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The French Alps are beautiful everywhere. Between the hiking and the exploring by car, it is hard to limit the photography. The weather has prevented plein air painting every day, but the house I am renting has a beautiful sun room with perfect lighting. I took the photo for this painting on the road between St. Pierre de Chartreuse and the museum of the Grande Chatruese. The day was actually drizzly and cloudy, but is managed to get a nice photo. I decided the day needed to be a little nicer in the painting.

After a long flight and drive, I arrived in the small village of St. Hilaire du Touvet, where I have rented a gîte, or house for the next 9 weeks. It is a wonderful, cool (after Sedona) location, with fantastic views and opportunities for hiking and painting. Of course it rained for the first five days, but since then it has been beautiful. Friday I went to the village of St. Pierre de Chartruese and found this cute bar to paint. Because I had been having problems with internet access, I spent quite a bit of time at the Tourism Office. After a wonderful hike Saturday, I spent Sunday painting in St. Hilaire. First I found this small chalet with an unusual shape. In the afternoon, I went to the local tourism office and painted this last scene. Earlier we could see Mont Blanc, but by the time I was painting, the cloud cover had started.