Walking Along Rue Mouffetard, 75005, Paris

So, I got up before daybreak, around 4:00 and started my next painting, which you can see here. It is loosely based on a photograph I took recently of a cigar pipe behind a sales counter.  It is only the first stroke, so don't worry that I have taken leave. I will finesse it significantly before I put it up for sale.

A couple of hours after I woke up, and after the first stroke had been set out to dry, around 7ish, I had my coffee. After that, I was faced with several options of how to approach my day. In the end, I chose to go out for a walk, figuring that if I got that out of the way first thing, I would have all of the rest of the day to start ticking things off my To Do List.

I ended up in the Fifth district of Paris, on Rue Mouffetard. It is a charming street and typically is

overrun with tourists but today, there was hardly anyone there.

I don't know if it is because I was there so early of it it was because tourists have been scared off by the "Yellow Jackets" (Gilets Jaunes) but it was very slack as far as foot traffic goes. Or maybe I got the wrong memo. Maybe it is on Sundays that this place really lights up with a massive marché. I think that's it. I missed the action by a day. Which was fine, from my vantage point if you want to know the truth.

I have always been fascinated with Rue Mouffetard just because of Ernest Hemingway and the gang of Americans who lived during his time in Paris in the early part of the Twentieth Century. They talked an awful lot about Rue Contrescarpe and Rue Descartes and Rue Mouffetard in their books (example, Hemingway in A Moveable Feast) and so it has always been on my To Do list, and I have done it a few times even though I have never written anything down in my journals.

So this is kind of like my journal entry of Rue Mouffetard. It is quite a charming rue just behind the Pantheon, and it has all these cute boutiques, restaurants and bars and shops. Apparently, it hasn't changed all that much since the 1920s when Hemingway was here:

"Even his old apartments at 39 rue Descartes (5e) and 74 rue Cardinal Lemoine (5e) can be admired (from the outside) thanks to commemorative plaques on the walls." Timeout.com

It was a very nice little stroll and I think of it as "banking" for my future health. I think walking is one of the best forms of exercise, actually and I need to do it a lot more, to "bank it for my future health." Maybe I will make Saturday mornings a mandatory walking day. Let's see. And then I can tell you all about it….but don't hold your breath or anything. Let's see what develops.

For now, I am back home  and have just finished a nice lunch of lentils with baguette which you can find on Instagram...well, maybe I can post a small version here:

Now, I must turn my attention to more serious pursuits, namely, getting Gallery Marion on Twitter and Facebook!!! Wish me luck because I am typically useless with Facebook. I can never figure it out...check out my picks of Rue Mouffetard below if you are so inclined: