I’ve been collecting old copies of Paris-themed books for my new collages.

I’m having SO MUCH FUN reading these old paper treasures. I particularly love reading what others before me have underlined. Some of these underlined passages are poignant and lovely. Others are a mystery. Why did the reader underline THAT? You start to judge the anonymous underliners as either people with great taste whom you could befriend, or people who are weirdos. There is no in between.

In gathering these told treasures, I’ve come across a slew of different versions of A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. Feast your eyes on this… I had no idea there were so many. AND I only investigated the French and English versions. Incroyable.

Shakespeare & Company, one of the English bookstores in Paris, sells more copies of A Moveable Feast than any other title. However, I like to zip around the corner to the Canadian bookshop, The Abbey Bookshop on 29 rue de la Parcheminerie, 75005 Paris. The reason for this is simple: It has MANY COPIES of MANY BOOKS and if they don’t have it, they’ll order it for you.

Many, many books.

In other news, I completed my 100th Paris Letter. (Cue the trumpets!)

This letter began with a commissioned to create a collage including some of those lovely old papers from those ratty (but lovely) books.

The commissions are good for my brain and spirit. They help me see Paris from a different point of view and they distract me from wondering about health and the future and fires and politics and weeds. If you’d like a painting or collage of Paris, let me know over at my shop. It might become a future Paris Letter. It definitely makes for a fun Mother’s Day gift. Speaking of, I’ll be doing a book signing in Port Dover, Ontario at Cottage North on Saturday May 11th You can purchase books to sign, and bring whatever books you’ve already acquired. I’ll sign anything… except body parts and animals. We might go for drinks after… we’ll have our own moveable feast.