When I and my dear M went to Paris little more than a year ago, we spent a rainy evening in our hotel room watching French TV. One of the channels showed a documentary about some asphalters, you know the kind of program where you get the feeling that the guys and gals (if any) doing this tough job are true heroes. We laughed hard when the narrator called the people in the film “les cowboys de l´asphalte” in a grave voice and a strong French accent. The phrase comes up every now and then, as a joke between us.
This morning we had all reason to bring it up again, when we woke up to a horrendous noise
below our windows and discovered that the whole neighborhood had been invaded by les cowboys and their machines. Man, those things are loud! Especially at six thirty in the morning.
Anyway, no matter how loud they were, these cowboys de l´asphalte were very welcome. Their work, asphalting some parts of the yard, was the finishing touch to the long and tiresome renovation of the street where we live, and we look forward to a summer of peace and quiet. Beginning tomorrow!
14 x 16 cm and 14 x 11 cm, Lamy Safari, Noodler´s Black and Lexington grey, and watercolours on Arches hot press watercolour paper.