I was wondering what I had done for my birthday while living in Paris during the mid-eighties.It would have been the middle of summer in France with long, hot days, so different to here in Johannesburg at the moment. This last birthday has coincided with a particularly cold period and I have been curled up under quilts.
So I found this letter, we went to the Theatre Mogador, to see 'Cabaret' for my birthday.
I seemed to have loved my evening out, the aperitifs, the live show and 'a famous Parisien "coupe", an enormous bowl of different flavoured ice-creams, chocolate mousse, cream and meringue with a nougat sauce - delicious!"
Sounds wonderfully decadent and I would so enjoy a replay of this birthday from 1987.
I seemed to have loved my evening out, the aperitifs, the live show and 'a famous Parisien "coupe", an enormous bowl of different flavoured ice-creams, chocolate mousse, cream and meringue with a nougat sauce - delicious!"
Sounds wonderfully decadent and I would so enjoy a replay of this birthday from 1987.
My letter to Doreen written from Marly-le-Roi dated just after my birthday, on the 26th July 1987, is full of the latest news and I had sent her a poster from the Faberge Exhibition. I write about the 'craftsmanship' and I do have a recall of the exquisite bejewelled orange tree.
I am smiling as I read about the silhouette of Shawni that I sketched in the letter for my family back home in Howick.
She has the framed original with her in New Zealand and I know Shawni will love reading this blog about her silhouette.
We had gone into Paris to show Fred's mother the area around the Sacre Coeur and Montmatre. She was visiting from Zimbabwe.
The Place du Tertre in Montmartre has always been a hotspot for artists to gather and to do sketches and portraits of tourists.
My weekly visits into Paris were a highlight during my few years in Paris, I would drop the littley's off at the Halte Garderie, plan my outing; which arrondissement, which museum, where to stop for coffee and maybe a lunch with Fred too.
During the week of my birthday I had explored the Muette Quarter of the 16th Arrondissement in Paris, visited the Musee Marmottan, well known for showcasing the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings of Claude Monet, his 'Water Lilies" especially. Interesting comment that I made to Doreen in the letter that 'some aren't that pleasing to the eye.' I think it refers to his later works that become more and more abstract.
The Place du Tertre in Montmartre has always been a hotspot for artists to gather and to do sketches and portraits of tourists.
My weekly visits into Paris were a highlight during my few years in Paris, I would drop the littley's off at the Halte Garderie, plan my outing; which arrondissement, which museum, where to stop for coffee and maybe a lunch with Fred too.
During the week of my birthday I had explored the Muette Quarter of the 16th Arrondissement in Paris, visited the Musee Marmottan, well known for showcasing the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings of Claude Monet, his 'Water Lilies" especially. Interesting comment that I made to Doreen in the letter that 'some aren't that pleasing to the eye.' I think it refers to his later works that become more and more abstract.
I have just remembered a series of photos that I have in one of my albums. They are of a portrait of me emerging from a canvas done on the same Place du Tertre but a few years earlier in 1981. The artist wearing a beret, as they should, bearded and just a little seedy, worked with remarkable speed and skill.
The black and white charcoal never made it back home, it was stolen along with my luggage on a train trip to Nice. Who would have thought that some years later I would be back on the Place du Tertre, this time with my daughter and another artist would do a quick black silhouette and capture another moment in our stories.
The artist certainly did capture my eyes and the openness of my gaze.
The black and white charcoal never made it back home, it was stolen along with my luggage on a train trip to Nice. Who would have thought that some years later I would be back on the Place du Tertre, this time with my daughter and another artist would do a quick black silhouette and capture another moment in our stories.
The artist certainly did capture my eyes and the openness of my gaze.
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