The Ovation spent two nights docked in Rouen and on Monday the 27th after my long tour in Versailles the day before I decided to go easy on myself. I slept late (I shouldn’t say it, but I didn’t get up until 11 AM!). After a salad for lunch – I’m trying to be good – I went ashore and took a taxi to the Musée des Beaux-Artes in downtown Rouen. I had read that the museum had a nice collection and among its holdings are some Impressionists, who are my absolute favorites.
The museum is currently having a special exhibit which translates to “In the rain, paint, live and dream.” It was a collection of art in different mediums all depicting life on rainy days. In the gallery rooms there were benches, each under a large umbrella where I could sit and listen to the sound of raindrops while looking at the works around me. There were works from Japanese artists, photographs and even movie posters from films about rain. It’s hard to describe, but it was very clever.
After walking through the special exhibit I wandered through the rest of the museum looking for what I had read was a great collection of Impressionist works. There were lots of paintings from great Renaissance Italians, Dutch and French, but they weren’t what I wanted to see. Rouen is, after all, close to Giverny and Monet’s home. It took a while and a lot of wandering but I finally got to the galleries and it was absolutely marvelous! The galleries where these works were exhibited are filled with light and so it was easy to look at and appreciate the masterpieces there. Here are a couple of Monets, a Pissaro and Renoir.
I sat for a while in each of the rooms just enjoying the works there. There were a few people that I assume are aspiring artists there as well sitting and sketching. One young man sat next to me and I could peek over his shoulder and see him sketching some of the façade of the cathedral here in Rouen. Perhaps he’ll be the next French master. I didn’t take his photo because I didn’t want to be a rude American but it was interesting to watch.
After taking in the beautiful serenity around me for a while, it was time to go back to my floating home. I took a taxi back with a very engaging young man who was born and raised here in Rouen. He drives a taxi part time while going to school to study (what else!) information technology.
In the evening I had dinner with the Captain who is from Poland from the city of Wroclaw, which before WWII was called Breslau by the Germans and Austrians. I was a little skeptical about dining with him because when he has made announcements I’ve had a hard time understanding him and I thought that might happen at dinner. Instead I found him to be a very engaging, entertaining and quick-witted dinner companion. It was a delightful evening.
I stayed up later than usual talking and dancing with a crazy group of people from San Diego, The Netherlands and, of all places, Thailand. We had a good time laughing and we women did most of the dancing. (That’s always the way it is!)
So it wasn’t a really exciting day to read about, but it sure was fun to live through.
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