Bon jour France 🇫🇷

 Well, here we are in France after months of planning and anticipation. After a somewhat bumpy journey due to turbulence we stumbled off the plane early in the morning and nervously got into our rental car to navigate driving on the right hand side of the road while jet lagged.  We had planned a few things to do on the way to our hotel as we couldn’t check in until 3pm. 

First on the list was to explore Auvers sur Oise, the small town where Van Gogh died.  The Chateau d’Auverse sur Oise was having an exhibition about him, with some of his original paintings displayed. I was especially pleased that one of the paintings was sunflowers as in my art paper at teachers college we had done crayon pictures of sunflowers inspired by Van Gogh’s paintings. My brain was a bit woolly from jet lag so I don’t remember much detail from the exhibition but it was an enjoyable way to spend an hour or so.

Chateau d’Auverse sur Oise

After a stroll around the gardens we found a cafe in the village at which to lunch, enjoying croque monsieur, a much needed energy boost on a cold day to fuel the rest of our wandering and a delicious reintroduction to French cuisine.


We also saw the church which featured in paintings by Van Gogh and admired some of the other picturesque sights of the village. In places there were information boards showing a copy of one of his paintings in front of the real building.  I really liked that as you could see the way he had interpreted the scene and also how the surroundings have changed over time or with the seasons.

Church painted by Van Gogh
It is the beginning of spring and most of the trees are leafless but staring to show buds. There are quite a few trees blossoming and spring bulbs starting to flower.  I had hoped to go to Giverny to see Monet’s gardens but they are not open till 1 April, when we will no longer be in the locality.  
By the time we explored the village and found our way back to the car we were pretty tired and decided to head straight for our hotel and take a short nap to get us through till dinner time.  We arrived bang on check in time (according to the information we had been provided) but found our room was not ready for another hour and the bar at the hotel was not open on Sunday. We set off to see if we could find a cafe and fill the time with a glass of wine in the nearby village of Gaillon. The only place that seemed to be open at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon was a small bar reminiscent of a TAB or public bar (for those old enough to recall such a thing) which also also operated as a tobacconist. However the beer was cheap at €2.50 and we could sit down. 
The village had some pretty half timbered houses and what looked to be a chateau sticking up above them so we made our way up some steep steps between houses to find a lovely chateau. It was closed for repairs but looked beautiful. 



After checking in and a short snooze we returned to Gaillon for dinner in a very old building on the town square. 
Another photo of Chateau d’Auverse sur Oise, gardens below


House where Van Gogh died
Random church I took a photo of while stopped at an intersection 
Our hotel - ordinary room but cool exterior 
Restaurant Drakkar

Comments

  1. SandieApril 1, 2025 at 8:15 PM

    Hi Jo, you have educated me on Van Gogh I look forward to many more memories of your trip. Have a fabulous time.

    ReplyDelete

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