I also planned a trip to some underground catacombs..not sure that's your thing and would want to check it out, but later this year I'll reschedule my trip and check it all out. So....recommend away with what you discover..the weirder and more unusual the better! I'll leave the cheese and wine and cafes to the rest of the tourists. Give me the weird stuff. They say you can also take tours of the original underground sewer systems that still run under the city...ah yes, I'll just get into my hazmat suit for that one.
Cynthia
I like the strokes, is it made with painter or photoshop?
Yes, the word of the day is "envy". You've probably heard this a number of times, but I love your sketch AND diaries blogs. It means the world to me (and us) that you are so faithful with it. Have safe travels, sketch and take lots of pictures. Have a wonderful time! You'll be missed.
Ha! Cynthia, we're two peas in a pod, I tells ya...when I say to people that although I repeatedly go to the UK, Scotland and Ireland, yet...I've never been to europe in my life--!
But heretofore it's because I do love England and still haven't seen all that I want to see; it's where all my childhood books and dreams were set, and when I'm there I honestly feel like I'm home, especially in Oxford. : )
But I come by my longtime yearning for France via all the french films I've seen starting with "Small Change" when I was just a kid. I admire the people I've met from there too so much that THAT motivated me...we've been saying for years "we really must go--and now we finally will--kind of spontaneous(even if we do have about 10 books on France lying around; my favorite are the "culture shock" books on how to get on in a different culture--one's called "French or Foe?" and it's brilliant, as the brits would say. Written for people genuinely relocatng there, but chock full of neat little details).
You bet your boots I'm going to visit Pere-Lachaise--I have a whole book called "Permanent Parisians"(haha) just about the cemeteries. The sculptures there are incredible...I have to pay tribute to Oscar Wilde, of course and so many others. I too like the offbeat things. I actually saw a brief thing on french TV(via our cable company)on I think the Sennelier art store in Montmarte, where Monet etc.etc. bought their pastels & paints...it's still there and open for business by the same family--and is a gorgeous art nouveau designed place. The catacombs have been reported on to me by my story coordinator, who went on his honeymoon not long ago. Sounds amazing: at the enttrance(underground) is a sign which reads in french: Halt! Beyond is the enpire of the dead." Wow.
I sure will take the pics as well as draw off my sketching hand. ; )
Have fun! We were there for the new year and weren't able to fit in as much as we'd like because the weather was terrible and I'd just lost my job!
Pere Lachaise and the catacombes are definitely on our list on our next trip, but we were able to make it to the Cimetière de Montmartre, which we loved. One of the things I enjoyed most, though, was sitting in cafes and people watching. There are so many great places to stop and watch Paris perform around you (including the wonderfully surly wait staff -- don't take them personally!).
We have a few shots on Flickr. That reminds me, I still need to get a roll of 35mm processed!
The top sketch is so beautiful!
Forgot to say Shakespeare and Company just for the hell of it, and shop like mad everywhere, the big department stores, the real marche des puces, not the touristy one but the one that happens once a week, (ask any concierge), get up vewy early take the Metro south and get off at pont de Vincennes, have freshly cooked chestnuts, listen to old victrolas playing, find wonderful old illustrations to buy, and vintage Edwardian clothes of course, then when the bakeries open have a great breakfast and head back home to ogle your treasures.
Jenny -
Check out the flea market north of Paris at Saint-Ouen/Porte de Clignancourt, Le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen. It's a great well known flea market and they have everything you could think of from junk to great art.
Also museé d'Orsey, it's a beautiful museum, and full of impressionists works, which was the first time I'd ever seen then for real besides on a calendar.
I went to the Pere-Lachaise too, but in the dead of winter, even then it was cool looking with the trees hanging over the walkways with their spindley branches. I had to do the 'American' thing and visit Jim Morrison's grave.
Have a great time.
Kevin
Go check out the Latin quarter and the Odeon neighborhood. It's mellow and pretty and has a million bookstores and comic book stores and theatres. If you get a coffee, take at least an hour to sip it. Walk the Champs Elysse and lie out on the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower and bring your sketchbook for awesome people-watching. Musee D'Orsay is also a wonderful museum--and much more manageable than the Louvre. And watch out for pickpockets! :P
Have fun!!
That is really beautiful sketch...
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