We drove across more farmland, avoiding the motorways, from Amiens to Rouen. We found an adequate campground with rather shabby facilities a short walk from a frequent tram into the old city center of Rouen. Another huge beautiful cathedral awaited us--this one memorialized in several paintings by Claude Monet under different lighting conditions. It is the middle of the very old city, largely untouched by the wars: lots of narrow pedestrian-only shopping streets. We stayed two nights, visiting the cathedral, an art museum, the square where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. We got caught in a downpour without our umbrellas and used it as an excuse to eat dinner in a restaurant, and, wonder of wonders, found a portable air compressor that would fit in our outside storage, was big enough to do the job and was affordable, sort of.
We have had quite a time just finding air for the tires. Gas stations are rare in little towns, and even in the cities several we found did not have an air pump. When we left Amiens, we stopped for gas before leaving the city and we were directed to a Citroen garage for air. The first time we had to use an air pump other than our own, we discovered that Europe does not measure air pressure in the psi (pounds per square inch) units that we were used to. That took a whole new calculation that we hoped was correct! But now we have a new compressor and it has psi readings on it also. Success. It was fun getting the big box on to the tram and to the campground. It’s the size of a small suitcase, much larger than what we had before, but much smaller than the tanks everyone else had showed us.
We left Rouen for the short drive to Giverny, home to Claude Monet and his famous gardens and lilypad ponds.
The house he lived in is as it was when he lived there. In his studio was a large picture of him in that very studio; it also showed the same desk and wicker chairs and wall decorations. The house is colorful (a bright yellow dining room and blue and white kitchen) and gorgeous--but the bedroom smelled terribly in spite of the fact that the windows over the garden were wide open. Even this early in spring the gardens were surprisingly full of color. All in all, utterly charming.
Giverny is a very small town that has accepted its fate as a tourst destination. We were delighted to see that they have provided a large parking area, but when we pulled in we were directed back into the center of the village where there is another parking lot. Rover barely made it in and up the hill, taking out a couple of low hanging branches. We would have been much better off staying in the large lot just off the road. Fortunately we were not there on a very busy day. In fact, most of the people there were Japanese tourists on a bus and many, many five- and six-year-olds with their teachers.
Then we found our way through one of the tightest roads yet: long blocks with cars parked on one side and nowhere to go if someone came from the other direction. But no one did, and we made it to a scruffy, out of the way campground with mostly old permanently placed camping trailers, very few of them occupied. We had been there about an hour when we saw two policemen walk in and talk to the owner, who pointed toward Rover. (“Voila, them--they’re the reckless American drivers for whom you search.”) They came over to our site and asked us if we had seen anyone on the road when we came in. Surveillance cameras had placed us nearby at the time someone had abandoned a stolen car. We were unable to give them any helpful information. but it confirmed for me that we were in a pretty out of the way place.
We have yet to get ourselves into a too tight spot, but we have managed to get ourselves into a “Centre Ville” when we really didn’t want to go there. Sometimes it is simply unavoidable--there is no other way. If I had a Euro for every time David has asked, “How much room do I have on that side?” I could pay for the campground every night. (He usually has a full 6 or 8 inches to spare!) Yesterday we easily got into a McDonalds parking lot (free wifi) but had to walk all the way across the large shopping center parking lot to figure out how to get out. One of the exits had a 1.9 meter height limit. We are 3.05. We have that memorized.
After our visit to Giverny, we were so inspired by Monet that we created our own Impressionist work, entitled "Still Life: Lilacs, Cheap Wine, and Microwave-Ready Mousaka in RV."