September 21 – Giverny

Today we started our road trip with the rental of a car from the Sixt car rental agency.  All went smooth until we got into the car.  It was a Peugeot Hybrid.  This car sets the parking brake automatically.  When we engaged the ignition it seemed that brake remained engaged.  Also the automatic transmission was differently configured that an North American car.  So we had to have someone from the rental company show us how to drive the car.  This is the definition of embarrassing .   It turns out that when you put the car into drive the parking brake will automatically disengage.  We eventually got the bugs worked out and we were on our way to Giverny.

Portrait of Monet's wife

Giverny is the home of Monet’s home, studios and gardens. Monet is the master of the school of art know as impressionism and it obvious from these gardens that it would inspire any artist.

The son of a grocer, Monet defied his family, insisted he was an artist. A fellow artist encouraged set up his easel outdoors and paint the scene exactly as he saw it. At that time“open-air” painting was unorthodox for artists were trained to study their subjects in the perfect lighting of a controlled studio setting.

Monet started renovating his garden, inspired by tranquil scenes from the Japanese prints he collected. He diverted a river to form a pond, planted willows and bamboo on the shores, filled the pond with water lilies, then crossed it with a wooden footbridge.

The gardens are filled with a massive array of colours and shapes. Especially impressive is his water lily pond that he painted in many of his works.   The ponds are very relaxing and scenic.  This will be one of many  highlights of our trip.

Monet's garden

Monet's pond with water lilles

When we returned to our hotel in Rouen our GPS drove us nuts.  Following its instructions we went down the wrong way on several one way streets, entered a couple of bus only roads and generally rode around in circles for about a thirty minutes.  It was only after we shut the GPS off and used our own sense of direction that we got to our hotel.  Part of the problem is that GPS may be using out of date maps and Rouen has made itself green with pedestrian friendly streets and public transit only roads.

The car we are renting is bigger than most European cars and we found getting into the hotel parking lot to be a challenge because of the cramped space.

For diner we went to the Les Maraichers restaurant.  Marg had duck again with a shell fish appetizer and I had steak with a veal sausage appetizer. It was very good.  For dessert Marg had rice pudding that she claimed was better than what I prepare at home, although I doubt that!  For wine we had a Domaine des Ravinets.  It was another great meal.  We are getting spoiled.

Inside famiy joke : Note to Ken - Along the way Marg noted that even the hay was stacked artistically.