Gardens and the Great War (Tuesday 30th July 2013)

We left Rouen for the short drive to Giverney about 70kms away. Our objective was to view he house and gardens of the famous Impressionist painter Claude Monet. We stopped in Vernon, just a few kms away, for breakfast where we indulged in some tasty pastries (glazed, dried apricot and custard for me, glazed apple and custard for Kerry. Delicious! Emily was being good again.

Across the river we went and shortly we were in Monet's home town. The whole village struck me as something out of a Monet painting. Tourists are encouraged to park outside the village which we dutifully did although GPS-girl later took us through the heart of town to reach our next destination. There was next to no queue (we met a few tour groups leaving as we arrived, thankfully) so in we went without much delay.

The gardens are a wonderland of plants, flowers, shrubs and trees. The whole site is not huge at about 2.5 acres. The main part of the garden near the house is formal in the sense that the gardens beds are laid out in a regular grid fashion, separated by narrow stone paths. But the plantings with in the beds is wild and irregular. Flowering plants and shrubs of many, many varieties are seemingly randomly planted throughout the beds. As we are halfway through summer there was plenty of growth on the shrubs which added to the “wildness” of the garden. There are numerous seats and benches where one can sit and just take in the view. Gardeners were busy lopping out weary looking flowers to keep the gardens looking its best. A sunny day in late Spring would be the best time appreciate the garden in full bloom. We had a dull, drizzly day in mid-summer but the gardens are still something to behold.

The second part of the garden holds the famous pond and steam and their respective arched bridges. One reaches at via an underpass as it is actually on the other side of a street. The small stream was almost in flood thanks to yesterday's heavy downpour which I think added to the scene. One is greeted by a large stand of bamboo as the paths winds it way by the stream to the lily pond. We sat for a while on a bench under a huge tree to take in the peacefulness of the setting. We took the obligatory photographs standing on one of the wisteria-covered bridges over the pond.

Monet's house is also open to visitors. A very nice two-storey stone building. There is hardly a square centimetre of wall space not taken up with paintings or photographs, the paintings being largely of Monet's work. The highlight was his studio faithfully recreated from a photograph taken in 1901. The gardens and the house are well worth the entrance price and a couple of hours of one's time. I can understand why Stephen and Christina went twice when they visited earlier this year.

Our next stop would be something quite different. We headed to the village of Villers-Bretonneux which was very much in the firing line on the Western Front during the Great War. The town is famous for the strong sense of thanks and gratitude it continues to show to Australia (particularly Victoria) whose diggers saved it during the War. The main street is called Rue de Melbourne, the school is called Victoria School and the bar in the main-street is Le Melbourne. Kangaroos and the Australian flag adorn the town hall alongside the French flag.

Adjacent to the school is the Franco-Australian museum. I think it is technically part of the school as it is largely part of the school hall building. Incidentally, this is the only school in France to have a school hall, a concept foreign to them. The hall has a stage and the walls are lined with timber panelling made of wood from Victorian forests. Through the hall's windows one can look into the quadrangle and see the children playing. On one facade above the quadrangle, in large lettering, are the words “DO NOT FORGET AUSTRALIA”. Apparently, the same words are permanently written on every class-room blackboard.

We drove out the road to towards the town of Corbie. On a hill in the slightly undulating open terrain stood the Australian War Memorial. This large place of green lawns and sandstone buildings is the final resting place of so many Australian, British, New Zealand and Canadian warriors who gave their live for the Empire. The lawn is filled largely with small, white head stones in neat rows, some with tiny, well kept plants and some with the Australian flag flying in the stiff breeze. The day was cold, overcast, windy and threatening to rain which added to the sombre mood. The semi-circular wall of remembrance held the names of over 10,000 men and women who died in the battles around this, the infamous area of the Somme. In the middle of the wall stood the huge, tall tower, a stone edifice which one could climb. It afforded a magnificent 360 degree view of the battlefields. It was not hard to imagine what the scene below might have been almost 100 years ago.

Back to Villers-Bretonneux for a cold one at le Melbourne before moving on to Lille. As we sped across the battlefields on a high-speed motorway I tried to imagine what the soldiers stuck in trenches, covered in mud and dirt and snow, cold, hungry and tired with the spectre of their last days always over their shoulder might have thought of the 2013 view of the Somme.

We arrived in Lille, an attractive town heavily influenced in architecture and culture by the Flemish,  having driven through some pretty wild weather, and found a place for dinner just off the large and charming Place. I ordered the huge serving of mussels (recommended by a lady I passed on the way in to the restaurant). Very nice indeed.

 We ate are headed to the Ibis Budget hotel a few kms away in the outlying village of Haubourdin. Finding the hotel was not easy. We had spied it from the motorway a couple of hours earlier so had an idea where it was, but getting there was a different proposition. Eventually we did and checked into our online-reserved room to find only one bed. Hmmmm! There was no one around to sort this out as the hotel is unmanned after 6pm. You get what you pay for! So we made do trying to sleep with three people in a double bed. Not the best night's sleep we've ever had. At least the mozzies provided some entertainment at 3:30am as we tried to end their miserable lives.

BTW, yesterday's stop in Rouen was the town where Pop did a runner from hospital in August 1918. He was apprehended two days later by the military police and only charged with being out of uniform and docked two day's pay. Good to see the authorities were able to show some consideration and compassion for man who had been fighting for 2 ½ years on the Western Front, nine months of that in the trenches without a break.