June 1, 2015 Giverny to Omaha Beach

June 1, 2015 Giverny to Omaha Beach

We awoke to a new day without our Car and wholly dependent on our proprietress, Sandrine at Les Jardines de Helene B&B, for assistance to coordinate getting to our boat ride on the Seine, Willy getting to Beauvais Airpot to  catch his flight to Dublin, and our getting our rental car fixed or replaced. She served us a lovely French breakfast with bread, croissants, and chocolate croissants, while calling a taxi to take us to the boat ride location which turned out to be a private home on the western side of Vernon that turned out to be a house once owned by Pierre Bonnard.

Willy and me on Pierre Bonnard's steps

The new proprietors have lived in the house for three years and have made a replica of Claude Monet’s studio boat, a self-portrait of which was in the big Orsay traveling "Impressionist Portraits" show we saw in Fort Worth at the Kimball Museum last Thanksgiving. It is one of favorite Monet’s because it is dominated by a shimmering surface of light that captures the surface of the,water beautifully.

 

The husband brought orange juice and cookies and we followed him to the seine, which was at the end of his backyard.  He then untied the boat and started the engine and he steered us down stream past the chateau at Bizey

and then turned back upstream and drove us upstream past the old mill at Vernon and then back to his house.  We saw lots of birds, cargo ships, pleasure cruising ships, and several families of swans during the boat ride of about 1 ½ hours. The surface of the Seine River was a silver surface of reflected light just like in Monet’s self-portrait.

  When we returned to the boat owner's home, we called our taxi driver who picked up and took us back to the B&B.  As we arrived around noon, another taxi drove up, sent by Europcar to take us to Mantes to pick up a new rental car.  We said goodbye to Willy, who was going to meet a driver at the hotel we ate at yesterday.  We fetched our grips and thanked Sabrine heartily and jumped into the waiting cab after we borrowed € from Willy, because we had been unable to cash.  It turned that our bank card request had been rejected because 300€ exceeded our daily limit amount at an atm, due to the commission.  We used our bank card later in the day to obtain 200 € that worked fine.

We arrived in Mantes at 12:30 and had to wait until 2:00 when the Europcar office re-opened.  So we went next door and ate a simple lunch of a chicken curry panini, a slice of chocolate torte, and a drink for 7.50 € and waited until 2:00. 

When we returned next door to Eurocar at 2:00, the staff called and received authorization from Europcar for a new car by 3:00.  We requested a smaller Citroen this time and soon were on the road to Omaha Beach. 

Around 5:15 we arrived in Bayeux and decided to take a restroom break.  We drove to the centre of town band found ourselves next to the museum where the Bayeux Tapestry.

Cathedral of Notre Dame, Bayeux

is displayed, which is a UNESCO world heritage item, so we decided to view it. We were given a English audio phone that narrated the story depicted in the tapestry, which seemed to be about 200 feet long and about four feet high.  It is embroidered linen that is over 900 year old and depicts the conquest of England be William, the Duke of Normandy, who was re-named William the Conquerer.

After viewing the tapestry we wanted to get more euros, so we walked up the hill along the Main Street in Bayeux to the LCL bank and then visited Bayeux's high gothic cathedral.

After we got €’s we drove to the vacation home we rented on Omaha Beach, at Vierville sur Mer.  We drove around a little and saw the long open beach with the tide out and the high sand dune cliffs that offered open fields of fire for the Germans.

It was still light at 8:45 so we stopped at Leclerc Apple Cidre ferme and bought a bottle of pommeaux from Mssr. Leclerc.

 We took it home for an apperitif and converted our remaining ham and cheese sandwiches into a ham and cheese omelet with two eggs we found at the house.

Bon appetit