Day 2 in Paris - once in a blue moon?

Inside le jardin du Luxembourg, Panthéon visible  in the distance

Day 2 in Paris.

A lazy day.

my first attempt to draw

A luxury to just lay around and not feel the pressure to wildly cram each moment full of experience.

Steve slept in, and I wandered down Rue Soufflot to a stationary shop to buy a small book (and pencil) for doodling in.  

Success.

I then wandered down to the Jardin de Luxembourg, and found a place to sit and draw. 

My first attempt (looking back at the gates towards the street beyond) reminded me that I do really want to learn how to draw (lol), and that the pleasure is in the voyage and not necessarily the destination!  :-)

I wandered further into the park, enjoying the overcast skies, offering perfect weather for walking around (ie. not too hot, not too cold).  I found another seat down by the pool, where kids were playing with their boats.   I determined to give the 'drawing thing' another try.

Here is a photo of the direction I was looking, and the drawing that resulted.  

a photo of the park...

my second attempt at sketching 'en pleine aire'

By this time, Steve was awake.   He took the reins, and walked us in the direction of his old stomping grounds (from when he was doing his MBA in Paris back in the early/mid 90s.  

I enjoyed walking past this statute, which honours two pharmacists who 'invented/discovered/purified' quinine.

There were lots of things this made me think of.  I know I am supposed to think of quinine and malaria, but i could help thinking of a gin and tonic.   At least, i think the statue on top of the plinth here could indeed make one think of the sickness of malaria, or of someone who has overly imbibed of a G&T.  

But, curiosity being what it was, i headed off to the interweb for a bit of research on the history of quinine, which did affirm my sense that it was discovered by indigenous folks in Peru, much earlier.   Also, very interesting to see the linkages of quinine in histories of colonization and economy and war.  I recommend a bit of research others.  :-)

Our travels took us through the far end of the Jardin du Luxembourg, and past some beautiful scultpures.

Our travels took us back to the cafe Odessa, where Steve and I had a "salad montparnasse" back in 1995.  So funny to be there again nearly 30 years later.   The menu had changed in those years, but the salads we had were equally formidable!

We slowly worked our way back to Pantheon, to spend the last evening hours people watching on the patio of a cafe closer to 'home'.  That gave me a bit of time to try my third drawing of the day.  Here is the photo, and my attempt.  

the reference picture

my attempt

I will say, having a book to doodle in does help me slow myself down, and stay longer where i am, rather than feeling impelled to run off after another experience.  

Sitting there with my doodling to hand, there was also time to enter into conversation with our waiter, who had a wonderful tattoo of manga characters (most of whom i recognized, given Duncan's love of manga).  He not only told me to take a photo to send to Duncan, but also gave us an explantion of the inspiration he had taken in his life from each of the different characters.   Now THAT was a fun conversation!

And finally, to return to the title of this post?   As we wandered the one block back to the hotel (now 11:45pm), we looked up and saw the moon hanging above the top of our hotel.

I ran inside to get my good camera, to see if i could capture a close up.   The concierge told me (i had not known) that this was a 'super blue moon'.   So.... here it is.

It was a beautiful thing to see.  

And, one last photo of the Pantheon while i was out there.