Day 6 (Oct 7th): Vernon in Paris and Normandy travel log

We were supposed to spend a whole day in Vernon, but the lock masters of France decided that they were going to have a strike the next day, so we needed to hurry down to the next port Rouen before the next day because we needed to pass through two locks to do so. And they were wimpy locks of a few meters each, so that was annoying. As a result, we were only able to spend the morning in the town, and spend the afternoon on the river towards town.

And we actually did not spend any time in Vernon; we spent the morning in Giverny, the place with a population of 500, where Monet lived and was buried. The water garden and estate was restored to its original condition and maintained, and there was a museum of impressionism there too. So it’s a place for lots of tourists. We did a tour of the museum’s garden and the water garden in the morning, and they were very pretty. It felt highly-choreographed though. The garden had all the requisite ‘scenes’ - the Japanese bridge, the water lilies, the bamboo forrest, a boat, a brooke, a pond, etc. Basically, if there is a Monet painting from the water garden, the restorers would put those the subjects back in there. Also, my wireless headset was defective, so I couldn’t hear anything our guide was saying. And to add to my crankiness, I happened to have put a defective contact lens into my right eye, so I could only see out of one eye for the whole morning. In any case, I know a lot about Monet’s history already, and the garden was pretty, so I had a good time. And it also helps that the gift shop had some nice gifts I got.

I actually wished we could spend some more time in Vernon - it’s a medieval city with an old town, a church, and a city center, something that feels like worth exploring. But, as it were, we set sail in the afternoon, and got to enjoy the scenery of the French country side as we passed them by. During that time we had a presentation about the Joan of Arc, a reception for return customers, and some sun-deck time. For me and La Professeure, being on a sail boat was nothing novel, but her parents were very excited about looking at the scenarios passing and being moored against another boat.

In any case, it was at least a nice change of pace from the previous two days of lots of walking and running around.

Last updated October 23, 2015