Up early to write in the kitchen in the dark (it’s 5am). Must work on the blog – I’m three days behind on blog posts as have a cold and by the time I get back to the room each night, I’ve been falling asleep at the laptop.
On the road to Paris (three hours away), and decide to stop at Giverny, an hour from Paris, to see Monet’s house and garden. Nothing to do with Chaucer except aesthetic beauty, and why wouldn’t I?
Monet saw Giverny on a train in 1883 as he was passing by, fell in love with the area, decided to rent a place there and by 1890 had saved enough money to buy the land and house and build the gardens that have since become famous.
It’s where he painted one of his most famous series, The Lilly Pads.
Monet soon attracted artists from around the country and world, who came to stay and share ideas at Baudy House, a short walk down the road from Monet’s house, which became the social and cultural centre for the art commune.
The village is home to about 500 people, and it seems most of them are artists, with studios lining the beautiful streets leading to Monet’s house.
A highly recommended stop for anyone interested in art, and the connection between landscape and creativity.
Then on to Paris. I’d decided to drive to the hotel then drop off the car. Others warned me about driving in Paris. But other than the crazy monster-sized roundabout at the Arc de Triumph…with Google Lady saying ‘take the 7th exit on the roundabout – roundabout my ass, this was chaos personified! Somehow managed to navigate to the right exit (with my trusty navigator…
…and no place to unload at the hotel, and difficulty finding the Europcar parking garage (Google shows you the above ground location of the middle of the lot, not where the entrance is!), it wasn’t too bad.
Because of the Giverny stop it was rush hour in Paris, but Rue St. Germain was not much worse than Georgia Street.
After checking in, walked the streets, and found a bite…
…first stop was Musee d’Orsay, which was thankfully open late on a Thursday, and which was a revelation – both architecturally…
…and artistically.
The Monet paintings were inspiring, reflecting the places I had just visited, including his impressions of Rouen Cathedral…
…and his garden in Giverny.
Wonderful to see an earlier version of Cezanne’s Les Baigneurs (The Bathers) hanging in Monet’s house, and then in the Musee…
The Musee has such a richness of art…most I’d never seen anywhere, including art books…
…and some that were more familiar, like the original sculpture of the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi .
Walking back to the hotel at sunset was miraculous. The Louvre across the Seine (which I would see the next day) was shimmering in gold…
Friday morning and back to retracing Chaucer steps…Chaucer travelled to Paris several times in the 1370’s, and probably also in 1368 on his way to Milan. He would have seen the twin towers of Notre-Dame de Paris, the tallest structure in Paris (the steeple that was destroyed in the recent fire was added in the 19th century, so not a sight he would have seen). I was so sad to see news and video of the fire. Thank God it was saved thanks to the heroic efforts of the fire men and women.
I was able to get as close as Shakespeare and Company, a few hundred metres away – itself a landmark.
He may have also seen the beautiful Sainte-Chapelle, the “royal chapel” and a marvel of Gothic architecture, originally housing Christ’s crown of thorns among other important relics, and containing some of the most beautiful stained glass of any church in the world. Sainte-Chapelle was housed within the Royal Palace – the Palais de la Cité. It was one of the most beautiful spaces I’ve ever stood inside.
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He may have also seen the Hôtel de Cluny (now the Cluny Museum, a small but memorable medieval museum housing the famed Unicorn Tapestries), built as a town house (“hôtel”) in the 1340’s to house abbots of Cluny.
It had been built on top of Roman baths that have since been excavated – a very interesting space. Oh – and a great bookstore where I dropped more euros…
In 1361 King Charles V had moved the royal residence away from the Palais de la Cité (on the Île de la Cité, one of two natural islands in the Seine, and where Paris was founded) to the hôtel Saint-Pol in the 1st arrondissement (near where the Louvre was eventually built), before Chaucer would have travelled there.
Jean Froissart, in his Chronicles, tells of the huge feast put on by Charles V for Prince Lionel there – with both Froissart and Chaucer probably attending.
Walking the streets of Paris, eating on a street side bistro, exploring the shops – it’s not as Chaucer would have experienced it, as the buildings we see today are mostly from the 17th through 20th century. But the Seine is still the Seine, and the sunsets no doubt still as magical now as they were in 1368.
Part deux of Paris later…as Florence beckons…