Epic France Trip – Musée des Impressionnismes – Day 1
I’m in France!
I write this having made it to my first hotel, the Château Corneille. [It’s more than 100 years old! It has a name! I’m calling it my Castle #176. It’s not fortified, so more of a palace than most castles in my Castle Count, but it’s good enough for this American!]
I’m not sure if I’ll get around to actually posting this and adding pictures while on the road. But I thought that writing the text while it’s fresh, would be good. [Edited to add: These posts were written during the trip, but I’m adding in pictures and posting later.]
My flight yesterday went really smoothly. I’d decided to give in and download the United app. I’d purchased the tickets with miles – had to purchase additional miles, but it was still cheaper – and that came with an included checked bag. I’ve resisted the trend of checking in before you even get to the airport – what if you don’t make it? But I gave in and checked in and checked my bag – and everything went super quickly from there. Dropped off my bag at the curb and then headed to the gate. That is a couple miles away at Dulles, but I still got there with almost two hours to spare. Which is all good.
There were some glitches on the plane. Turns out, wearing both a mask and hearing aids isn’t a great idea. I’d take the mask off one ear to get a drink or something – and my hearing aids would come off. I didn’t wear the mask the whole flight, but at least in the busy coming and going parts. Then the new travel pillow I got didn’t work out too great. The good side – I was very well cushioned, and I did have a window seat. But it was almost too big and I was drooping inside the pillow. But the scary part – I leaned against the window to start – and got vicious pain in my neck exactly where my right vertebral artery dissection happened.
This is scary because fifteen years ago I had a stroke caused by a right vertebral artery dissection – that happened when I slept on a plane. That time, I didn’t have a neck pillow at all, so I’d always blamed it on that and that we hit turbulence while I was sleeping. So to get some bad pain in my neck just from leaning that way on a plane – that was scary. And it continued long enough for me to worry.
But the good news is that I started leaning the other way and eventually, at least after I stopped trying to sleep, the pain went away. I didn’t get much sleep, though, but I did get some rest. And I did get some good reading done. I’m reading Old Bones, by Aaron Elkins – a mystery set at Mont St-Michel, that a friend told me about. Almost finished it on the plane. And hearing aids are fantastic for listening to an audiobook on the plane, so I did that when I needed to watch what was happening and while I was eating. I discovered this evening that hearing aids are also great for dining alone and listening to an audiobook. I’ve been known to bring a physical book when dining alone – this is much subtler.
It did turn out, though that the excitement of being in France, plus coffee on the plane, had me wide awake as we got off the plane, went through customs and I found the rental car office. I was in a different terminal than my reservation said (I booked it through the airline, why would they do that?) – but he had a car a little bit larger than what I’d reserved, so that worked out. (It’s still small.)
I landed at 7:30 am, so I was sitting in the rental car around 8:30. But it went really smoothly. In the garage, I hooked up my phone to it right away and chose “Android Auto” – and the directions are seamlessly integrated with the car, so I had a map on the dashboard and a highlight right behind the steering wheel telling me how much further before the next turn. I was happy that traffic was completely fine – I’d worried a little about rush hour – despite mostly being on roads with only two lanes on each side. I had an hour and a half drive to Giverny to the Impressionists Museum, but I took more like two hours. That might have been because my first time out with this car, I stayed in the slow lane behind a truck who almost led me all the way to Giverny. I figured I wasn’t in a hurry.
Early on, though, the car started beeping at me! It was very startling, and I didn’t want to look too hard at the dashboard to figure out what was going wrong. I didn’t see anything flashing that I was out of oil or gas or had a flat tire, anyway.
It took me a while – after I noticed that the current speed limit was displayed behind the steering wheel, and, yes, changed when I passed a sign that changed it – to realize that the beeping was when I exceeded the speed limit! Okay, it was really annoying, but ultimately I’m thankful for it. Because if there’s one thing I don’t want to do in a foreign country, it’s get pulled over for speeding. However, later when the roads changed to two-lane roads, with one in each direction, some cars behind me seemed kind of impatient when I scrupulously followed the speed limit. I don’t think their cars were beeping at them.
But oh my goodness, the countryside was beautiful! It made me feel like I was in a painting. And that got me thinking: Did I feel like I was in a painting because I’ve seen so many of Monet’s paintings? Or was Monet compelled to paint it because it is a quintessential painting-worthy landscape? Or both? And then I wondered, if Monet had lived during the time of color photography, would he have been as compelled to paint? I mean, this beauty begs to be captured. Would he have chosen a different method for capturing it in a different time?
Anyway, I arrived in Giverny and the GPS was asking me to go down some sketchy roads, so I just parked at a great big lot designed for tourists and joined the other tourists walking into town. And Giverny is in bloom! Walking through it was a treat. I had been envious of a Facebook friend who visited Giverny during tulip time, and I still think that would be amazing – but it is still amazing.
And then the museum! I purchased an audiotour and listened to every single stop (seventeen of them) and delighted that I didn’t have anyone with me who would get impatient with me. And read every sign by every painting. It’s not a big museum, so I could do all that in a couple hours. Right now, they’re featuring an exhibit about Monet in Giverny before his Water Lilies paintings. It told about how he moved to Giverny, became more successful, and then was able to buy a home and make the garden what he wanted it to be. The paintings were mostly of landscapes around Giverny, and they were truly wonderful.
I also walked in the Museum Gardens after that. They’ve got a haystack in a field with poppies in front of it and a big hill behind it – and I felt like I’d stepped into one of the paintings I’d just seen.
Then I grabbed a sandwich and iced tea at a café. By the way, the gray morning had turned into an incredibly lovely day with blue skies and white, puffy clouds and gentle breezes. I was starting to get tired after that, so it was good I only had another half-hour to drive to my hotel.
And my hotel is a castle! Well, it’s more of a manor, but by my old criteria – It’s more than 100 years old and has a name – I’m going to count it as the 176th castle I’ve touched – Château Corneille.
They did let me check in a tiny bit early. Then I took a nap for a couple hours and even woke up before the alarm I’d set went off. Next up was dinner in the hotel restaurant. And oh my goodness – It was a three-course meal, and each course was exquisite. I ate outside, and it was idyllic – breezes blowing and birds enthusiastically singing. (Had I mentioned? Giverny was loud with happy birds, too. I think it’s all the flowers.)
Now, some swarms of gnats showed up, and a man eating near me started smoking. But those blew over and it was lovely. I did listen to my (wonderful) audiobook after I’d soaked up all that birdsong.
So that was my first day in France for 2026. It’s now 9:25 pm and the sun isn’t nearly down. So this makes for a nice time to reflect on the day and simply be thankful.
Tomorrow: Mont Saint-Michel!
