♥~ French Travel Journal 2016 Complété ~♥

my art journal from our Best of France Trafalgar tour in April is  finished (we were most fortunate to have Krista Taylor as our tour director and Frances for our bus driver which made for a perfectly wonderful time)…

thanks to everyone for supporting me along the way by visiting me here…

a special shout out to Susi and Valerie at Art Journal Journey along with all of the talented hosts and participants each month…

my altered Tour Eiffel lady was among my favorite spreads…

a bit of coffee dyed netting and it’s a wrap ~♥~ Merci beaucoup!!!

Cimetière du Père Lachaise

on our first Sunday in Paris we headed across town to visit Père Lachaise Cemetery…established in 1804 it has the distinction of being the first garden cemetery which is a style of burial ground that uses landscaping in a park-like setting…

it was a gorgeous sunny blue sky day and we wandered for hours…

and managed to find Jim Morrison‘s grave site with its make shift barricades that people still seem compelled to go beyond (our photos are full of shadows)…

formerly called Cemetery of the East it is the largest park and cemetery in the city of Paris on 110 acres with about 5,000 trees…

there were views of the Eiffel Tower and the Montparnasse Tower with the help of our telephoto lens (we also found France’s beloved Edith Piaf’s grave)…

“The cemetery’s hilly terrain and tree-lined avenues are at once overcrowded, peaceful, and seductive. Sculptures abound, and the tombs run the gamut from simple, flat, horizontal headstones to elaborate mini-chapels open to the public. Some of the tombs are immaculately cared for, others dilapidated and abandoned.” –Encyclopedia Britannica

our visit inspired two more pages in my French Travel Journal (the photo above is not altered it was a reflection looking thru a tiny monument window)…

using some of our photos and a couple of pressed daisies we picked in another park in Paris…

I am joining in with the Art Journal Journal IN MY GARDEN THERE IS… and the Moo Mania & More PARIS challenges…

Eze Cité Médiévale

on the same day we visited Saint-Paul du Vence on our Best of France tour we also got to spend time in the medieval hill top village of Eze…located between Nice and Monaco…

it is also called “the eagle’s nest” because of how it is perched on a narrow rocky peak overlooking the Mediterranean sea…we opted out of the extra excursion most of our group took to the Fragonard Parfumeur…because strong smells do not agree with me…

that gave us time to walk around town instead…it was not very crowded on that Wednesday in April…

we climbed and clicked photos…

until we rejoined our group for dinner…

the lamp post above was covered in stickers that had the letter “F” on them stuck there by people who had been on the perfume tour in the past (you can click twice on the photo for a closer look)…

we had the Traveling Tea Cup with us and snapped some photos with thoughts of  T Stands for Tuesday (you can see the box the tea cup and saucer travel in behind the rail on the left below)… a brochure we brought home had a lovely map which inspired two more pages in my French Travel Journal…

I added a favorite image of young Teodoro even though he is Italian and not French…

along with strips of Florentine paper which added to the medieval feel with touches of gold and blue paint…  part of a label from some sparkling wine was the last thing I added to my pages for the Art Journal Journey MAPS challenge… it may take me awhile to visit everyone because Jim is working on our computer and there seems to be one problem after another 😕 I had to stand on my head to get this to post

Principauté de Monaco

 the Principality of Monaco is the world’s second smallest country (the Vatican is smaller) located on the French Riviera…

known for its glitz and glam and hedonistic life style…

we enjoyed the beautiful views which included a visit to the cathedral where Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace are buried…

preparations were being made for this year’s Grand Prix and our bus rode on part of the race route which would be closed later on in May for the famous Formula 1 race…working in no particular order in my French Travel Journal Monaco ended up as the last page even though we visited on the second day of our tour… joining Art Journal Journey for their MAPS challenge here

last time I saw Paris…

the first cut into my large sheet of Paris Cavallini & Co. paper was the hardest so I decided to use two nice sized pieces for the first pages in my French Travel Journal…almost too nice to cover up adding a couple of images from a French book and the baguettes from a bread bag……

adding a stitched linen pouch on the left hand page filled with ticket stubs and such (Chris’ lovely tag is in there too)…joining in again for Art Journal Journey’s MAPS challenge…

