Who doesn’t love the rooftops of Paris? Even if you have never visited Paris, most likely you have seen photos of the Parisian roofline. If you can get up high, and look out a window, or standing on the top of the Pompidou Center, the Eiffel Tower, or Notre Dame, your eye travels as if you were looking over a field or a valley. Most of the Paris building heights are relatively standard, creating a space that feels good for people in the street. Somehow this rooftop view is quite romantic, and adds to the attraction Paris has for those who love it there.
This is the view out the back window of our apartment where we stayed - not very romantic maybe, but pretty beautiful anyway. I watched the moon travel the sky from this window, and saw the stars sparkling in the night.
[Art exhibit now at Aurum Studios in downtown Athens, GA for the month of February. ‘Widening the Horizon’ exhibit with Suzanne Gernandt, textile artist extraordinaire, of Waynesville and Asheville, NC. Reception: Thursday, Feb 6th, 6-8 pm, 2014 - this week!]
Illustration: Rooftop . Paris . 14th. Hand-painted silk charmeuse. 2014. by René D. Shoemaker
Some of the best parts of the trip were when we did something that was absolutely normal, yet somehow different, because of the fact that we were in a different country with a different language and different customs.
As we walked around exploring the village of Roujan in the heat, we noticed the cool recesses of the bays - an example of which you see here behind the VW. The wine merchants built these houses, and farmers used to deliver their grapes into the wide bays, where the grapes would then be made into wine. Now the farmers use a cooperative; in Roujan, it is a big building on the edge of town, down by the soccer field.
As a silk painter, I am always searching for the perfect red. Come see this painting in person, and tell me how close I’ve come to reaching my goal.
We had a house-sitting opportunity in Roujan - what a wonderful way to experience an as-yet undiscovered part of France! Roujan is in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France, near the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was hot while we were there - can you sense the heat in this painting?