Impressionism Babe

Today I watched the Bastille day parade. It is really different than American parades (I’m thinking thanksgiving day and rose parades). It’s a military parade so basically it’s just a bunch of marhing soldiers. At least there are various uniforms to hold my attention.
By far the coolest regiment was the pioneers. They wore leather aprons and carried hatchets! And every single man had a beard and moustache!!!!!! Hahaha it was like a regiment of lumberjacks! Awesomeness!!
The second best was the only cavalry unit. These guys had huge crested helmets with feathers and old school military coats. They were riding horses remember, and also they played brass!!! Mounted sousaphones!!
Okay overall it was eh level of coolness but some pretty sweet French military units made up for the stiffness of french parade.

Since I am in sete, a fishin town, I feel like the seafood is really always the way to go. So at the two restaurants I’ve been too I ordered fish. Also, I always eat the fish that my host family serves me, which is always small with heads and bones and skin. Somehow my family decided that I love love love fish. Basically they think I am some king of fish eating fiend. Perhaps because my host sister is super picky and likes neither the locally caught fish nor FRENCH cheese! Side note: after every meal a plate of cheese is passed round, and I would like to institute this tradition in my house. Anyway, so yes they think I really like fish and it is funny, because compared to some people I know *cough* mom *cough* I don’t actually like fish that much.

So we are watching the world cup finals. Apparently in southern france everyone wants Spain to win. So then I have to root secretly for Netherlands, which has a very awesome French name, Pays-Bas.

I rooted for Pays-Bas for two other reasons: they are a super tiny country and they wear all ORANGE!!

Once we reached overtime the French got restless and declared that if Spain wins they will throw me in the pool.

I refused adimately enough, so luckily even a Spanish victory did not leave me wet.

So here is the art I have done so far. Mostly it’s studies I’ve done in the museums Rodin, louvre, and d’orsay.

First is my only painting, watercolor of the view from my window in Paris.

Second is a sketch of a bust of rodin.

Third is a pastel of a northern European work fromthe louvre. One of my hosts thought it looked like Toulouse-Lautrec, a french impressionist painter. I saw him in d’orsay, and i sort of agree.

Fourth is a study of an Assyrian wall motif from the louvre. It’s just one if maybe twenty soldiers all in a row. And the real thing was super cool because it was like a flat sculpture made out of painted bricks.

Fifth is from the Rodin museum, it’s a guy and a child. I really like working with a darker paper so hat I can focus on the light rather than line.

Sixth is a classic Rodin, the three furies that are on top of the gates of hell. Which Rodin enlarged to a larger than human size, just as he did with the thinker, which is also in the gates of hell.

Seventh is another northern European paintig from the louvre. It’s an old couple reading a book. It was cool the study the northern European style with a single source of light, (think Vermeer’s windows– speaking of Vermeer, his lacemaker is in the louvre, very small and detailed)

Eigth is from d’orsay, Pierre Bonnard femmes en le jardin. In d’orsay we found our artistic ‘parents’, which means we were to find a style that we wanted to draw from. Then we did studies of the techniques and compositions of that artist. My artist papa is Pierre bonnard because I love how he uses pattern and almost abstract shapes to make his paintig of actual things. Anyway this lady was just one panel of four, it was actually really hard to do this unrealistic painting in pastel.

Ninth is a sculpture in the louvre, a philosopher or someone, I don’t really know I was sitting on a bench cuz I was tired and semi lost and I ended looking at this sculpture from behind kinda, that was interesting to me, so I drew it.

Tenth is another study of my papa, Pierre Bonnard en bateau. It’s not finished cuz I ran out of time. But anyway the view is from a boat out onto the water and another boat.

Eleventh is of a Rodin statue of a girl on a stump. This I accidentally drew on the back if my pad thinking it was another sheet of paper. Anyway she was in a really wierd postion. So it was Rodin not me that skrewed with the human body.

So that is it. I know that these pics are really bad they are just phone pics. If you wanna see any of these in real life just tell me and I’ll show you when I go home!

In my host family’s 8′ x 15′ garden there are about 10 different floering plants, a dining room table seating 8, and 4 palm trees. I took some pics of the flowers. Basically it’s idyllic.

Today I went to a French McDonalds.
I took pictures.

The first is of the automatic ordering machines, where you can use a credit card to order. We didn’t have a card so we had to then wait for half an hour!!!

The second is of the very friendly worker. This is the first friendly fastfood worker I have ever met! Usually they are just so grumpy.

The third is of the mens uniforms. Navy blue tee shirts with… PINK SLEEVES!!! You can’t see it in the pic but they also had matching McDonalds jeans.

Now for what I ate, it was called Le M. It was like the nice French version of a cheeseburger with emmenthal cheese, lettuce, and a very good patty for MacDo.

So basically le MacDo is a fairly desireable location if you want a 30 minute wait for an average hamburger.

Today I saw boat jousting. Yes boat jousting.

So teams of 12 oarsmen, plus the jousters row funny looking boats down the canals in Sete. The boats have long ladder like platforms at the back end for the jousters to stand with their poles and shields. Then at the front of the boat, like in crew, there is a drummer guy.

But here is where the double reed comes in… In each boat, next to the drummer there is a guy with a primitive oboe like horn. No joke! It is totally awesome!!! Yes double reeds as cheerleaders in an awesome sport like BOAT JOUSTING!!!!

Today my host family took me to the country for a picnic. We saw a sign for le Chateau de Fayet and decided to go. What do you know, we are in a house tour! In French! I understood it solely because the words for architectural features are basically the same in English and French. Cool huh!?

Anyway I learned that in chateau de Fayet was basically only for show. And even so the rooms are kinda small. Apparently the painted ceilings showed the interests of the nobility in the castle. For example in one room there were little flames on the ceiling, which they supposed meant that the duke was interested in alchemy, turning stuff into gold.

So yeah! The French have house tours too. Except in this one the guide would pose questions to the audience while explaining things like the throne. In the end me and my family represented the noble family of the castle and were decked out with wigs crowns and hats. It was so confusing! But funny at the same time.

So yeah alls good in France.

So I guess the French have so many old statues that they just do whatever they want to them.

The BEST gelato ever:

I have here the nutty cone: hazelnut, pistachio, and almond!