A day in Normandy: Giverny & Rouen

Last weekend, IES took some of us on a day-trip to Normandy, specifically, to Giverny and Rouen. Giverny is, as you may know, the famous location of Monet's Home and Garden. Rouen is where Joan of Arc was burned.

Giverny was about an hour and a half away, a bit north-west of Paris. It's a cute little town with lots of shops and bakeries.. my family got to explore more of the town, since they came to Giverny by train and walked through the town to Monet's house. Monet's actual house is an adorable pink little country place - it looked so cute! It is surrounded by gardens and hedges, lots of flowers, trees, and his own little pond (of the well-known water lillies). The gardens had paths to walk along and we could see a few of the recognizable spots that he must have painted. The house itself was quaint, not very gaudy but nice all the same. Monet collected Chinese artwork, and most of the pictures that he had put on the walls are still there. It was interesting to see some of the work that influenced him.

Rouen was another adorable little town, very historic with many old and cool-looking buildings! Just walking down a street there looks like you're on the set of a St. Joan biopic or something. Rouen has lots of history itself because the English and the French have been passing its ownership back and forth over the years. It was there that the British took Joan of Arc after they captured her, and there's a little square in the town where you can go to the actual spot where she was burnt to a crisp (in 1431). Also, Rouen is famous for its huge cathedral in the middle of town. This cathedral was the focus of a series of Monet's paintings. He painted this church at about 5 different times of the day, each with different lighting and coloration (incidentally, I recently saw this series at Musee d'Orsay this weekend). The cathedral is very old too, dating from the 12th Century when they first started the centuries-long process of building it.

You can check out my pictures for a better idea of what everything was like:

Giverny and Rouen