France’s Finest

The Louvre is the home of the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Wiged Victory of Samothrace and Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of John the Baptist. Most of our viewing has been done over the heads of 500 Chinese tourists. Still, it is wonderful to see the original paintings of works I’ve seen only in books all my life. Czytaj więcej

When we were first married we saw three views of the Rouen Cathedral at the National Gallery in Washington. Then and there we fell in love with the work of Claude Monet. Today we visited that cathedral, along with the Parish Church of St. Maclou and the Church of St. Ouen. I was able to pay photographic homage to Monet by attempting to duplicate his beautiful images on this rainy Saturday. I had not realized before that the heart of Richard the Lionhearted is entombed here, along with the remains of Rollo, the first Viking Duke of Normandy. We also went to the place where Joan of Arc was tried, then to the church which has been built over the site of her execution. This modern structure, built in 1979, incorporates stained glass windows salvaged from churches of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that were destroyed in World War II. A visit to Rouen’s Museum of Fine Arts capped off a wonderful afternoon. We saw one of Monet’s views of the Rouen Cathedral right here in Rouen. There was also a wonderful painting by Pisarro of the Pont Boïldieu, the bridge by which the Viking Rinda is docked. At night there was a sound and laser light show, using the facade of the cathedral as a screen. One presentation gave the history of the Viking invasion of Normandy, and another gave the story of William the Conqueror. Czytaj więcej