July is Happy Cat Month Letter

 

Cat  month is not until September according to the CATalyst Council. For me it falls in July. It did last year too.

With all the cup class ☕️ painting lately, I told Bonnie I was going to do a pretty cup letter of Paris. She said  GREAT 👍

Then I switched to sketching Luxembourg gardens. 

Then I switched back to teacups ☕️ 

Drawing sailboats ⛵️ on ponds got too tricky…

A week or so ago I went to catch the Pastel exhibit at musée d’Orsay before it closed and found out they had a cat drawing exhibition on the 5th floor call Accro-chat-age (accroché means addicted, passionate about).

I assumed everyone in the elevator/l'ascenseur was headed up to the 5th floor to see the cats 🐈‍⬛ 

I assumed wrong.

Everyone looked at me oddly when I said, Chats? 

Then I tried CATS? 

Then I made mewing noises and pretend paws. Still no response. What an idiot! 

The 5th floor is where you must take a Selfie in front of the Big clock/le grand horloge. The museum was formerly a train station built in 1810 by Victor Laloux. During the Second World War, Orsay station became a parcel shipping center to prisoners, then a reception center for prisoners during the Liberation. It was only in 1977 that the President of the Republic Valéry Giscard d'Estaing made the decision to build a museum there that would utilize the station’s carcass as a base. The official decision to build the Musée d'Orsay was in 1977 It was 9 years later that Successor President François Mitterrand inaugurated the brand new museum.

The 5th floor is where Impressionnistes paintings are stashed. An absolute must-see for ALL musée d’Orsay attendees & tourists. It is crowded & none of them are there to see the cats.

The cat exhibit, was lurking in the back in a tiny room.

I heard a man say, “What is this? 

Just cats? Get me outta here! Where are the van Goghs?” 

I was happy as a clam.

Looking at a doodle of a pile cups, I thought I saw a cat’s head in a pencil ✏️ smudge. 

Et voila! A ‘Paris cats tea party’ letter.

Off I went to various tea salons to do cup research 🔬 

Including newly opened afternoon tea at Le Grand Colbert, 

Where I ate most of their divine Paris-Brest, 

I can highly recommend their Paris-Brest. 

The perfect dessert to eat at the moment since the Tour de France is going on as you read this. 

The round pastry, in the form of a wheel, was created in 1910 by Louis Durand, pâtissier of Maisons-Laffitte to commemorate the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race he had initiated in 1891 can now found all over France. Paris Letter research can be tough at times.

The Paris Cat Tea Party Letter is up on Etsy.

Subscribe to the PARIS LETTERS for 6 or 12 months and receive an original watercolor BONUS cat bookmark!

I saw this PINK ice cream chariot thing by Samaritaine and had to add it. They have croissant milk shakes whatever that is?!

Still painting robins..

It’s going to be hot today in Paris

☕️ 🐈‍⬛ 💋 Bon Weekend à tous dear PBers 💋 🐈‍⬛ ☕️