Our Last Blog Entry

This will be our last blog from France.  We leave early tomorrow morning for Paris.  I had a great deal of difficulty connecting to the Internet at the hotel, so I will not attempt it for just one night.  Please leave comments on this blog.  Our young ladies will be checking it for about 6 more hours. Also at the end of this blog I will post all flight information and arrival time.

Yesterday afternoon the girls traveled by bus to Nantes to see the great mechanical elephant. The Dean and I love the elephant and wanted the girls to see it.  They were fortunate to see it walking and spraying water and trumpeting.

Today was a big day for us.  In the afternoon we had our Salon Accepté, the SAA version of the Impressionist exhibits of the late 19th Century.  We awarded prizes and ribbons and awards from the Dalle family.

Here are the awards:

The Reginal Dalle Award - Carleigh Stratton

The Bruno Dalle Award - Katherine Green

The Mohammed Award - Corie Walker

La Giraudière Award - Corie Walker

Hooker Award - Andrea Assadollahi

Taylor Family Award - Danielle Pirozzi

Palette Knife Award- Taylor McKeever

Village Français Award- Ashlyn Robinson

Lasting Impression Award - Emily Van Gilder

Chinoiserie Award - Carleigh Stratton

Best Sketchbook Award - Taylor McKeever

Best Sketch Award- Andrea Assadollahi

Special Sketch Award - Ashlyn Robinson

Dean's Favorite - Corie Walker

McCarty's Favorite - Katherine Green

People's Choice Award - Andrea Assadollahi (Voted by students)

Best of Show - Andrea Assadollahi (Best body of work)

Our final picture at La Giraudiére:

Reginald Dalle toasting the success of our girls:

Some of our winners:

More winners:

The Mechanical Elephant:

Thanks for allowing us to travel with your "precious cargo" for these past few weeks.  You should be proud of all of them.  They are great travelers, talented artists, and willing to participate in new experiences.  They are fun, funny and very sweet.  They felt like family.

Flight Info

Our flight from Paris to Chicago is United  943 arriving at 1:13 p.m. in Chicago.  We depart Chicago on United#5994 at 4:55, arriving Memphis 6:34 p.m. on Friday, July 3.

We'll see you at the airport.  We have had a wonderful trip, but we are all anxious to get home.

Notes from the Dean on Monday, June 29, 2009

Yesterday was a great day--like every day here at La Girau!  The ladies of SAA worked diligently all morning on finishing their paintings, so that all will be dry for our approaching departure.  Their work is extraordinary as they prepare for their SAA Neo-Impressionist Art Show 2009 on Wednesday, July 1. 

When they finished their work, the ladies took a dip in the pool, read, and listened to their music.

After lunch, we had an excursion to the local (5 minutes away) chocolate "factory".    The Cesbron brothers, who own the chocolate "factory",  made a presentation and showed a film about the origins of chocolate.  We were able to sample everything, as the brothers demonstrated how they make the candy and decorate the chocolate.   Just after we made our purchases and returned "home", there was a lovely afternoon storm that was rather noisy and cooled off the evening.

After dinner, the girls did make up and hair, read, listened to music, talked, and "played" before the midnight curfew. . . . 

We have been so lucky that the weather has been so perfect.  This is not always the case in the this part of la belle France.  We have been eating typical French dishes.  Every now and then, there is something that we don't care for, but the girls have been courageous in trying things out.  

A bientot!  JM

Some New Pictures

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Here are some pictures from the Japanese Garden, the Chocolate Factory and one of Corie painting with the house in the background.

Help

Some parents are having trouble posting a comment.  I don't know what the problem is.  Could one of you parents post a comment and tell me how to do it.  Do you have to sign up to an account at Google to do that?

From Danielle

Hello fellow bloggers! Today, we attempted Church. Who knew that the day we went, the time and location would be changed. After meditating for awhile, we returned to La Giraudiere for lunch and and a little bit of laying out. As we finished, we then loaded the bus and headed to a Japanese garden where we painted for 2 hours. We experienced what it was like to have others to come watch and take pictures as we painted. We're about to go to dinner and finish the night off with a little bit of an ab workout! More tomorrow.

From Ashlyn

Why hello Everyone! Believe it or not we got a paint free day. First we ate breakfast  and then took a 2 hour bus ride to a medieval walled city where we were able to shop, sketch, and eat lunch. After that we went to La Baule, which was the beach! It had been cloudy all day until we arrived at the beach. We all received tons of sun, especially Danielle's back while Andrea and I saved a ton of jellyfish. We were very fascinated by them. Andrea also was very excited about her "free souvenirs"..... seashells. After the sandy two hour bus ride back, We spend the rest of the day eating and relaxing, but in Corie's case, she decided to paint a whole new painting. We ended our night watching Mouline Rouge.... its a tear jerker. The girls say hello and we miss you all very much! Ta Ta! 

(The photos are from yesterday -- our hike into Des Gardes and painting in the village.)

From Andrea

Ok so since the blog didn't work last night and Mrs. McCarty gave a shorter version of what we did today we (All 8 of us) are going to give you a more detailed and a more exciting version of what today consisted of.  First we woke up bright and early and walked two miles to the village where we painted.  We had to carry all of our supplies including our easels! The walk was pleasant except for when we passed a group of angry bulls on a farm.  When we made eye contact they started to grunt...So we ran away. Finally we arrived and started painting.  It was so windy that Emily's canvas fell into her paint... :[ After our field trip was done we came back for lunch.  It was sea food day. Carleigh, Corie, and Emily all tried  RAW oysters.  After lunch we relaxed for 4 amazing hours, except Ashlyn, who painted for 4 hours straight. Now we are all hanging out downstairs and we are about to watch a movie. (Taken)-"Taxis here are so expensive... Want to share?" More to come later! All the girls say "I love you mom and dad and family!!!"