Normandy Part 2

Hello.  Tuesday we decided to visit Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny.  The garden is truly a work of art with mass plantings.  Blooming during our visit were many varieties of Roses, also Hollyhocks, Canterbury Bells, Dahlias and Poppies.  There were many visitors including tour buses and primary school children.  To visit the water garden, the scene of one of Monet’s most famous paintings you use an underpass as a quite busy road is cut between the flower and the water gardens.  It was lovely to the water lilies and willow trees.  WARNING.....photo laden post!

  

We finished our visit by having a look in Monet’s house.  We were not permitted to take photos inside but I did take many of the exterior as the house is just so pretty.

 

After leaving the Monet’s garden we had  lunch at a place called Ancien Baudy Hotel as recommended by Sharon.  We ate out on the terrace and enjoyed our food as much as people watching. 

 After we had eaten the waitress informed us that at the rear of the hotel was a lovely garden we could look at if we chose.  We did choose and were delighted to discover a rambling and relaxed garden made up of many roses and other lovely plantings.  There were little pathways here and there, steps up and around, it was truly another gorgeous garden to view.

 This evening Sharon and her husband very kindly invited hubby and I to have a drink with them on their Terrace.  We passed a delightful hour or so chatting about our different countries, families etc.

Wednesday we had planned to visit the Normandy beach landing site but as hubby was feeling off colour we decided a rest at our cottage would be best.  The weather was gorgeous and I set of to the local supermarket to buy some bread, water and honey.  My French being limited I was trying to explain I wanted honey and made a buzzing sound.  The shop owner showed me insect repellent.  I then went to the jams and motioned as if I was spreading on bread, yes she understood.  What a laugh she must have had and I’m sure she has amused her usual customers with tales of a strange foreign lady asking for buzz buzz.

I spent the morning out in the garden, sketching Sharon’s house, taking photos of her beautiful garden and checking on hubby who was inside reading.  Sharon told me I could get wi-fi connection if I sat in the garden close to their house and proceeded to spend the afternoon catching up on blogging.  Here are some photos of Sharon's garden, house and her beautiful dog Gibson who is only a year old and very well behaved.

 A hubby was feeling better we walked down to the supermarket to buy some pasta and sauce for a simple dinner.  We were greeted enthusiastically by the shop owners…the buzz buzz lady had returned.

After tea we went for a lovely long walk up to and in the forest behind Sharon’s house.  It was a lovely walking late in the day and just as we had decided it was time to turn back we saw a deer running through the forest.  We also saw some ducks and more huge big orange slugs.

 

Thursday we decided that we would visit three towns as recommended by Sharon.  The first was Rouen which really is a small city and is home to a Cathedral painted by Claude Monet.  As we were driving around we decided not to stop and drove on to Lyons-la-Foret stopping on the way for lunch.  Lyons-la-Floret has some lovely old buildings and we enjoyed a lovely wander stopping for coffee. 

The market shed

Looking rather sleepy here.

  Thunderstorms were forecast during the day and the heavens opened while we were at Lyons-la-Floret.  

Taking shelter under the market shed.

 

 After the rain eased we drove to Morgny to look for a Brocante shop Sharon had told us about.  We didn’t find the shop but while we were driving through some other small villages and country roads, another huge thunderstorm came through dumping rain and hail and very strong winds. 

At one stage we had to stop driving as the rain was so heavy we couldn’t see.  Turning around to drive back the way we had come, we came across trees that had broken branches on the roads, trees snapped, roof tiles that had come off houses, water on roads and unfortunately some crops that were lying flat.  The worst affected crops seemed to be wheat and flax but it appeared it was more due to the amount of rain that had fallen rather than hail damage.  At least we hope that is the case.  

So this ended our stay in Normandy.  We had a late start setting out to Paris Friday morning, it was very hard to tear ourselves away from such a relaxing, rural environment.  Gibson supervised us packing up the car and wanted one last game of ball before we left.  We hope we get a chance to go back to Normandy in the future.

 Now back in Paris we are enjoying more sites and sounds of this wonderful city.  More on that next post.

Anne  xx