Monet Garden Landscape
Monet Water Garden
Today we took the car and headed for Rouen with a small detour to Giverny and the House and Gardens of Claude Monet. Here we wandered around the gardens taking pictures and enjoying the light filtering though the trees onto the wonderfully maintained gardens. In addition to some great views I got some great ideas for our gardens at home. I enjoy visiting big professionally maintained gardens to pick up some of the little tricks they use to give things a finished look. Even the use of color inside Monet's house was interesting. Most of the house was a warm blue, but the dining room was very yellow to make it very bright and sunny looking.
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Monet Garden Landscape |
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Monet Water Garden |
A small treat for me was to see the 18th Century Japanese painting "The Great Wave" hanging in Monet's house. I have a modern day rendition of this painting hanging in my office, and when I return I plan to find a re-print of the original to hang by its side.
Wave Picture |
After this visit we found our hotel in the maze of streets by the Train Station in the center of Rouen and began preparations for the next step of our trip. Rouen is our last major stop in France, and it's a big logistical stop for us. Here we drop off the rental car, pick up the bike boxes that we sent here from Tours 14 days ago, and figure out what to do next.
The next section was originally planned as 6 days with no set itinerary as we worked our way through Belgium to the BEA office in Amsterdam. However after a second look at northern France and Southern Belgium, it doesn't appear to be much to see and the route via small roads could turn it into a very long way. Additionally we had a hard time finding a reasonable way to get the bike boxes over two borders without us.
To keep things simple we decided to extend our stay in Rouen one day to take care of logistics then pack up the bike and take all of our stuff to Amsterdam via the train since we can't find a practical way to ship it. Also, we've decided to leave the bike in the boxes at the BEA office in Amsterdam, since we're getting tired of dragging so much gear everywhere we go. This will give us five days of traveling light again to explore Belgium and the southern parts of the Netherlands by train.
Today was filled with logistics: Dropping off the rental car, sending a package of accumulated stuff home, and packing the bike into its boxes. We also got out and visited the town of Rouen a bit.
Rouen is where Joan of Arch was burned at the steak, so we visited the church and square that marks this historic site. We also visited the Rouen Cathedral Notre Dam, which is structured just like all the other Notre Dams we've seen, but has a very tall spire.
Architecture Of Rouen |
Clock In Rouen City Center |
Rouen Cathedral Notre Dam |
We also spoke with Carolyn Sampson in the Amsterdam office to let her know about our plans. In addition to agreeing to meet us when we come into town, she invited us to the BEA summer event on Saturday. I've been looking forward to seeing the folks from the Amsterdam office, and we don't have any solid plans in Belgium so it looks like we're going to spend the weekend in Amsterdam before returning to Belgium…