SketchTravel in Europe
Some things just require celebrating
When my oldest son was graduating from architecture school, I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate. He thought maybe hiking in Europe. But as graduation got closer, there were too many undecided things in the balance, and you know, sometimes life just gets in the way. Since we hadn't solidified our plans, that trip didn't happen. Then a few years later his brother was graduating from music school. So we decided to take the trip then to celebrate them both.
We first arrived in Paris, and stayed in a 9th floor apartment with views out over the city, taking in the Eiffel Tower. So cool to sit out on the deck, and to have space! Working on sketches, spreading out the map, room to move around. We were told Picasso's painting Guernica was done in an apartment across the street.
Paris is of course a fantastic place. It's so big that you do a lot of walking, so we got into the habit of doing very quick sketches, bordering on scribbling on some of them. Still it feels good to capture even loose images of things.
We pop over to London for a cup of tea
Just a few short days in London. I made the mistake of booking an airb&b where the owners were living there. This seemed potentially problematic, but it turned out to be a great thing. The owner was an architect from Argentina. So we had some good chats with him and his wife. We took in the Tate Museum and other galleries and museums, and had fun walking around downtown and Soho. Our hosts commented that we were lucky to be there during warm weather. But I got a scarf and beret to wear because of the cold winds!
What's not to like in Barcelona?
We flew from London down to Barcelona. Though it was not really a destination, it was a quick way to get to Spain. After seeing the usual cool places like Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, we got a rental car and headed for France. On the way we visited Girona and the Dali museum in Figueres.
Avignon to Nice
Avignon was our next destination, where we spent beautiful days exploring the city. With a stop in Arles, we headed to San Tropez, and drove the Mediterranean coast to Cannes and Nice. Although we came away with quite a few sketches, it feels like we got just a passing glimpse of these places. There is so much more to see, and sketch!
A note about the sketches: I added tone behind some of the images here. It helps break up the stark white of the background, since the drawings take up many pages and are never seen all together like this in one long page.
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