French Independence Day, Radishes

 

This morning at 7:32 I thought I heard the French Guarde Republicaine band playing & ran 🏃‍♂️ outside to catch them

But found just a lone runner…

Meanwhile I’m working on my thumbnail homework for class. This is not the assignment. I’m rebelling. It’s my Independence day 🇫🇷 

A few days ago we were supposed to draw thumbnails outside. 

I drew ✏️ out my window.

First just line drawings…

Then coloring in the drawings.

I felt like I wanted to blow up each thumbnail bigger… Meanwhile we’ve moved on to painting postage stamps thumbnails 

Yesterday’s assignment was - go outside and draw ✏️thumbnails of whatever our eye 👁️ falls on randomly while using a viewfinder. So much jumping 🤸‍♂️ around.

I decided I’m not doing that & took pictures out my window of the sky at 5:30 am

Then I painted quick sky impressions.. Even an ADHDer needs to focus sometimes 🙃

Backtracking to Monday, I went to the other Sennelier Freres on rue de la Grand Chaumière to buy paper for class. They were closed 😟 even though Google said they were open.

!eandering around the corner, I discovered a beautiful children’s wear shop

The seashells in the window reminded me…

Of the Redon seashell at the Orsay Pastel exhibit.

And in another window, the perfect mini tea set with a wooly macaron..

I had to go in ☺️ FYI Princess Charlotte wears their smocked dresses.

The complete tea sets are from Limoges, with additional hand painted decoration of your choice by an artist nearby (49€).

The shop has been around since the May ‘68 Paris revolution and still has scratches on the windows to prove it staff told me. She told me the students said they would come back to buy clothes for their kids later and they did 👏

I said I needed to think about the tea 🫖 set overnight 🤔

And she wrote in my notebook in her best écriture,

’la nuit porte conseil’

The night brings advice.

Further down rue Notre Dame des Champs, the brocante shop, Portobello is a must visit.

I used to drool regularly over Portobello’s windows when I stayed on rue Vavin for 3 weeks in 2006..

When I saw these cobalt blue cups I HAD to go inside. A complete set of 5 cups of limited edition Bleu de Sévres porcelaine 

Bleu de Sévres is made by applying 3 successive layers of Cobalt oxide with intermittent drying between each session - an arduous process.

5 Blue cups Price tag - 500€ 

I’ll be thinking about these cups for a longggg time 🤔 

La nuit porte conseil

Fortunately on the corner at Le Petit Souk on rue Vavin I found something…a wooden radis. Price tag - 3,90€. 

When I moved to Paris I lived mostly on radishes. Marché Grenelle was a quick fall-out-of-bed and a hop around the corner in the 15th. 

I still eat them everyday, usually with houmous or tzatziki or straight-up sliced paper-thin

Feeling a bit hungry I looked around for a snack. These big as your head, old fashioned meringues appealed..

I ended up with a pistache gelato at Amorino 

Walking back to Metro Vavin these classic French waitresses are having a break before dinner service.

A Bleu de Sévres 💙 sign inside the Metro.

Back home, in front of my house, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms was taking a breather. I’m hearing the Guarde Republicaine drumming again! Do I go outside for a look see? Missed em again 🙃