Giverny

July 10:  A slow day--Rob at morning talks and me doing a laundry.  Lunch in the room, and then at 4 we took a long ride to Rambouillet, using back roads to avoid the Paris exodus on this Friday before the long holiday weekend.  The chateau was under renovation but we walked partway around the lake and along the shaded paths of the enormous park.  More riding and a return to Bures at 9.

water garden

July 11: We packed up and departed at 10:30, taking the autoroute and then secondary roads to Giverny where Monet's famous garden and house pull in the crowds.  We had ordered tickets online to avoided the long lines.  The garden is divided into two sections--the main flower garden and adjacent house and the water gardens across the railway and road, accessed by a tunnel.

Monet and his family settled in Giverny in 1883 and he began to develop the garden, arranging plants in color palettes and constantly searching for new and unusual varieties.  In 1893 he purchased the property on the other side of the railway.  It included a brook, and he first dug a single pond and then several, inspired by Japanese gardens in the prints he collected.  The house contains many of these prints and copies of his paintings as well as restored furnishings.

When Monet died in 1926 his son Michel inherited the house.  By the end of WWII both house and gardens were in poor condition.  The Musee des Beaux-Arts inherited the house in 1966 and the house, furnishings, gardens and ponds were restored over the next 10 years.  The site was opened to the public in 1980.

Chateau Gaillard

The small town of Giverny is blooming.  The shops and restaurants are surrounded by flowers.  But we were off again, stopping first in Les Andelys which lies at a bend in the Seine under the perched ruins of Chateau Gaillard, built in 1198 by Richard the Lionheart, Duke of Normandy and King of England. Two tour boats had docked there, suggesting that the town has some appeal.  We walked the riverside and back through town before heading around Rouen to tonight's destination--Caudebec-en-Caux.