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Graham & Jane
Well day 2 of the cruise and all is well, well nearly, the front radar is broken but other than that all is well and the cruise is progressing as normal.
Today we had 2 stops along the river the first being at Vernon where we took a short coach ride out to the gardens of Monet at Giverny. There has been so much written about Monet and the garden I will not try and add to them. Suffice to say the biggest revelation to both of us was Monet was actually born as Oscar Monet, and decided he did not like the name Oscar as he thought it did not suit him, so changed it Claude. To us listening to the guide it would appear Monet was OCD, actually destroying a lot of his paintings if he felt they were not right. He would not sign a painting until he had sold it and so at the time of his death there were many of his paintings left unsigned. So his son had a stamp of his signature made and these are stamped on the back of the paintings.
Following the walk around the gardens we had a short walk up the Rue Claude Monet (it used to be the High Street) to the village church where Monet is buried, whilst he was offered a state funeral and burial in one of the great cathedrals he chose to be buried locally. A surprise for us as we walked into the churchyard was the memorial to the crew of a Lancaster bomber which crashed just outside of Giverny.
It was then back to the ship for a quick lunch of Crepe's as the ship set sail for Les Anderlys, Les Anderlys is home to Chateau Gaillard which was built by Richard Coeur de Leon after he siezed the territory from the archbishop of Rouen. He built the castle to control not only the traffic on the Seine, but also as a protection against attacks by the french. Of course to those of us following English history he is Ric*************heart, but to the Normans he is Richard Coeur de Lion, Duke of Normandy.
Today we had 2 stops along the river the first being at Vernon where we took a short coach ride out to the gardens of Monet at Giverny. There has been so much written about Monet and the garden I will not try and add to them. Suffice to say the biggest revelation to both of us was Monet was actually born as Oscar Monet, and decided he did not like the name Oscar as he thought it did not suit him, so changed it Claude. To us listening to the guide it would appear Monet was OCD, actually destroying a lot of his paintings if he felt they were not right. He would not sign a painting until he had sold it and so at the time of his death there were many of his paintings left unsigned. So his son had a stamp of his signature made and these are stamped on the back of the paintings.
Following the walk around the gardens we had a short walk up the Rue Claude Monet (it used to be the High Street) to the village church where Monet is buried, whilst he was offered a state funeral and burial in one of the great cathedrals he chose to be buried locally. A surprise for us as we walked into the churchyard was the memorial to the crew of a Lancaster bomber which crashed just outside of Giverny.
It was then back to the ship for a quick lunch of Crepe's as the ship set sail for Les Anderlys, Les Anderlys is home to Chateau Gaillard which was built by Richard Coeur de Leon after he siezed the territory from the archbishop of Rouen. He built the castle to control not only the traffic on the Seine, but also as a protection against attacks by the french. Of course to those of us following English history he is Ric*************heart, but to the Normans he is Richard Coeur de Lion, Duke of Normandy.
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