Rendezvous with Rodin

One of the highlights (one of many!) for us in Paris recently was visiting Rodin's sculpture gardens. Stunning gardens, magnificent sculptures by one of the world's most talented masters. One of the facts that remained with me when we tore ourselves away from this beautiful environment was that Rodin married his life-long companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both of their lives... how interesting is that.

A Date with Paris!

I have never walked so much in my entire life as we have done so in Paris in the last week! 7 hours yesterday! Naturally there are frequent coffee stops to boost the meanderings. We left the apartment and took a route down the most incredible cobbled streets of amazing cheese shops, next to gorgeous patisseries.. You name it, I could have eaten it! One of my favourites was a stunning florist called 'Happy'! I had researched the ancient passageway arcades before leaving Oz so we headed through new fab neighbourhoods to explore those, they are a wow! Tiny exquisite shops specialising in all sorts of goodies from contemporary Art to ancient maps, the specialty shops we just loved in these arcades included a wooden cane walking stick shop, a shop selling gramophones, a cotton reel shop, and a shop selling everything you need for dolls houses, all beneath these amazing arcaded ceilings. We stopped in the passageway specialising in food, of course, for lunch (rabbit) and glass of rose wine, more sustenance before culture over load set in ha! Very funny moment at 1 point, we asked a suited gentleman to confirm a street and he replied 'I dunno luv I'm from the Gold Coast here on a conference!' We all roared laughing! When we emerged from these amazing arcades we were suddenly in the trendiest area ever! My fave shop in that neighbourhood was a stylised black shop selling only white orchids and also a baby clothes shop called 'Not so Big' . The hairdressers in these groovy parts all look like 21st century night clubs. No matter where you go in Paris every bar, cafe, brasserie, restaurant is constantly buzzing! Our body clocks have completely re-set themselves too - we ate at 1030pm after seeing the divine Paris Opera ballet 'Giselle' and had to wait for table. Needless to say that the Paris Opera House left me breathless, especially Chagall's painted ceilings! A completely full house at the ballet too - with even pull-down aisle seats. I would hate to imagine if someone called out fire! And wow are Parisians in to their ballet or what! Such an enthusiastic crowd with men in dinner suits calling out bravo after each pirouette, fantastic! Home to our gorgeous rented flat in the Anvers district (9th arrondissement) after dinner and guess what, from the lounge we can see the very top tip of the Eiffel tower! The night markets set up tomorrow night outside our apartment, more food temptations to come! Saturday night we are heading to the famous Buddha Bar and Sun is lunch in St Germain at Coco and Co with my dear Parisian girlfriend. Apparently Coco and Co is set up like a farm as they specialise in eggs! Mind you brunch is at 3pm! Rodin's sculpture gardens today as we ran out of time yesterday, oh boy when am I going to shop??! panic! This trip is all about discovering new neighbourhoods moment by moment... ah!

Art Swap!

Wahoo! The Racecourse Road Ascot street festival last Sunday was a screaming success and so much fun! Eccentric creative street performers with birds nests for heads; alternative bands, yummy food and of course amazing art stalls!! Thank you if you popped in to say Hi and buy, we really appreciated it. It was a scorcher of a day with a nice cool breeze by the afternoon. Brisbane sure knows how to put on a good street party in "Spring". My artistic sis Anne and I decided to swap a piece of each other's artwork at the end of the day, a great idea among artists and friends. I immediately knew which was my fave piece of hers: a piece entitled What's It All About (you'll see why when you see the pic), inspired by her urban overseas travels to New York and London in the past... and funnily enough she knew she wanted my PARIS painting (also pictured here). We both now get to enjoy each other's creativity every day. And of course soon we'll be in Paree, can't wait for more creative inspiration from the City of Lights and Love!!

Street Party!

Come along and say Hi to my arty sis Annie and I at our art market stall at this year's Racecourse Road (Ascot) street festival as part of the Brisbane Festival - it runs from 10am until 5pm on Sunday 20th September and it's a blast! Street performers, fab food, amazing music not to mention great art (!) - fun for the whole family! Hope to see you there!

Vive Le France!

I am very excited, I start my one-on-one hourly French lessons this Sunday at Cafe Bouquiniste, in preparation for our upcoming visit to Paree! I'm definitely still a beginner despite 5 years of one-on-one lessons in London when we lived there, and having our gorgeous little house in the Languedoc-Rousillon village of Villerouge-Termenes for 7 years! Not to mention all of those French films I record on SBS ha! Unless you were born in France or a French-speaking region of the world, maybe you're always a beginner? Even then, as with any language, it must still be difficult to pick up on those little nuances, sayings, figures of speech, and connotations that only a local would know, but that's what makes it so much fun over there!

I received the most beautiful pics via email today from my Irish friend Ian, who was our neighbour in Villerouge-Termenes - he truly is a Masterchef (he still makes the BEST cassoulet I have ever tasted!!) and superb host, and the house he is renovating in the village is looking superb (he got married there last year too). Anyway this is a photograph of a corner of one of the rooms in his beautiful house, isn't it just SO French, the simplicity made me just take a deep breath and remember all of those absolutely wonderful memories we shared there in that beautiful little village in France... aaaaaaaaah! Ian is an amazing talented muralist and extremely talented trompe l'oieil artist in London and has worked for the likes of Saudi Princes, Hollywood actors, you name it - you HAVE to check out his incredible work on his website www.ianharper.com (pics courtest of Ian Harper). Bonjour Villerouge-Termenes, I will be back one day!

Molly

Very full on week with hangings (!) and Banx's art exhibition in the City. One of the newspapers featured his very large Banjo Paterson 10 dollar bill. What blew me away with Banx's research was finding out about Mary Reiby (aka Molly) who features on the front of our 20 dollar note. What an amazing inspirational woman she was and I am ashamed to say I had never heard of her let alone realised why she is on the face of our twenty dollar bill! She was sent to the colonies as a convict for having stolen a horse and it was the best thing that ever happened to her! She married well, but when her husband pre-deceased her, she went on to raise seven children and continue his shipping and property interests in Australia, becoming one of our Nation's wealthiest and most successful business women who devoted much of her time in later life to major charities. GO GIRL!

Angelic Weekend!

HOw lucky am I ! I 'partnered' my best girl friend to a "famil" at the Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove on Friday and Saturday - pure luxury and indulgence and a stunning Hotel with second to none customer service (we were treated like royalty!) and elegant understated opulence. And the if that wasn't enough of a treat, my girlfriend then had two tickets to see the opening night of the musical CATS and tix to the after show party to meet the cast! What talented young dancers and entertainers, and we got home after midnight - a rare occurrence these days ha! And then to top off a perfect weekend, I was invited by my sis to an Angel Party, it was an afternoon of fun laughter creativity eccentricity dancing chocolate cake on Royal Doulton chinaware and pure unadulterated feminine pleasure! Ah! Don't we all deserve weekends like this more often! Banx had his own fun left to his own devices which involved Rugny, curry and Boys movies. So everyone was happy. It's all systems go now for the opening of his solo art exhibition in the city on Wednesday.