Crowd-Sourcing July's Ile Saint Louis Map

It seemed a natural.

I live on Ile Saint-Louis

So obviously my next map should be rue St.-Louis en L'Ile. Easy peasy no? NO.

I live on an island that is full of ice cream-seekers (even though Berthillon will close it's shutters on Monday 27 July for vacance, there are many other providers of their excellent glace to dish it out. Le Figaro says Berthillon has the absolute best Vanille in town, in case you're womdering which of the 57 flavors to order. I say go with the benchmark.

Ha. I saw this poster at the Sunday marché Bastille - my island.
The title of this months map, 'the lure of the ice cream cone'

I do enjoy gazing at the long lines.

Meanwhile back to drawing maps. I have belatedly discovered I much prefer drawing round shapes (apples, cherries, tomatoes, DESSERTS )

To straight lines, like you find on most maps. In fact I am allergic to straight lines.

I picked up this wonderful book, A Map of the World, while researching and procrastinating drawing my Ile St.-Louis map.

Usually I am dependent on the boys at the copy shop for feedback on my drawings. One frown from them and I'm running back to the studio for a redo.

This time I decided to 'crowd-source' for instant feedback. I put my horribly busy, desperate map sketch up on FaceBook and asked, SOS!

One more thing I was dreaming of including on the map was Berthillon's wonderful Salon de Thé. Bear insisted

I asked for opinions. Mostly everyone felt as Bear did. They loved tea salons. Fortunately one voice in the wilderness (Felicity) said keep it simple (commonly referred to as KISS).

I skirted the issue by adding La Seine.

A side note, while procrastinating I read Audrey Hepburn was so nervous about meeting Cary Grant in 'Charade' she spilled her wine on him. They added it into the movie but turned the wine into ice cream.

So I added in an homage to Audrey and Cary...sort of.

Adding the blue water helped bring me closer to the finish line while still dithering over tea salons. Yes, I know it should be LA not LE Seine.

Finally Felicity's comment on Facebook and doggies saved the day. Enfin! Finished after weeks of blood, sweat and too many ice cream cones. Your JULY PARIS MAPS went out yesterday subscribers. So that is How The West Was Won and rue Saint-Louis en l'Ile was conquered.