Travels in France

Hey everyone,

I am back from my three-day trip to Orleans, Tours, and Saumur. We took a bus to various different buildings, and stayed there a while while our professors spoke about them and gave us time to sketch. It was the Fall semester sketching trip-a field trip specifically to document our experience through sketches and notes. Just from that trip, I learned what I am doing wrong in sketching and how I can improve my work, and have already noticed an improvement just from all the practicing we've been doing.

The various buildings/monuments/bridges we saw were: In Orleans: Orleans Cathedral, and Pont de l'Europe(by Calatrava). In Tours: Vinci Convention Center, and Cathedral St. Gatien. And in Saumur: Chateau de Saumur, Place de St. Pierre, Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame d'Ardilliers, Abbaye de Fontevraud(an abbey for monks, one of my favorites), and Chateau de Chambord(a beautiful castle-home, another favorite).

I am contemplating posting some of my sketches on facebook(only the good ones, though, hahaha).

During the field trip we stayed at a really nice youth hostel where they served us dinner and breakfast(we ate lunch while we were out). At night we went out and explored the town and sat under the Pont de L'Europe. Very pretty!

On another note...due to all of the hours we spent on the bus, we watched all three Lord of the Rings movies(I had never seen them, so I really enjoyed that :) )

People are already making travel plans for this semester, so my friends and I have decided that we are going to Copenhagen and Denmark for the week-long thanksgiving break, Barcelona for a four-day break, and Germany during a three-day weekend. That should take care of first semester travel breaks. For the Spring semester I plan on going to Greece for the sketching trip, otherwise Italy(that is the other option). So I have a lot to look forward to!! :)

Keep reading, and have a nice day!
~Diana