Sketch Trip to Jumieges, Le Havre, and Rouen

Abbaye de Jumieges
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22 – 25 September 2008

Sketch or die.

This week, our class was taken under the wing by Michael Plautz, a clinician to help coach us on our sketching. We’d have class in the morning and then meet The Plautz somewhere in Paris in the afternoon. It reminded us of the Amazing Race in a way; we were given a destination, a time to meet, and were responsible for getting there ourselves  We’d sketch for about 3 hours and then have him critique us at the end. It was a really fun experience. I can feel my sketching improve already…

Jumieges again
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26 September 2008

Sketch field trip! All 48 of us, including our professors and The Plautz, departed from the Chateau de Versailles bright and early at 8:00 a.m. to visit a few surrounding French villages and their architecture. Our first stop was the ruins of the Abbey of Jumieges. Michael Plautz gave us a brief history of the site and then we were free to sketch for a couple of hours. We took a lunch break at a nearby park where my friend and I found a giant jungle gym in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. It was meant for little kids; naturally, we climbed it. We went back to the Abbey in the afternoon and then headed to our next destination: Le Havre. This city unique in that most of it was bombed during WWII, so a majority of it was designed by the same architect. Consequently, most of the buildings look exactly the same, giving the city a pretty banal look. By the time we checked into our hostel and situated, it was practically 9:00 and we were STARVING. Fortunately, we found an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. Let me remind you that the “all you can eat” concept is not as popular as it is in the U.S., so we were pretty thankful! Afterwords, we headed out to Le Havre’s bars and chilled there for awhile.

Cathedral, Le Havre
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27 September 2008

We got up bright and early at 7 to start touring the city. Our professors and Michael Plautz took turns showing us various sites throughout the city. We saw the Hotel de Ville, a typical apartment, a modern Christian church based on an Orthodox design, and a theater/rec center called “Le Volcan” It was a large concrete structure that was – surprisingly – in the shape of a volcano. Afterwords, we headed over to a pool called “Les Bains des Docs” designed by famous architect Jean Nouvell. We had initially planned on swimming there, but plans had changed and we werent’ allowed! We were pretty pissed, but we still got to tour the inside (which was, nice…but all I wanted to do was swim haha) Afterwords, some friends and I went to the beach and chilled there for awhile to watch the beautiful sunset. Afterwords, we had dinner at a restaurant near the beach.

Le Grand Volcan, Le Havre
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28 September 2008

Another early morning. We all got up to get on the bus and go to Rouen, a delightful medieval village with a various Gothic Cathedrals. We were taken to so many, I couldn’t keep track of them all! The village itself was awesome, though. I wish we could’ve spent more time here! Many streets were blocked off to cars, most places can only be accessed by foot. During lunch, my friends and I stopped at the market to look around. In the afternoon, we had one last sketching session and then headed back to Versailles.

Chillin on the beach in Le Havre
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By the end of this week, I never wanted to see another sketchbook again; I was sooo sick of sketching! But, my sketching did improve drastically 