En France Son Nom Est Papa Noel

En France son nom est Papa Noel.  In france santa is called papa noel.

acrylic painting process.  this is the one time of year that i do a 100% non digital painting with acrylic, colored pencils, pens, whatever.  Here are a few process shots.  

I lived in Tokyo for a year and a half until the big earthquake and during that time I took to the Japanese tradition of sending out a new years postcard with that year's asian zodiac animal.  The post office there holds all of these new years postcards and magically delivers them all on January 1st.  2013 is the year of the snake.  red snakes are good luck and white snakes are the embodiments of gods.  The bottom left says "Happy New Year", the single character at the top is "snake" but this character is special and only used to refer to the year of the snake and different one is used in everyday language.  On the right it says 2013 (with a complex Japan specific year numbering system).  The bad thing about gold paint is that it doesn't reproduce well at all.  the good thing is that the real painting looks awesome with gold paint.  Happy New Year!

this is how christmas trees are done in France, no watering the tree or anything.  they also have their trees for less time than americans so they say it works out.

crazy rose in our backyard in mid december

Chez Felice

reflections in the window

Canal St. Martin

La Chambre Aux Oiseaux, has wireless, is next to canal st. martin, and gets my two thumbs up seal of approval.

near my house

Italie 2.  i found out there isn't an italie 1

Les Papilles.  You get what you get, i've been wanting to try this place.  it was pretty good

Cafe de Flore, another old haunt of famous writers and artists, its right next door to Deux Margots that used to be the most expensive espresso i've had so far but now cafe de flore has beaten that with their 4.40 euro cafe ($5.85, keep in mind it's usually 2 euros ($2.65)).

why the eggs?  it's mostly tourists here but there were a bunch of old guys hiding out and an assortment of randoms.

this woman was wearing some expensive designer stuff.  her wide cuffed shirt was almost made out of paper.  dyed blond hair.  and lisa said she had fake marrons when she was bending over but i missed those.  her husband just sat there and took it.

then she left to go spend his money around st. germain des pres and he got to stay and read the paper without her in his hair.

the Ted Baker disgusto-snowman.  it gyrates for some reason

my second French teacher Anne at Alliance Francaise.  she's kooky and funny.  she's like the french aunt you would want.  she lived in africa and she gets tipsy in class whenever there is a fete.

out the window of our classroom.  love the rooftops here

more out the window

i like seeing all the ends of the wine bottles here.  they all have this sign.

I tried to go to this free exhibit in the Hotel de Ville, Paris vu par hollywood (Paris seen by Hollywood), featuring sketches, wardrobes, and photos from movies filmed in or about paris.  the line to get in is always long so i always gave up.  then I met Celine at Myriam's housewarming party and she just whipped out a stack of these from her bag and gave them to me.  you can cut the line with this.  she works for the city of Paris finding events and cultural stuff and knows everything that's going on.  Thanks Celine!

sent out some postcards, why are the stamps like 25% of the size of an already space limited postcard?!!!!