For The Love of Travel

Off in my little Fiat 500 electric car hired from Hertz, to Giverny, to view Monet’s house and garden. Woo hoo! I forgot how close motor cycles drive past cars and wend in and out of traffic. My poor little car’s warning sensors kept going off like a frog in a sock!

Even though I got one of the earliest viewing tickets, there was still quite the queue to see his house and hard to take a pic in the garden without someone ‘photo bombing’ the shot. Bloody tourists! Ha.

Its hard to believe that Monet lived at this place for 43 yrs (1883-1926). With a passion for gardening as well as for colours, he designed the flower and water gardens as true works of art. Painting a bonus :).

LOVED his yellow kitchen in particular. The garden took an hour’s walk including the water lily pond. And I managed to launch the drone after leaving the house and get an aerial view of the design. Fabulous! The BESTEST of mornings.

My macro photography skills were challenged in capturing this little blue/green dragonfly in Monet’s garden.

Next, off to La Roche-Guyon, one of France’s ‘beaux villages’, located on the Seine River, with architecture and landscape influenced by Normandy and Ile-de-France regions. The imposing castle has been extensively remodelled over the centuries, from the corner turrets of the Middle Ages to the pavilions and terraces of the Renaissance era. Frequented by the kings of France and the intellectuals of the Enlightenment; owned by the La Rochefoucauld family since 1659; the castle was in 1944, invaded by German troops of Marshal Rommel who tried to negotiate peace there with the allies….

Drove through Saint-Martin-La-Garenne, a village that depended on the abbey from the 11thC; then was a ‘lordship’ attached to the lord of La Roche-Guyon, before being established as a commune during the Revolution.

Arrived in Paris’ Montparnasse station last night and once a taxi arrived, got to my AirB&B apartment in the Rue d’Assas, 6th arrondissement. As the taxi rounded the bend from the station, this gorgeous image appeared…(not bad an image given taken while taxi is travelling!). Too knackered to do anything, just flaked!

First stop this morning at the Palais Garnier, the ‘incroyable’ home of the Paris Opera. The marble Grand Escalier has a magnificent 30 metre high vault; two female ‘allegories’ hold torches, greeting spectators.

The Salon du Glacier in the Grand Foyer, evokes the aesthetic of the Belle Epoque, featuring dancing bacchantes and fauna, with a ceiling painted by Clairin (1843 – 1919). The play of light between mirrors and windows is spectacular.

Lots of busts on the first floor, with images of people that had contributed to the development of the building. Berain (1640 – 1711), for example, was a painter.

Next, to Galeries Lafayette Rooftop, to get a lovely shot of the Eiffel Tower.

Then to the Maillol Musee to see Elliott Erwitt’s ‘A Retrospective” exhibition. Elliott is a French-born American advertising and documentary photographer, known for his mostly black and white ( but some colour) candid photos of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings. I love the humour and emotion he captures!!

Arrived from Dubrovnik @ Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and walked a couple of kms from terminal 2D to 2F. Bought Ladurée macarons on the way, as a pressie for mine hosts Sue and Keith, with whom I’m staying for a couple of days in Perigueux.

Caught an Air France domestic flight to Bordeaux (delayed on the tarmac for an hour due to some issue…..arrggh!), and made it to Hotel Regina Gare Saint-Jean by 23.30 – right opposite the train station I was departing from the following morning. A lovely sleep was had.

An hours journey on a TGV: train a grande vitesse, (these quick trains run at 300 kms per hour) and I was being greeted at Perigueux station by friend Sue. So great to be catching up in person, it’s been 7 years since the last time I visited. Sue and Keith’s country residence in Atur is looking lovely as ever and its beaut weather to sit outside in the garden shade and chat about our lives. Drony took a lovely pic of ‘the estate’. Dinner on the Isle river @ La Peniche.

As the capital of the Périgord, there are certain things you’d expect to find in Périgueux (Dordogne). It’s got high street shops, an impressive cathedral, students and some pretty municipal gardens… not to mention Roman ruins and an unusual statue of a peg-leg general.

Périgueux’s St-Front, a cathedral built in a similar style to St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, was restored in the second part of 19thC by Paul Abadie, the same architect who later designed the Sacré Coeur in Paris. 

On Wednesday and Saturday mornings, there is a food market held on Place de la Clautre in front of St-Front as well as on Place du Coderc and Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. I swear I could smell the peaches and strawberries 100m away! Yummy, yum, yum.

The old streets around this area – strung with old fashioned lamps that hang from chains – are home to an array of specialist boutiques with interesting window displays ranging from antiques to designer fashions.

Saint Silain bar is one of the oldest in the city, and you can really ‘chill’ in this tree-lined shaded square.

As you emerge from these alleys, there is a good opportunity to pass by Boulevard Michel-Montaigne with its statue of Baron Pierre Daumesnil (1777-1832) a soldier who risked his life for Napoleon on more than one occasion. He was badly injured at the Battle of Wagram and eventually lost his leg.

Sue and Keith took me to the bar, L’Oiseau Bleu, where they usually have brunch when they visit the market, being welcomed by the owner Fabrice and friends they have met over the years.

There’s a vintage festival on today, lots of old cars and locals dressed in vintage fashion….

And we had a fabulous lunch… the king garlic prawns were to die for!