Friday, August 24, 2012Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2007 in Boston. Mattie was visiting Peter's parent's home and fell in love with a chipmunk in their backyard. Mattie never saw a chipmunk before, so seeing one in his grandparent's garden was very special. Mattie named this chipmunk, "Chippy." In fact, when Mattie entered kindergarten his teacher required the children to develop their writing skills. In order to inspire the children to write, Mattie's teacher asked that each child bring in a couple of photos, photos that could trigger a story. One day Mattie and I sat down looking at pictures, and he immediately selected a picture of Chippy to bring to school. In fact, Mattie wrote some wonderful Chippy stories which we still have in his writer's workshop booklet.
Fact about Le Havre, France: While under German occupation, the city was devastated in 1944 during the Battle of Normandy in World War II; 5,000 people were killed and 12,000 homes destroyed, mainly by Allied air attacks. After the war, the centre was rebuilt in the modernist style by Auguste Perret. Le Havre was honoured with the Legion of Honor award on July 18, 1949. Le Havre was once synonymous with urban gloom and greyness. The city's inhabitants have done much to change this; as a result of substantial improvements, Le Havre is now spoken of as the Brasilia of France.
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Below is an account of our day! I will post pictures of Monet's home and garden when I return home this weekend. We toured from 7:45am to 7pm today, so I am exhausted. Now we are scrambling to pack so we can fly home tomorrow. The weather continues to be awful, and we are meeting quite a wind storm right now as we are sailing back to Southampton. The Captain is recommending Dramamine to passengers.... not a good sign! To top it off we just learned this morning that our flight tomorrow was cancelled, so we are trying to figure out how United plans on getting us home. Quite a last day to say the least!!!
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Perhaps no other place in France holds more associations for English-speaking visitors than Normandy. The historic Allied landings on D-Day - 6 June, 1944 - live on in the memories of British and Americans alike. Nor has Le Havre forgotten the dark days of the war. The port was nearly completely destroyed during the Normandy campaign. Today, Le Havre is France's second largest port and the gateway to Paris, "City of Light," the Norman countryside, and the historic landing beaches. Le Havre was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2005, with The Musee des Beaux Arts Andre Malraux which boasts one of the finest collections of Impressionist paintings in the world.
We took a scenic drive through the Normandy countryside on the motorway to Monet's home at Giverny on the Seine (a two hour bus drive from the port of Le Havre). Claude Monet spent the last four decades of his life creating a magnificent garden at his home, and memorializing it in oil on canvas. We embarked on a guided walking tour through a flower garden called Clos Normand. The Clos Normand is ablaze with color in summer, with tulips, roses, dahlias, sunflowers and nasturtiums. Monet created his garden with an eye for how it would appear on canvas. We approached the pink crushed-brick house adorned with green shutters through the garden entrance. Inside, we visited the salon, Monet's bedroom, his Nympheas Studio, the yellow dining room and the tiled kitchen, noticing Japanese prints and the work of his artists friends which lined the walls throughout. One marvels at the Japanese-inspired water garden and the Japanese bridge surrounded by wisteria and azaleas over the lily pond. The pond and bridge were the subjects of one of Monet's late masterworks. We had lunch in Fourges, at a picturesque restaurant housed in a restored barn on the banks of the Seine. We dined on salmon terrine with creamy sauce, an emince of chicken with cream, apple tart with calvados, and wine. Next was Rouen. Rouen boasts over 700 ancient timbered houses. Bustling Rue Saint Romain and the Rue du Gros Horloge, passing Rouen's old fortified clock tower and law courts, housed in a Renaissance building. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen, is a superb example of French Gothic architecture that took 300 years to complete. The cast iron spire is the largest in France and the central portal features an elaborately painted "Tree of Jesus." The interior, features a Lady Chapel, the tombs of Rouen's archbishops, secured behind wrought iron gates, and impressive 15th-century stained glass windows. The Place du Vieux Marché, the Old Marketplace, which is the site where the English burned Joan of Arc at the stake. Today, the square boasts the Great Cross of Rehabilitation erected in tribute to the Maid of Orleans, a daring modern church is dedicated to her memory.
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