Update on upcoming France trip

I don't know how much I've already posted about this; but for friends who are interested (since I don't touch FB anymore unless a family member tells me some nice family photos are there for me to see), I'll mention my plans a bit here.  As I may have already said previously, my plans have changed considerably because of a certain little child who doesn't want me to be away from her for very long.  Now I'll be going just to Paris for a month in the autumn, with the ultimate intention (if I still want to do it after having spent a few months there over the next year or so) of possibly moving there for at least part of every year.  For now, though, my plans are pretty much set in stone.  I'll be spending a month in Paris, half of it just myself and half of it with my family, except for my husband who can't go this time but will probably go the next time.  He's disabled, permanently in a wheelchair, so we'll have to make special plans for him to be able to go.  We're all really excited about the trip, and I feel quite confident about my French language abilities now -- hope I'm not wrong!!!

I'll be posting a few photos of my stay in Paris and will be doing a lot of painting while I'm there, so expect to see a lot of what I hope aren't touristy paintings when I return.  I'll probably do a few animal paintings, but I hope to spend a lot of time painting interest scenes that I find here and there.  

Now that I'm not going permanently at this time, I won't be talking much about how I go about getting there because anyone can figure that part out on their own.  And I'm kind of sad to say that I hear that since I was last living in France, over 20 years ago!!!!, many, many more people, especially in the large cities, speak pretty much fluent English.  So for that reason, although I'll be staying in Paris for reasons of convenience and ease, I'm staying far from the touristy areas in a quiet residential neighborhood, in the 18th arrondissement for those who know the layout of Paris.  I've found a smallish apartment and will rely only on public transportation while I'm there. 

The hardest, by far, part of planning for my trip has been finding an apartment; but that's finally been finalized.  Now I have to take care of the much less important things such as having Verizon show me how to get my smartphone to work there, which metro stations to take, etc., etc.   My sweet husband is going to be taking care of my online orders (and my precious dog Harry) while I'm gone, so that's a great relief.  But next time, both my husband and Harry are going!  Well, it might be too hard to take Harry the next time, I guess, but he'll get to go with me eventually.

A Guernsey cow painting that I finished recently

 This is an 11x14x3/4" acrylic painting on stretched canvas that I recently finished.  In the first photo, I painted her exactly as I saw her in the field, with horns.  Then I thought about it a while and wondered what she would look like without horns, so I digitally removed them in the second photo.  The original painting has the horns in it; but if you're interested in purchasing the painting and don't want the horns, I can remove them for you at no charge.

 I've been doing a lot of paintings lately, but I don't feel comfortable showing many of them because, as I've said before, I'm learning to do landscape paintings, and I still don't feel confident enough to show very many of them.  But I will before long!!