Lude Generation

We've just got back from another delightful road trip.

In short:
- seven countries
- 3218 miles
- things that made me gaze in wonder
- a thing that nearly made me cry.

I'll post some stuff when I've gathered it together.

In the meantime:-

How do I get your life, Sailor?

wurlycorner wrote:How do I get your life, Sailor?

You have to be old and retired from a full-time occupation.

Right. Now for the holiday snaps:-

We started three weeks ago in Rouen. A visit to the cathedral was almost obligatory.





The old town was worth strolling through, too.






The theme for this year's trip was supposed to be "Places where artists lived or worked", so our next stop was Monet's garden at Giverny.



Here's the famous bridge:-



And there are water lilies in this picture somewhere ...




I don't know if the old fellow painted bamboo, but I liked it.

On to Chartres. The cathedral dominates the landscape for miles. I think I read somewhere that the Americans did their damnedest to avoid shelling it in 1944.



Inside is as impressive as out:






As with Rouen, the city itself is a pleasant place to mooch about.






Chartres was also home to Raymond Isidore, who collected broken glass and ceramics and decorated his home with it, painstakingly telling the story of his homeland in mosaic.






It's less eccentric than you'd think, even if he couldn't stop once he got indoors:




When he died, the locals clubbed together to see he was given a fitting grave:

The house does look a bit OTT but I really like his grave - that looks fab!

Fantastic visiting Monet's garden - definitely one for the bucket list.

We continued south to the Loire.
Amboise is a pretty riverside town with a chateau and an ancient centre.





I waited for ages for this balloon ...



... and then got distracted by some pretty colours.




Just outside the town is Leonardo da Vinci's manor, Clos Lucé. We didn't feel the house and exhibits gave much of a feel for the man, but at least they'd built some of his inventions.
Is this a sort of prelude to a Prelude?



The paddle boat looked like a workable design ...



... but the hang glider didn't.

The next day saw us in Bourges.






From there, it was on to the Auvergne.




This antique steerable sled was outside a small skiing museum. The proprietor said he'd never actually skied.

Beautiful!
What car did you go in?

Great pics and another epic road trip