On Friday, Oct. 11, I was up at 7:15 and at La Lorraine at 9:00 for 2 cafe cremes and a croissant. I finished the blog post for Thursday and published it. I may have already said this in that post! No time to check myself, I just have to soldier on with this. I was back at the apartment around 11:00 for more breakfast: apple, yogurt, nuts and raisins. I also took some photos of my art work in progress. As I explain in the captions, things have turned around for me – my workshop planning and blogging must all be done on-the-go now, so my art work no longer is. Now I am doing art sessions at the very end of the day in my apartment. I’m not following any structured overall project (as I have instructed my workshop students to do). With everything else that I’m doing all day, that would be some serious overload for me. But I don’t want to stop doing my creative work because I find the doing of it very restful and healing. Although I’m having a good bit of fun, there is also a good bit of stress in preparing to lead 9 other people around this big city. There is also simply a good bit of fatigue from doing so much everyday and encountering so much that is totally new – and sometimes confusing. Although so many people here speak English, almost all the signs and newspapers and magazines and brochures are in French, so it takes me a while to figure things out. Even getting groceries takes more energy here than at home – figuring out those labels! So, my art work is still being done, but I’m taking all pressure off myself regarding it – I don’t even care if it all fails and I toss it in the trash in the end. It’s the doing of it that is important to me. Keeping in practice and resting with an activity I love.

I left the apartment again around noon and walked to the train station, stopping at the bus office to pick up some schedules for buses #15 and #17. Then I got on #17 to go to the Matisse Museum – this is what the workshop group will do when we are staying at the villa, we will take the 64 or 75 bus from the villa to the train station, then the 17 bus to the Musee Matisse – I was doing a test run. As you can see in the photos, I visited more than just the museum – there are also Roman ruins, a park, a monastery, and monastery gardens. I took photos of everything outside, but wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the museum. It is a small Matisse exhibit, but there are some important things shown there that deserve attention. When the workshop group visits I’ll first take the group around and point out a few things, then everyone can look at their own pace for a specified time. After that we will do an art session, or maybe two: one in the monastery garden and one in the Matisse Museum garden. We will see how much time we have. After touring the museum, I bought a piece of quiche from the park cafe (see photo) and sat on a bench to eat it while I watched some men playing boules.

Revived by my snack and my rest, I took the #15 bus to the Chagall Museum. It was a short ride, maybe 10 minutes. There is a lovely outdoor cafe on the grounds, see the photo. I was also allowed to take photos inside, and I’ve included two. I usually don’t like audio guides, but I got one this time in order to check it out for the group. I decided that I recommend that everyone get one – they are included in the entry fee. I am not a Chagall fan, but the audio guide helped me appreciate his work in a way I hadn’t before. They discuss composition, color, symbolism, the use of cubist structure, and the narrative. I’ll get more specific for the workshop group when we are there.

I knew from reading the guidebooks and asking at the TI office that the only way to get from the Musee Chagall to the train station is by foot. I got instructions and tried it out – it isn’t hard at all, nor is it very long, maybe 15 minutes. Once I did my test run to the train station bus stop where we will be getting the bus back to the villa, I decided to get groceries on my way back to the apartment. I found out that the Monoprix grocery store is very close – this will come in quite handy when we are all staying at the villa and must bring groceries up with us. I’ll be writing more about this to the group via email. For myself on Friday, I bought green beans, peas, asparagus, apples, cheese, bread, yogurt, raisins, nuts, and, of course, more chocolate!

I walked back to my apartment and made myself the meal you see pictured at the end of this post. I finished about 4:00, then read through materials I had picked up throughout the day (planning, planning, planning) until 5:00. From 5:00 to 6:30 I walked the Promenade Des Anglais – not taking any photos, not doing any planning, trying to clear my head and rest my weary brain and exercise my sitting-on-the-bus-too-much body. Back at the apartment I had a glass of wine – my first since Cathy left, I realized – and some bread and cheese, and I hand-wrote this post and picked out the photos and hand-wrote the captions. I am finding that this helps me when I get to some cafe with free wifi and need to hurry. I also worked on my art projects. I conked off around 11.

It is now Saturday morning at 11:30 and I have been sitting at this table in Starbucks since 9:15. For better or worse, this post is done and I am going to hit the publish button.

Keep me company till Carl comes on the 17th by sending me comments.