“The last time I saw Paris,

her heart was warm and gay,

I heard the laughter of her heart in every street café.” -Oscar Hammerstein II

Le Mont Saint-Michel

the traveling tea cup and I are joining T Stands for Tuesday today with a little trip to Normandy, France…

built in the 11th century the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey Church has been an important pilgrimage destination…

it was exciting for me to return to a place that was magical so many years ago when I stayed there as a solo traveler…

back then before the addition of the bridge high tides would completely cut off traffic…

there are about 3 million visitors annually (even on a Tuesday in April it was crowded)…  there are 900 stairs from the bottom to the landing of the nave at the top along with lots of cobblestone streets…

we wished we’d had a little more time there…

good reason to return again one day…

I created two pages in my French Travel Journal using original text from two old books (the postcard lifts up and is from my nine week trip to Europe long ago… I sent a postcard to my parents almost every day)…I was also inspired to create two pages in one of my gesso journals using a vintage map of the abbey on pages I painted black…the ‘tell me everything’ image is a moo card enlarged and printed in black and white…this spread is for the Art Journal Journey MAPS challenge…

I had been playing with this image days before the horrific Orlando shootings… the French calligraphy was from a friend back when I participated in swaps… a dried rose mirrored the rose on the vintage plate…  the bee is painted tin…

I used Pixlr Express to alter my photo…

~♥ “Je te souchaite” = “I wish you” … LOVE ALWAYS ♥~

 

Art Journal Journey May Wrap up plus one more…

the creativity for Erika’s JOURNEYS theme last month was great (you can see everyone’s work in the gallery here)…

I got a nice bit of work done in my French Travel Journal above…

along with a piece in my “Life is but a dream” journal…

I also created a digital collage honoring our son’s Appalachian Trail journey… 

while clearing out a bit this morning I came across some scraps of fabric fusion paper … a blue paper dinner napkin from our travels that I had only used the corner of and didn’t want to waste along with a couple of free images from the internet and a quote which inspired me to make two last pages for Art Journal Journey’s May theme of JOURNEYS…

HOPE can be an important part of every journey don’t you think…

Avignon …

Avignon sits in the heart of Provence, France…

in the early 1300’s it was the seat of the Catholic Church for about 70+ years…and home to the Palace of the Popes with a beautiful castle and cathedral surrounded by lovely gardens…

lots of towns in France have a carousel…this two story one in the main square in Avignon was lovely…

the Palais des Papes was the largest Gothic palace ever built by Pope Clement V, who abandoned Rome in 1309…

such rich history…Avignon was immortalized in a song you may have heard about the famous medieval bridge which has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site...

we hiked up the hill for a great view of the Rhône River and recharged our batteries at le Cafe du Rocher while we watched a mother duck and her ducklings play in the fountain…

I was not much of a shopper on our trip concentrating more on collecting memories and photos…

BUT there were temptations (Linda the poppy mug made me think of you!)…

in the Provence region Lavender is a big attraction and I just had to snap a quick photo of these full length bathroom stall doors at a rest stop (designed with privacy in mind…they are not uncommon throughout Europe)… back at home after coming across three different napkins in my stash I got busy peeling away several layers and tearing and pasting pieces of napkin for quite a long time…

I added several sprigs of Lavender that I had pressed from our garden hoping that “fleurs partout” translates to “flowers everywhere” (French Lavender fields won’t be blooming until around late June – July I believe) …

joining Elizabeth’s T Stands for Tuesday and Art Journal Journey today for the last day of Erika’s lovely JOURNEYS challenge…(Avignon angel photo layered with Diana iphone app onto my teapot/cup photo)

~♥ thank you for visiting ♥~

 

Paris is always a good idea…

we treasured the extra days we got to spend in the city of lights both before and after our Best of France tour…

La Flamme de la Liberté above is a replica of the new flame at the upper end of the torch carried in the hand of the Statue of Liberty in New York … it became an unofficial memorial for Diana, Princess of Wales, after her death in 1997 in the nearby tunnel beneath the Pont de l’Alma…

it would not be hard to fill a journal with just Paris…

in going through a couple of goodie drawers here at home I found some great French bits and bobs which led to a few more art journal pages…

I made a tiny postcard to slide into a French velum envelope addressed to all of you lovely blog friends out there…

using some original French ledger and book pages felt good… (the first rip is always the hardest)…

I have confessed in the past that I sometimes use copies of vintage ephemera but I am doing much better at using the real thing…

even though Erika’s JOURNEYS challenge is winding down for the month over at Art Journal Journey I have a second set of pages to share today…getting to meet Chris and Tony from the UK and Sabine from Germany  helped make some extra special Paris memories for us…

Chris enjoys coffee so she has a bit of used coffee filter by her and Sabine likes tea so I used the muslin tea bag from the tea we shared in a Paris cafe near Notre Dame (yup dried them out and took them home) … I enjoy both tea and coffee which is represented on the left hand page (after carefully opening the tea bags and putting the tea leaves in a special dish garden I noticed shimmery flakes on the inside of the tea bag fabric which for me symbolized just how magical our time in Paris was… thanks to The Graphics Fairy for the lovely ladies and cherubs … the Eiffel Tower is from a peeled tissue)…

(snapped a photo of the interesting ironwork by Notre Dame and noticed what was written on the marble on the left hand side when I got home: ICI LA REVOLUTION)

“Paris is always a good idea.” -Audrey Hepburn from the movie Sabrina

Saint-Émilion

Saint-Émilion is a village in the Bordeaux wine region of France (a UNESCO World Heritage Site)…

their history goes back to prehistoric times…

there were wonderful photo opportunities at every turn…

I could snap photos of windows… doors and arches all day long…

the Gothic Collegiate Church Cloister built between the 13th and 14th centuries contrasted beautifully with a more modern art installation there…wish we knew more about that…this sign made us giggle with its great sense of humor (many Europeans speak two and three languages at least)…

I created another spread in my French Travel Journal printing some of my artwork onto a used and flattened teabag (more about the process here)…

using one of my hand carved stamps on tissue paper and my arch photograph on the left hand page…

the peeled wisteria napkin pieces attached with glue stick were the final touches for my spread …

this is my tenth entry for AJJ’s JOURNEYS challenge… 

~♥~ thank you for your visit ~♥~

save the bees…

we had occasion to speak to French bee keepers in the lobby of our hotel in Paris…

their education booth was a nice surprise and we learned that city bees are doing better than country bees these days…

for over 15 years Paris has officially been a pesticide-free zone which aids breeding in addition to the warmth of the city environment…

we enjoyed the views of Paris after walking up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe (you can see the people along the top…we could feel the wind vibration in some of those security spikes)…

(some lovely Paris rooftop gardens with a new one going in on the bottom left)

I am joining Erika’s JOURNEYS challenge over at Art Journal Journey with this spread in my French Travel Journal…

“Stop using chemicals in your garden.  In the US more chemical tonnage is used on lawns and golf courses than on crops.  Even people with apartments routinely use pesticides on their window boxes, killing every butterfly that visits.”  –Mark Daniels, Director The Strange Disappearance Of The Bees

Cité de Carcassonne

Carcassonne is a beautiful fortified French town and a UNESCO World Heritage site…

during the 3rd century A.D. a curtain wall was built and parts remain today…

building began in the 12th and 13th centuries of “La Cité”  as it is also called with 53 towers strung together by two enormous concentric walls…

here is a UNESCO quote about this ancient walled “city”:   

“Since the pre-Roman period, a fortified settlement has existed on the hill where Carcassonne now stands. In its present form it is an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town, with its massive defences encircling the castle and the surrounding buildings, its streets and its fine Gothic cathedral. Carcassonne is also of exceptional importance because of the lengthy restoration campaign undertaken by Viollet-le-Duc, one of the founders of the modern science of conservation.”

we were excited that there was a planned overnight stay within the ancient walls…

and the traveling tea cup had a nice view from our second story window…

at night the fortress took on another kind of charm…

the next day we were headed to the Midi-Pyrénées region in southwest France to visit Lourdes…

joining Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover for T Stands for Tuesday and linking two more art journal pages with AJJ’s JOURNEYS theme…

I used torn pieces of peeled napkin for the starry sky… a photo that I took along with computer generated words and the Carcassonne medieval coat of arms…

 

music is the universal language…

 

in the weeks before our trip to France my mind would wander and I would imagine walking on the streets of Paris hearing accordion music played on a street corner…as Mr Magpie and I were strolling the narrow cobble stone back streets of Avignon we happened upon a gentleman playing his accordion…

my heart skipped a beat when I heard him and then we saw him as we turned the corner…

I was so excited and did manage to take a short video…

 you can see Mr Magpie on the left and you can hear me using my best “Merci Beaucoup” to the nice workmen in the van for not running into me around that sharp turn…

I am joining AJJ’s JOURNEYS challenge again with this page in my French Travel Journal capturing a moment we will never ever forget…