Month: June 2022

Day 3, June 22, 2022

Part one: The House and Gardens, including Lily Ponds of Claude Monet

This was a long day, which began with a beautiful sunrise over Lisieux

En route to Giverney, where Monet’s gardens are, a change was made to the itinerary, and we drove through a charming village on the banks of a loop of the Seine called Les Andelys. This is famous because of the castle built high above it by Richard Coeur de Lion The coach took us to a view point just above the castle and we were able to marvel at both the castle and the view.

View of the River Seine

From here we proceeded to Giverny, east of Lisieux, our base. It was very warm when we arrived, the air conditioning on the coach, keeping us agreeably cool, but also giving us a false impression as to how just hot it was. After a short walk, passing through an underpass, and along the road, we arrived at the group entrance. I was impressed by how pretty the verges were, with beautiful flowers lining the entire walkway. After passing through the group entrance I found myself wandering through the beautiful gardens in front of the house, which were mostly at their peak of flowering. Here there were beautiful arches, covered with roses, and flowering shrubs and perennials, creating height and structure..

I particularly wanted to see the lily ponds, which he had painted so often. One of the things I love about light and reflection,, especially sunlight on the water, is the way the light constantly changes There weren’t as many lilies in the ponds as I was expecting, but it was still beautiful.

It was a very hot day, but there was good shade provided by the many trees. The layout of the ponds and bridges gave a number of charming vistas.

After going round the ponds three times, the third because I couldn’t find the exit, I found the little underpass and returned to the gardens, followed by a visit to the house. This was a long, but relatively narrow. construction The walls were adorned with a variety of prints. I was particularly impressed with the number of Japanese prints.

Downstair, there were two large rooms. The dining room had a very big table for a large number of guests and was predominantly primrose yellow.

In the kitchen, which was also large there were the most beautiful blue and white tiles.

We had been given a good length of time to spend in Giverny so I now wandered along the main street looking for somewhere to find something light to eat. Most places I passed looked full and I suspect required a reservation. Eventually I found an unprepossessing little place with a few chairs and tables in a courtyard. By this stage on such a hot day the thought of shade was very appealing.

I had a simple lunch of a freshly filled baguette and a glass of wine and enjoyed simply relaxing on a lovely day.

Trip to Livarot Pays d’Auge

After a short trip in the coach to Livarot we arrived at Le village fromager, E Grandorge , a cheese factory where one of the authentic makers of Cheese of Pay d’Auge had begun . A tour of the factory with a cheese tasting at the end, had been arranged. On the tour I learned that it was a combination of the type of cows, in this case cows with a rather beautiful brown saddle and while belly, the Sedge grass, which they fed on, and the weather, which kept the pastures lush, that created the distinctive flavour of Livarot cheese.

We were able to watch a couple of short films about the history of Camenbert, confined to the D’Auge region and I learned that AOC is short for “Appellation d’Origine Controlee “. After passing through areas, which were highly automated, we came to the area where the ladies were hard at work putting the cheese into moulds and scraping the tops.

I found there were two other AOC cheeses, which were granted this distinction

The third is “Pont L’Eveque”

Once the tour was completed we were treated to a cheese tasting. There were four cheeses on the plate and we were advised to eat them clockwise, starting at 12 o’clock, which was the ”Pont L’Eveque; the one at 3pm was Camembert; the one at 6 o’clock was “Livarot”; and the one at 9 o’clock was the ”C.oeur de Bray, which I particularly enjoyed.

After the visit to Livarot we returned to Liseux for a general explore. I’m afraid fatigue had caught up on me and I found it necessary to have a rest.

Day 1 20th June 2022

Whitegate near Northwich, Cheshire to Liseux in Nomandy, France

After an absence of four years since I last visited France I am on my way again. In the past I would have never considered a coach trip, but now that I am on my own the prospect has become much moe appealing, and when I saw the itinerary for this trip I was sold Thus I was up at 5am to be ready to drive to meet the coach at 7am outside the home of my former French conversation teacher, who had organised the trip. We are travelling all the way with a company called Lakeside and our first driver, Paul regaled us with his “Fronglaise,” which was rather entertaining.

After stops at Norton Caines, where we changed drivers to Chris, an equally happy chappy, Cherwell, where we picked up co tour guide, Justin, and Chevely, for some lunch to eat en route we arrived at Portsmouth at 1.15pm ready for our crossing to Caen, or more strictly speaking, Ouistreham After COVID passes checks and passports, which ran very smoothly, we were waved through to board our 14.45 crossing. As I was with a group we were allocated a room, but it was way too lovely a day to stay in there and we soon found the outside deck and were treated to beautiful views of Portsmouth harbour as we departed.

After a crossing of over five hours we arrived at Ouistreham where there were delays waiting for a shuttle bus, which we shared with a group of very excited school children, followed by immigration, we boarded our Lakeside coach and drove for another hour to Lisieux, where we are staying at the Grand Hotel de l’Esperance for five nights We were greeted by a very welcoming patron and after retrieving my suitcase I made my way to my room on the fifth floor, typically French with a lovely bathroom A very long but happy day.