Paris Adventures...

A canal tour boat heads through the city and
prepares to tackle the intricate system of locks.

Bonjour my friends,

Much has happened since my last post.  Without further ado, I’ll get right into it.

Sports:  I kinda knew that I would like fencing, but I didn’t know I’d like it so much.  What’s interesting is how enthusiastic I get when it’s time to fight.  One of my fights was unbelievable.  After watching this really tall guy with long arms slaughter another of my classmates, he got put up against me.  I thought about samurai training and how sometimes, you just have a shorter sword… well in this case I had shorter arms. 

I decided that I would be very aggressive and get inside close and fast.  I guess he decided to be aggressive too.  We clashed… really clashed!  We crossed swords and bumped into each other, even ending up on the other side of one another at times.  The deaths were violent. 

On one pass I jammed my sword into his chest as he was lunging toward me.  My sword was nearly bent over and I thought it would break… or go into him and I let go of the handle!  The handle flew straight up.  I caught the the blade with my gloved hand; the tip the blade still poking into his chest. 

"Touche!"  I said. 

Art:  The Stein family collection is hanging at the Grand Palais right now.  I’ll wager there is a Miller in the collection, but of course many great painters will be on display.  I’ve already heard the reviews as emotional and fantastic.  I can’t wait.

• My art on the other hand, perhaps stirs less emotion, but is really getting a lot better.  I’m about five weeks into the craft, and getting substantially fewer critics when I post my sketches on facebook.  Here’s a few for your viewing enjoyment.

A quick 2 minute sketch of last week's model.

In this exercise, we were not
allowed to draw the model,
but only to make shapes.

Here I try to draw the model.
So close!

Fashion:  Yesterday I saw a 15 year old girl walking down my street wearing a worn pair of Louboutins.  Draw your own conclusions from that…

• The fall fashions are out and disappointingly, the men’s fashions are identical to last year; black suits with a choice of blue or purple shirt.  Seriously?  Even I will have trouble trying to rock out that look, despite that I've been getting slim enough to wear one of these skinny-assed French suits.

Food: I’ve finally witnessed the supermarket at the Galeries Lafayette.  Holy jumped up Jesus.  I could die there.  There is every kind of delicious thing a person could ever want… and you can eat it right there.

City Life:  I still haven’t made the move to bring my car to Paris.  I don’t need a car.  I can’t imagine needing a car.  Now, as thought to mock me for even thinking I might one day need a car, the city has created new electric car rentals… much on the same principal of the bike rentals.  Anyone want to buy a used Porsche?

• I keep discovering new things in the city any time I go for a walk.  For example, in the 10th, I knew that there was a canal complete with locks or somesuch, but I'd never seen them work.  The other day, lo and behold, was a boat going through them.  It was a spectacle.

The tour boat eventually goes into this tunnel
where the passengers are devoured by vampires.

That’s all for now folks!  I’ve been behind in my posts and have stories about Prague and Bath to catch up on.

See you soon!

Sir Robyn