Rally the troops for Linda Sue Park!!

So,  I think I've finally started to get a hang of twitter (yes, I've had a twitter account for seven years and am only just figuring out how to really use it...I am a slow learner when it comes to technology!) and while hanging out there, I got a whiff of this competition between Linda Sue Park (the Linda Sue Park, of A Single Shard and A Long Walk to Water fame) and two other authors whom shall not be named. 

Well! We can't let those to other authors win, can we? NO, NO, NO!

So, I'm doing everything I can to insure that #TeamPark reigns victorious! I'm offering five of these prints:

as one of the prizes you can get (by random drawing) if you join #TeamPark! This is NOT one of the Rabbit hOle project perks, this is only a prize if you join #TeamPark! How do you join? So glad you asked:

1. Go here: igg.me/at/rabbitholekc
2. Donate any amount to help build the Rabbit hOle, a national museum of the children's book (HOW COOL IS THAT!??).
3.  Tweet or DM @LindaSuePark to let me know you've joined #TeamPark! OR email jordan@rabbitholekc.com
4. If you've been recruited for #TeamPark by another team member, please tweet or DM  @LindaSuePark after you make your donation.

Are you already a member of #TeamPark?  Ask friends and family to join the team! For every new team member you recruit, your name will go into the prize drawing AGAIN*, to increase your chances of winning Linda's signed books or my prints!

*I might be offering an advanced reading copy of the new novel as a prize, too (have to see if I can get an extra). So, if you join now and recruit others and you can up your chances of getting it!

critique

The creation of a masterpiece:

Ah! My creation! My masterpiece! What will my public think?

hmm, how can I say this?

I like what you did with the roof pattern,

and the taste and texture is not bad...

but if you remove some of this...

and maybe add something...

Ah! Voila! See, much better, no?

Pocket Pacy #7

On the way back from Rouen, I could not help but notice that there was a town called...PACY!!!

There are only 8 Pocket Pacys but I am a Pacy too, so there are 9!

Well, Pocket Pacy and I had to go and visit our town! It's only polite.

Hey, look! We own a Creperie! Yum!

I better leave a Pocket Pacy to oversee the shop.

Don't eat up all the profits, Pocket Pacy!

le chateau of Pocket Pacy #3

Here I am, have a cup of chocolate chaud in front of my chateau:

the Chateau at Azay-le-Rideau,  in the Loire Valley of France

Oh, would you like to come in?

There's plenty of room:

it even makes the Sasquatch look small!

And the view is lovely:

Oui, my chateau does look like something out of a fairy tale, does it not?

What? There is another chateau that is really from a fairy tale? And it is nearby? In fact, it is right on the route we are going? Well, I must see this place.

Apparently, this is also the castle Disney used as a model for their theme parks

Chateau d'Usse of Rigny-Usse, also in the Loire Valley 

This castle was the inspiration for Charles Perrault's fairy tale of the Sleeping Beauty!

Sleeping Beauty statue

Which the owners have decided to capitalize on:

There is a Sleeping Beauty Tower you can go see!

at the top of the tower there is a glassed in tableau of...

La belle au bois dormant!

It is actually quite funny! Ah, the French! Their line between romance and cheese is different than Americans. Perhaps that is why the fromage is so good here, though...

I don't think Prince Charming and Le Belle would mind the company of a Pocket Pacy, do you?

this convenient place in the stone wall was too good to pass up!

Pocket Pacy, La Belle dans la Poche!


Chemin de Ronde La Belle au Bois Dormant (Tower Room of Sleeping Beauty)
Chateau d'Usse
37420 Rigny Usse
Rigny-Usse
France
02-47-95-54-05

le louvre

So I've been enjoying my sketching renaissance very much! As I said before, it makes me feel like a real artist!

But before I left myself get too heady, we decided to go to the Louvre...were there is art by tres real artists:

At the Louvre, even the building is art.  The trademark glass pyramid is striking to say the least.

But there are no trees! So I add one with a yoga tree pose!

And if I remember the Da Vinci Code correctly, the Holy Grail is here:

Le Louvre is soooo big that to photograph just the things I saw it would fill up my entire camera's memory card...and I only saw one wing!

Speaking of wings, I was glad to see this in person. It is the "Winged Victory" stature which has a proud historical and artistic background, but I enjoyed it because of one of my favorite books, "Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown." In that book, young, aspiring writer Betsy sees a replica of this statue and thus writes a story about a headless woman.

Of course, the main event at the Louvre is the Mona Lisa. It is hard to see with the throngs of people who spend more time taking photos with it than actually looking at the painting. But I can't really blame them. The crowd makes viewing is rather unpleasant and we are rather shoved out of the room to other galleries.

I am trying to do a Mona Lisa smile!

There are hundreds of paintings, all of them old and famous. The Sasquatch & I felt a kind of strange deja vu. We would see a painting and say with great excitement, "I remember that from Art History class! It was in my textbook. It's very important!" Yet, neither of us could remember why it was important. This happened many times.  That is what an expensive art school education buys you.

But fine art does remind me to eat more vegetables:

and, in general, I do think statues look better with heads:

But what is this amazing piece of art? Can it be? Mon dieu!

 The label was in French, but I'm sure it said this was the finest sculpture in the museum!

I did not leave her there! I was afraid the Louvre police would get angry.

It's a Pocket Pacy! Je suis une veritable artiste, after all!

Tour de Eiffel & Pocket Pacy #2

Oh la la! This tower is quite mignon. I think I will take  it with me, perhaps keep it in my pocket.

Or perhaps, instead, I will leave it a Pacy for its pocket:

But first I must climb it. It is very tall.

So high! The line was so long for the lift, we opted for the stairs.

There are many stairs:

  No problem, just like a workout at the gym. Thanks, Boston Sports Club!

Many, many stairs:

We only climbed to the 2nd level, but that was still really high.

We are so far in the sky that here il pleut, while the ground below is dry.

I will leave a Pocket Pacy here in the clouds:

Au revoir!

2nd Floor, South
Tour Eiffel
Paris, France

and there are eight

In the photos, the Pocket Pacys might not look that neatly painted. That is because they are so small! see, shorter than a battery:

Though, honestly, the hardest part was trying to get the website url in it. First I tried to write it by hand, but the it wasn't very legible. And I need people to be able to read the url so that they can find the site! So, I finally made stickers which I am just crossing my fingers will stay affixed.

But, I've made eight Pocket Pacys ready for their new home in France. They travel by cardboard box, first class.

Where will they all end up?