Day Eighty Five: Pacy sur Eure to Giverny, Bec Hellouin, and back: Monet!

June 20, 2017

Didier's parents threw us in the car and took us around this corner of Normandy for the day. This included one place we had planned to get to somehow - Monet's house and garden at Giverny, and then backtracking over territory we have already covered on the bikes (but clearly not thoroughly enough!) the Chateau des Champs de Bataille, and the abbey at Bec Helloiun. These latter two are back beyond Evreux, which we had fought so hard to reach and get through. It's freaky going places in a car!

But oh, first, Monet! We set out quite early in the morning, and probably witnessed only the first load of tourists out of Paris, as they arrived at nearby Vernon train station. That meant that we really did not have to queue to get in at Monet's house, and when we went first to buy a child's primer on Monet in the gift shop (just our level) we did not have any crowd either. Later, when we left, everything was jammed with people (though still not as many as Didier's parents say there can be).

Monet's place is not huge, and the gardens are not vast. We are not talking about a chateau, just a village house. But Monet designed the place and its impact is great. It's hard to disentangle whether the impact comes form the fame of everything from the kitchen tiles to the Japanese bridge to the water lillies, or whether inately they have a magical design. Whichever, it was drop dead gorgeous and will form one of the strongest memories of this trip.

People arrive by train at the nearby Verdun station, and get on a shuttle like this to Giverny. We also saw stacked up tour busses disgorging people right in Giverny.

Lots of the visitors are oriental. That is true of most major sites, but maybe more so here.

Monet is usually depicted as an old man. Naturally he got increasingly famous with age.

Clemenceau and Monet. We were also at Clemenceau's house by the coast, which was closed for renovations.

The style of the garden itself (which we believe has ben maintained as Monet had it, generally) is nothing like the regimented examples that we find in places like Villandry, or for that matter Butchart Gardens, where we live. Rather it is a profusion of mostly perennials, with no apparent plan. Yes, the beds are in a more or less rectangular arrangement, but that is not how it strikes you.

The water lilly garden, if anything, is more fetching than anything else. It it not accidentally like that, but rather Monet had the place excavated and he lobbied the local town to divert a river to fill it. We understand the townsfolk were not exactly ecstatic about the idea. But the result, oh my.

We also know somewhat of Monet's interest in Japanese art, and maybe that is why we found so many oriental people there today. There is something about oriental people and water lillies that really clicks, and I captured one lady (just a tourist, not a model) in a post that I think is just great.

The Monet house, still the pink that he chose for it, is stuffed with (admittedly reproduction) paintings by Monet and others, plus family memorabilia. Monet's son donated the site to a foundation, a generous and wise move. Now the house, memorabilia, and garden are a world treasure.

One evidence of the importance of the site was unfortunately in the security. We are not talking about the airport quality shakedown, like at the clearly much more important places - like the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta - but a man still inquired about what was in Dodie's water bottle holder. And outside, three gendarmes strolled by. One had her finger darn close to the trigger of an automatic weapon.

The town of Giverny is not big, but it does contain the typical Normandy houses and one or two hotels. We checked, and you can stay in the hotel just down the street for 89 euros - a great deal, considering.

The Monet gift shop when you could still buy something with out a 30 minute lineup.

The garden as viewed from a window in Monet's house

This is the lady we saw walking in the road too

We were told that the lillies only bloom over a three day period once a year. Which days is not predictable. We hit it!

These dragon flies were on a fir tree - not sure why they found that attractive.

Te lineup to get in was very long by the time we left

This world treasure needs to be protected.

The Château du Champ-de-Bataille - while we were on that veloroute from Bray to Evreux we passed it, but could not really see anything. This is a "garden variety" (ha ha) French chateau with dozens of sumtuous rooms and some big but formal mostly green gardens.

We have not researched the history of the place, but we know it fell into disuse and was purchased by someone called Jacques Garcia, for a rumoured 1 euro.

Ok, ok, Wikipedia says:

In 1650 Alexandre de Créquy-Bernieulle (1628–1703) was arrested and exiled to the province by Cardinal Mazarin. He built the Château du Champ-de-Bataille between 1653 and 1665.

The thing about the chateau that we did not know is that like other things in France, it seemingly randomly closed for today. (Ok, not exactly randomly - if you know if you are talking about the chateau, the garden, or the tea house, and you know what month it is, and you know what time it is, (and you have a French lawyer), you might get in. As it is, we just snuck a couple of shots from the courtyard.

We did not get much of a look at the Champ de Bataille chateau, but you can see the contrast with Monet!

The who town of Bec near the Bec Hellouin abbey is in this style.

Bec Helloin is only one of many abbeys in Normandy

The remaining (St Nicholas) tower at Bec Hellouin

We stopped off at a favourite place of Didier's parents, in Evreux, which is a Chinese all you can eat buffet. A restaurant of this type is a real rarity in France, and by now even we appreciated its novelty.

Of course, this did have a French touch. For example, amoung the all you can eat desserts were all you can eat eclairs. Wow!

This former toll huse by a now disappeared bridge is the symbol of Evreux, according to Didier's parents.

Another typically Normandy scene in Evreux.

We will have to cut back on the eclairs once we stop cycling, of course. But I was wrong yesterday to write that we are done cycling. Tomorrow we are going to leave before 6 a.m. (trying to avoid as much heat as possible) and we will make an assault on Paris, using a track from bikemap.net. We do not really have a map, but Dodie thinks she can find the way.

Didier's mom (because Moms are like that) will get up with us and no doubt whip up some petit dejeuner. With that, and a scrap of baguette in the food bag, we'll be off!

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