Exposition Leonardo en France, Ambasciata d'Italia, Il gelato del Marchese

Thank you for your Thanksgiving greetings PBers! I celebrated a week early at the Italian Embassy

A special event for the closing of the 'Leonardo in France' exposition.

And what a grand celebration it was catered by the divine Il Gelato del Marchese, 3 rue des Quatre Vents, 75006

No turkey. Just foie gras gelato plus foie gras. I think every course except the Parmigiano had gelato.

Mini cornettos of ricotta gelato with bottarga.

Of course Il Gelato brought along their adorable kiosk. The guests (mainly Italians) were swarming like bees. Some came up from italy especially for the event. The gold stiletto heels - to die for!

Three kinds of pistache gelato, one Iranian, one from Sicily.

Solli came along to help taste all the flavors. She had mandarino, cafe and chcocolate.

Gorgeous cream puffs too, though no pumpkin pie...

Beautiful bouquets.

The Italian embassy is housed in the stunning hotel particular,  Hôtel de Boisgelin (also know as the Hotel de la rochefoucauld-Doudeauville) at 47, rue de Varenne in the 7th.

We felt like princesses exploring the rooms.

The grand Carrara staircase.

Just glorious

What to say. Not your average thanksgiving dinner bien sur...

Where the Da Vincis were displayed was lined with Sicilian mirrors.

The exhibit celebrates the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's arrival in France at the request of king Francis the 1st. Most of the paintings were copies by Da vinci's students, Francesco Melzi and Gian Giacomo Capriotti.

Exquisite.

The piece de resistance, the drawing of the head of a woman known as La Scapigliata, lent by The National Gallery in Parma. Breathtakingly beautiful.

There were maps of Da Vinci's trip into France and the Amboise chateau in the Loire valley where he created many technical drawings and machines.

By the way its Black Saturday for me. Some holiday gift bundles are up on Etsy and the 12-months of Paris maps is back. Hooray! Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast! If you like this post and want to support it, buy Paris letters and watercolors or forward to someone who might enjoy it. 

17e Rendez-Vous du Carnet de Voyage, Clermont-Ferrand

Saturday-Sunday I went to the annual Rendez-Vous du Carnet Voyage in Clermont-Ferrand.

Its a gathering of travel sketchbook artists on 3 floors at the Polydome. I became obsessed with all the tiny watercolor paintboxes everyone was using. Why do I need such a big paintbox?

Mind you the artwork on display was stupendous - here giancarlo de Petris .

Lapin is a big name in the sketchbook world. Part of his display showed stacks and stacks of his sketchbooks. He lives in Spain but travels constantly sketching.

Emdé is another star. They are called 'carnettistes'. Carnet means small note book. Carnet du voyage = travel note book.

French Sophie Binder lives in St.Louis. At a certain point she gave up her job, packed her paints, sketchbook, bike and set out for 14 months traveling and sketching the world.

The end result. Her gorgeous book, 'The world, Two Wheels and a Sketchbook.

One of Sophie's watercolors.

Marielle Durand recently went to. New York to draw.

I love these. Check out her instagram @idrawamerica

There were classes given as well. Stephan Faravelli is a drawing wizard.

His exquisite work...

Most of the artists had tons of sketchbooks you could browse through. These people don't sleep at night. They are drawing.

A chain of French spas, Route des villes d'Eaux commissioned 12 sketchbook artists to come stay for a week and draw their immpressions. C'est la vie!

You could browse the artist's sketchbooks.

You could also buy a gazillion sketchbooks of the artists onhand. Were there 60-70 artists onsite? I did not come home empty-handed.

I managed to get into Clermont-Ferrand in the evening to see the famous black cathedral made of volcanic rock. Then paint a little in my room at 4:00 am in the morning.

I left Rendez-Vous du carnet de voyage exhausted, bug-eyed and totally inspired. After sleeping in yesterday, today I tackled painting those mini paintboxes. They're up on etsy with more to come. Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast! If you like this post and want to support it, buy Paris letters and watercolors or forward to someone who might enjoy it. 

November Paris letter and map

While I've been immersed in the news

Bear has been immersed in Paris perfumes. A big thank you to Lois Bender of gardenSpirits NY for sending me a shot of the very Parisian print she saw last week.

By Jean-Emile Laboureur - a French girl leche-vitrine (window shopping) in a hat shop.

Why not make the hats into perfume bottles? And add a dog? Looking at my sketch now should I have added 5 dogs?

Time for perfume immersion. One of Printemps Xmas windows is all-perfume bottles plus bubbling vats.

Galeries Lafayette has an entire floor of perfume stands.

Plus upstairs their balcony is all haute couture brands in such a glorious setting. Test/try all you like.

A sneak peek at their giant Xmas tree made of cut white paper.

Most Paris perfume houses bring out new scents for holiday gift-giving. This purple poofy bottle is from Annick Goutal.

A new perfume in honor of Vogue editor, Diana Vreeland

Which one of these describes you? Hmm...

Perfume and Paris are inextricably linked are they not? So romantic...rose petals.

And ribbon and perfume are entwined. As you waltz through the stores you're offered scented ribbons from Chanel and YSL.

Do you think Guerlain designed their bottles to match Printemps cupolas?

Perfume and Paris are synonomous to me. Do you remember the name of your 1st Paris perfume?

I was looking for an Eiffel tower perfume bottle to paint. Thank you Avon!

I made it into a gift card to go with the 2 November Paris perfum letters as a holiday gift package, now in my Etsy shop.

Paris is still gorgeous. Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast. If you like this post and want to support it, buy Paris letters and watercolors or forward to someone who might enjoy it. Cheers!