We arrived in Paris a few days before the Angouleme festival began. As previously mentioned, I did a book signing at LES MOTS A LA BOUCHE and as you can see, I was provided with a sampling of French candy and snacks to keep my drawing hand going. I suppose sugar is a good cure for jet lag.

We ate LOTS of food, including some of the most amazing pastries. We studied the Paris map we had and concluded we walked at least 6 miles each day in Paris so I suppose the pastries came in handy. I was pretty surprised to see how much raw meat the French consume. This was news to me.

Angouleme was energizing, inspiring, fascinating… so much so that I didn’t even bring any books back with me. I was too overwhelmed to choose. Not that I would have been able to read them in French, but the scope and diversity of the comic art I saw was amazing.

Tim Fish and Jeff were incredibly helpful and generous with their time and energy. They made our booth at Angouleme a fun place to be.

Tim Fish and Jeff, in the booth.

On the panel: Tim, a very sleepy and confused Xavier and Me (Not in this photo, but also on the panel, Abby and Patrick and moderator, Jean Paul.)

Jean Paul organized a panel discussion which we delivered to a packed house on Saturday evening. Xavier was kind enough to translate. There was a really funny moment where I felt like maybe we were all being a bit too serious and so I changed the subject to “boobs” and their importance in comics. Poor guy… he wasn’t sure he’d heard me correctly.

We also had a “mixer” on Friday night at a local bar. The building which housed the bar had was built in the 1500s.

There were comic drawings everywhere in Angouleme. Every restaurant, shop, bar… even the exterior of the buildings frequently had comic art.

We took the train back to Paris from Angouleme and it was packed with all ages and genders. As I walked through the train cars to get a sandwich I was amazed that almost every single person on the train, young and old, were reading or sketching comics. I’ve never experienced that before.

I could post a million photos, but I was just trying to share a sampling of our little comic adventure in France. I hope anyone who’s a comic fan can attend Angouleme at some point in their life. It is well worth the trip.

Paige and Evelyn, on the train back to Paris.