The Thursday evening Sketchwalk was quite far from the Hub, but I jumped on the Metro for a few stops and found myself next to the cathedral of Saint-Étienne. The summer evening sunlight was dripping with gold. I was early for the Sketchwalk (since it was about 40 minutes’ walk from the Hub, most people did that, adding to their already massive step count for the day. Looking at the map, the end point of this Sketchwalk should not be too far, at the Museum de Toulouse (where I think the limited-ticket Drink and draw event was going to happen that night, but I was not fast enough to pay extra for that ticket). Actually it was about another 25-30 minutes away on foot, accounting for getting lost a few times, which not only eats into your sketching time but also, why so far from the start point for such a short Sketchwalk? I wasn’t thinking of that when I got a headstart on my evening sketching. Actually I first sketched a fire hydrant around the corner from the cathedral (see below), and as I sketched I had a conversation with a young sketcher from Germany who had travelled to Toulouse with her partner for the Symposium, but not as registered attendees. There were a lot of non-registered sketchers here, as there were in Poznan, and it really made it all feel as though this was the global capital of sketching for a few days. It’s inspiring for those of us who like to draw everything. Anyway I found a spot in some shade to draw the back of the cathedral, and decided to draw in pencil, which was slightly faster, but not really by that much. I loved the really thick charcoal pencil I used for the tree foliage in the foreground though, it’s one of those I have in my bag from a previous Symposium that I never use, but it’s fun to experiment. As I stood sketching, as I always do, my legs started to feel all that walking. A restaurant was opening up nearby, some of the workers were sat outside before their shifts. One of the women who worked there came up and asked if I’d like a seat, since they didn’t have any customers yet, which was very nice of her. She brought a seat out to me and I was able to rest while adding in the paint. Still it took me an hour to draw it. I was really happy with it. I do wish I had drawn the view from the front as well though, in the main Place. I saw a lot of people sketching that and their drawings were amazing, but I didn;t have time because I had to go on a long expedition to find the Sketchwalk’s distant end point.

Here is that little fire hydrant (inside its protective shell as many are here) in a quiet street, covered in stickers. Another one for the collection.

It was a long journey to the end point by the Museum of Toulouse, and by the time I got there, there was o time at all for sketching, and I missed the throw-down (not worried about that, I never like those), and the final photograph (would have been nice, but ‘tant pis’). I did find the spot where Simon de Montfort died, which was impressive, there was a big plaque commemorating his death at the Siege of Toulouse fighting in the Albigensian Crusade. I always thought he died in battle in England, but it turns out that was the younger Simon de Montfort, the one who led the Barons’ revolts against the king in the mid 13th century and effectively ruled England. This one was the father, the Elder, I always forget there were more than one. Still, very impressed to find big historical landmarks. There were a lot of people still about at the end of this Sketchwalk and I was talking to some sketchers from England, one of whom was Si Newell, whose amazing work I have followed for years but I had never met (though I did sketch him at a London sketchwalk years ago, but didn’t realize that he was Si Newell at the time). It was amazing to look through his book in person, his style is so distinctive, I remember Gerard Michel enthusing about him years ago. Anyway a whole group of us went to dinner, sketchers from all over the world, at an Italian restaurant nearby. It was so hot, everyone was so sweaty. It was nice but we ate so late; I had seen Len Grant at another table eating a delicious looking pasta dish so I ordered the same thing, but it actually came with loads of bacon on it, I don’t eat that so had to have that taken off, but embarassing, but the pasta was lovely. I still came nowhere near finishing it, it was a huge dish and I was stuffed. Everyone was talking to each other though, these are always the best moments of the Symposium, though I think I was the only one sketching. I tried to draw as many of the people there as I could, though I was pretty exhausted by this point it was still a fund way to capture the evening. There was a pair of large naked green statues behind Si (he is the one in the middle with the beard). I didn’t have room for desert, but I had a very refreshing beer before the walk back to the hotel.

As I was getting back to Place Capitole to my hotel, I walked past a table and saw a bunch of old friends, Lapin, Arnaud, Mauro and some others, and Dan Archer who I’d met the previous year, so I stopped to chat and sketch with them for a little bit. Lapin’s family were there, I don’t think I’d met his wife before and his daughter was a baby last time I saw her. I had made these little blank Panini football style stickers to draw people on, but kept forgetting to actually sketch on them so I drew a few here, really quick tired sketches, and gave them out. I think they were the only ones I did on the trip, but it’s an idea I’ll keep for a future sketching event. Lapin had been drawing his famous portraits on beermats this time, and so he did a sketch of me and gifted it to me, it’s very cool. I still remember him drawing my hand on the night before the very first Symposium (how young we all were) and calling it ‘L’incroyable tenu de crayon de Pete’ (because of the way I hold my pen, which gets remarked upon a lot, and after that it became the official name for it). By this time I was exhausted and well in need for a good night’s sleep, and I slept well.