How many artists does it take to load a van...

We loaded up the van this morning to paint en plain air. Barry was assigned the task of loading the van because of his attention to detail. He painstakingly took on the job, only to have it all undone by Kippy who had a bit more experience loading vans for multitudes of artists. Several of us stood back and watched as the van was emptied and reorganized, and reorganized and reorganized. I took pictures.

We painted on the river bank at Moret sur Loing, the charming village on the Loing River, where Impressionist Alfred Sisly once painted.

After our picnic by the river, we drove to Fontainebleau and spent several hours wandering through its opulent rooms. Records dating back to 1137 talk of a fortified castle there. Catherine de' Medici designed a garden there between the late 1500's and early 1600s. Louis XIII was born there. Louis XIV hunted there. Russian Czar Peter the Great was a guest there in 1717. Marie Antoinette's Turkish style boudoir was a gift from her husband, Louis XVI. Napoleon spent the last days of his reign at Fontainebleau. The place is spectacular.