3rd October: Mont St. Michel

A view of Mont St Michel - aerial photo
Source: Uwe Küchler and Wikipedia

Today is our third day in Normandy in northern France.

Le Mont-Saint-Michel is a rocky island off the coast of Normandy connected to the mainland by a thin strip of land which used to be covered at high tide. A Romanesque Abbey sits on top of the 'Mont'.

It has an interesting story and an amazing history which you can read about on:

• Wikipedia - Mont St Michel
• Wikitravel - Mont St Michel
• Official Mont St Michel website.
  

I think we'll probably be visiting Mont St Michel again in the morning.

In the afternoon we'll travel 156 miles through Britanny - via Fougères and Laval - to just north of Tours.

We're going to be staying in a self-catering cottage at Chateau du Plessis which we'll use as a vase for seeing various chateaux in the Loire Valley.

Just got to work out where and when we buy breakfast for tomorrow!

2nd October: Rouen and Normandy

Three of the paintings of Rouen Cathedral by Monet
(images from The Atheneaum)

This morning I wake up in Rouen and with a bit of luck, look out my hotel window and see the facade of Rouen Cathedral - that I'd last seen in Monet's paintings in the Musee d'Orsay (see post re 28th September)

Rousen is famous for:

• Rouen Cathedral - which was painted many times at different times of day by Claude Monet - see the post I did on Making A Mark about Monet's series paintings - Rouen cathedral (plus links at end of this post)
  
• being the place where Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) was imprisoned and tortured prior to her Trial of Condemnation in Rouen in 1431, Subsequently she was found guilty of heresy and was finally burned at the stake on May 30, 1431 in the Place Vieux Marché in Rouen
  
• being the backdrop for Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - a native of Rouen
  

I'm actually planning on getting up early so that I can spend some sketching Rouen Cathedral. However I'm very mindful of the fact that Monet found that painting the cathedral's facade was extremely difficult.

We're staying right opposite the cathedral in the Cardinal Hotel at 1, Place de la Cathédrale and if I'm really lucky I may be able to do all my sketches from my room! I do know that Monet took rooms opposite the cathdral while he was painting in Rouen.

This morning we motor down through Normandy our next overnight stop at the Château de Boucéel so that we can visit to Mont St Michel.

Links:

• Claude Monet - Resources for Art Lovers
• Creating a Series - Resources for Artists

1st October - Visiting Giverny

Couleurs de Septembre
16.5" x 14.5", Pastel on Rembrandt pastel board (NFS)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Today we're picking up a car from the Gare du Nord and driving to Giverny.

The aim is to visit the Foundation Claud Monet which is where you can see Monet's house, his enormous water lily studio, the Clos Normand (the flower garden) and the water garden, the Japanese Bridge and the Japanese Prints. I first saw the house and garden after a morning spent in the Musée de l’Orangerie viewing the huge panels of waterlilies which were of course based on paintings of his water garden - and it's in certainly in my top tend of best days ever!

There are some posts I've written over on Making A Mark are relevant - see

• Gardens in Art continues - with Monet
• Gardens in Art: Monet and the flower garden at Giverny
• Gardens in Art: Monet and the water garden at Giverny
• Gardens in Art: Monet's final Nympheas

Giverny is also the place where Monet painted his series paintings of stacks of wheat which I wrote about in October last year on Making a Mark.

Fortunately I constructed a list of links about Giverny and visiting Giverny two years ago when I was doing my Gardens in Art project on Making A Mark..

Links to information about Giverny include:

• The Claud Monet Foundation at Giverny FONDATION CLAUDE MONET, 84 rue Claude Monet, 27620 GIVERNY, FRANCE
• annotated map of the House and Gardens at Giverny
  
• The water garden (jardin d'eau) - 418 feet x 153 feet
  
• The flower garden (Clos Normand) - 380 feet x 240 feet
• Giverny.org
• map of the two gardens at Giverny
• aerial view of the gardens at Giverny
  
• an introduction to the two gardens
• List of plants and flowers in the two gardens
• flowering calendar at Giverny
• photographs of Giverny in the autumn
  
• Report on a lecture entitled "A Site for Sight: Monet in His Garden at Giverny, and given by Michael Marrinan, associate professor of art and art history. It focuses on changes in Monet's technique while painting Giverny.
• Royal Academy - Monet's gardens at Giverny
• Gardenvisit.com - Giverny Opening Dates and Times: April to October Daily 10am to 6pm
• How to get to Giverny from Paris

Making A Mark (04.09.07) - Gardens in Art continues - with Monet

Giverny - a great garden is the site I created as home to information about the garden.

I'm hoping we will also get to visit the The Musée d'Art Américain in Giverny. It's open from April 1st to October 31, 2008 every day except Monday, from 10:00 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Then on to Rouen and the cathedral there which Monet painted several times (see a photo of some of these paintings in the Musee D'Orsay in Monday's post). Read about the paintings in the post I did on Making A Mark - Monet's series paintings - Rouen cathedral

Links:

• Claude Monet - Resources for Art Lovers
• Creating a Series - Resources for Artists