Bonjour Odessa!

Part 3 of the continuing series of the adventures of Gerald and Barbara Greenwalt seeing Paris by riverboat tour.

Day three in Paris: A trip to Giverny for the history of Monet.Monet was born in Paris on November 14, 1840, to a grocer father and singer mother. Monet was mentored in oil painting and painting outdoors. Monet moved to England in 1870 and married Camille Doncieus. They had two children, but she died of tuberculosis aged just 32. He was 43 when he came to Giverny in 1883 with Alice Hosched, her six children and his two and bought a large house with two acres of garden. Monet died on December 5, 1926, aged 86. Despite rapidly failing eyesight and lung cancer he painted until the day he died and is buried in Giverny cemetery.

Monet’s Garden is closed during the months of November and March, so the tour was detoured to the charming town of Auvers-sur-Oise. In the second half of the 19th century, Auvers transformed itself into the “Cradle of Impressionism.” Of all the artists who found inspiration here, it is said that the spirit of Vincent van Gogh haunts the beautiful riverside valley. He produced 70 canvases during his 10-week stay here to what he called “medicinal effect;” he had come to seek help for his depression and suspected epilepsy. Not long after that van Gogh committed suicide in a wheat field just out of town. The tour meandered on to the cemetery where van Gogh’s grave lays. The cemetery is known here for “Garden Competition.” It’s an incredible display of live gardens at the end of the graves and ceramic flowers on the headstones. Walking through I found one grave after another and the next one more beautiful than the last. Being a gardener I could have stayed all day.

We sailed on and took a walking tour of Vernon, it included the Town Hall which housed the town’s coat of arms and a massive staircase. The Collegiate Church, built between the 11th and 17th centuries, had an elegant façade, exquisite interior, and an elaborately decorated organ. It was awesome to go back in time with the beautiful architecture. Next, we visited the Museum A.G. Poulain, a seventeenth century brick and timber mansion which has an outstanding collection of Monet’s art and the Old Mill, built in sixteenth century brick and timber. It connects two piers of an ancient bridge across the Seine.

We were left on our own for a short time, but enough to visit a fabulous bakery, walking away with fresh caramel, fresh huckleberry turnovers and a baguette. Its interesting to note people eating only a baguette for lunch. When we asked about it, we were told it’s how they grew up, it’s filling and it’s $1 in price, so we joined in and ate like Parisians.

Choices for the late afternoon were a Cheese Lecture or an Oil Painting Class. That evening we were briefed in the lounge about tomorrow’s excursion and events. We stayed in the lounge and visited with so many lovely people, not a party pooper in the crowd. We always walked away wanting more time in the day. Next we headed off to dinner in the main dining room with casual dress. The food was way beyond anything we experienced on a larger cruise line; it was like it was cooked especially for us, and there was no extra charge, like the cruise lines and their specialty restaurants.

Gerald and I strolled outside for a while gazing at the stars and chatting about this wonderful gift we had given ourselves and our gratefulness that we were able to do it. Finally, we stepped into the lounge for live music and to mingle again with fellow passengers talking about tomorrow’s adventure to Rouen.