Being a tourist

For the last three weeks me and my mother visited quite a lot of places around here, like real tourists.

I thought that maybe I should just summarize what we have seen, a post per trip might fill the blog!

We walked around Pontoise with the beautiful Cathedral of Saint-Maclou.

Many impressionists also painted in Pontoise. The Tavet museum exhibits the work of some of them and then there is the Camille Pissaro museum, which actually does not have even one of Pissaro’s works. : ) They do have paintings that was done by his two sons, Lucien and George. The exhibition in the Pisarro museum are all paintings of Pontoise and that was nice, to see paintings done more than a 100 years ago and then as you walk through the town, you can recognize the streets and buildings they painted.

Pontoise, the Tavet and Pisarro museum… 

There are enough churches to see in Paris. We went to Saint-Chapelle, the small church with the beautiful windows and of course we saw the Sacre Coeur and the Notre Dame.

Saint-Chapelle…

We had crepes, croissants, Croque-Monsieurs and coffee… One day Danie met us for coffee. That was after we gave up standing in the queue to visit the Orsay museum, which we worked out would be more than a few hours. Well, we have learned that you never ask for a small coffee, as that is really small. So, when the lady asked us if we wanted medium coffees we said yes!

…and we definitely didn’t get small coffees!

a misty day in Paris… 

We found the padlocks on the pont des Arts. A sign of undying love for the two people in love, who locks it to the bridge and throw the keys in the Seine… and some men were ‘blowing’ huge bubbles…

From seeing Monet’s waterlilies in the Orangerie museum, through the Tuileries gardens, passed the Louvre, along the Seine, passed the Notre Dame we finished this walk at the Cluny museum to see the beautiful, old, large woven tapestries.

I did a post about Monet’s garden in Giverny before. Then it was summer, but this time we could visit it in spring. Also special with spring flowers and very nice to see the tulips.

… its definitely not all we saw, only a glimpse, but I didn’t want to bore you with the 2000+ photo’s that we took between the two of us. : )
…maybe the city of Rouen still deserves a post on its own.

Le Mont Saint-Michel

I just read that someone calls it the fairy-tale island of Mont Saint-Michel. You could describe it as that. This was a special place to visit. A four hour drive from us, but worth it for sure. I borrowed this photograph from their official tourism website…

at high tide… 

The road connecting it to the mainland used to be covered at high tide, but with modernization, probably for tourists, you can now reach the island at all times. When we were there it was low tide.

looking down from the abbey…

We couldn’t wait for the tide to come in that day, but they say it is quite spectacular to see. The sea pulls back about 15km, then the tide comes in at 1m per second!

mont Saint-Michel…

then walking through little alleys and up lots of stairs…
 

inside the monastery…

Today its a tourist destination with 3 million visitors each year, so of course there are shops and places to eat…

and we finished our visit with crêpes and caramel sauce at the well-known la mère Poulard…

a last look back as we drove away…

Visiting van Gogh

Still a little strange to think… but the town where Vincent van Gogh spend his last months, is just a 15 min. drive from my house. I visited the château before, but Saturday was my first visit to Van Gogh’s Auvers sur Oise. Me and my mother started at the church… with a lot of tourist groups. You had to use the quiet moments between two groups to enjoy the atmosphere and take some photo’s.

…and the side from which van Gogh made his painting.

The graveyard not far from the church. Two small stones for Vincent and his brother Theo, among all the crosses showing the last resting places of french families.

…here rest Vincent and Theo van Gogh

We could walk into the little attic room in this building where van Gogh stayed and died after committing suicide.

The house of Dr. Gachet, Vincent’s friend and physician. They currently display modern artist’s work here. In the garden was an exhibition of flowers made from recycled steel.

In the château of Auvers they take you on a trip through the times of the impressionists. Starting in Paris and moving  with them into the countryside.

and then the nice drive back to Cergy-Pontoise. Currently filled with the yellow patches of the canola fields…

We were going to see Van Gogh’s original painting of the church in Auvers in the D’Orsay museum in Paris yesterday, but the 1000 people in the queue and the rain, made us leave that for another day…

Giverny

30 July 2011

I’ve always wanted to see Monet’s garden in Giverny. Well, now it is only 45 kilometres from where we live!
The little village, Giverny, is already something to see and then still add Monet’s house and garden and it is a lovely place to visit. The day started rainy, but after lunch the sun came out. We only left after 2, but you could spend a whole day in the village and gardens.

I don’t know how to describe the garden, all I can say is that it is only flowers and flowers and more flowers. And then there is the water and water-lilies. It is really beautiful.

We ended our visit with nutella crêpes and hot chocolate with cream…

I took too many photos to post here, I will put the rest on Facebook…

Château Maisons Laffitte

6 July 2011

Maisons Laffitte is a town just across the river Seine from where we are staying now in Montesson. Me and the girls went this morning… the boys… there is no technology to see…

When you walk in a building this big, which was actually someone’s house, you really wonder about how people lived. You can not only be rich to afford this, there must be no end to what you can afford…Pillars were made with their initials embossed… Paintings and tapestries of unreal sizes…

  
 
 
  
  
  

A Sunday in Paris

3 July 2011

Much better to visit Paris on a Sunday. All the shops are closed, but attractions are still open. For everyone under 26 you can buy day cards for half price. This time we drove to Neuilly Sur Seine and took the metro from there. We took snacks in our bags and we were ready for the day. We have lovely summer weather now. We almost want to complain about the heat… but maybe we shouldn’t as they forecast rain from tomorrow.

We walked through the bird market and only looked at the Notre Dame from the outside. The queues were way too long.