The Lives and Faces of The Parisians

Today I stopped in at Paul. It had been a vigorous day of drawing at the Louvre (I continue pressing for success drawing with this brush-pen), and afterwards I wanted to sit down, have a "chocolat chaud" (hot chocolate), and relax for a few minutes before going home to Dear Wife. The café was not very busy, so I took a table facing the cash register, which gave me an excellent view of the people waiting in line, a line that never goes away at this excellent and popular boulangerie.

Have I told you about Paul? It's an indoor café "seulement" (which means no outdoor tables), lovely inside with dark wood paneling and a good staff serving a limited but tasty menu. Dear wife and I love to sit and get a slice of quiche (which is served with a nice side salad), or the special "aujourd'hui", and some coffee. Best of all, they have an effective "pas fumeur" (non-smoking) policy for the front room. It's on a busy corner just off the Blvd. St. Germy, and the front of the place functions as a traditional boulangerie, with a long glass counter displaying lots of cakes and cookies and pastries (I guess that makes it a sort of patisserie, too), and baskets filled with different kinds of fresh breads made right there, in the next room. The line of folks waiting to buy bread is frequently a dozen or more long. (It is actually a chain restaurant, or boulangerie, but that doesn't mean it isn't damn good.)



So I couldn't resist, and I pulled out my pad and started drawing people, just making quickie sketches (these brush pens can be dang useful for the quick-sketch stuff--you get a lot of information down in a stroke, instead of having to go over your line again and again to broaden it, or soften it, etc., with a regular pen--these drawings only HINT at what would be possible with a real inking master at the helm--err, at the brush). They surround a portrait bust study from the Louvre. (Click on picture for a closer view)

Do these people look worried about the riots?