Tulips and légionnaires

The Parc de Vincennes outing was a great success. The weather was perfect - bright but high thin cloud and a freshness in the air. In fact, we didn't see the sun all morning. At 10.00 a.m. the park was empty apart from lots of infant school groups.

There were areas of glades, formal borders, grassy banks, shady paths and the tulips. Unfortunately the tulips were in officially segregated boxed ranks but they are one of my favourite flowers so I had a go at painting them. Not successfully, of course, but it whetted my appetite to paint some more.

To get to the park, I walked past the barracks of .... The Foreign Legion! A phalanx of légionnaires (no.... no képis with a handkerchief hanging out the back) jogged towards me and they all looked disappointingly scrawny and unimpressive. It must have been new recruits. I hope they'll cope.