Giverny and beyond

Today we went to Giverny to see where Monet lived for several years and, apparently, where he was inspired to paint many of his famous works including the water lilies. We got there right when they opened, as we had read that the crowds were many and irritating, and by the time we left, there were many irritating people. Lots and lots and lots of people stopped foot traffic in order to take selfies or to take photos of others. We did get a selfie, but we were way off of the well traveled paths. Our photos (Dan's are, of course, better) are below. 

 

The Selfie

 Look at that backsplash!

The water lilies

So after the humans started taking over, we booked it outta there, driving kind of aimlessly but not really to see some old stuff. The first thing that we wanted to see were ruins of the Château-sur-Epte. According to Wikipedia, 

The ruined castle of Châteauneuf-sur-Epte is in the commune of Château-sur-Epte in the Eure department of France.

Building was begun in 1097 by William Rufus, King of England, to reinforce the frontier along the Epte River. The castle occupied a site on the border between the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of France. It was reinforced by the Plantagenets in the 12th century and again during the Hundred Years' War.

The castle was constructed from limestone and was founded in the second half of the 11th century by William Rufus, King of England. In 1119, it was besieged by Louis VI of France (Louis le Gros or Louis the Fat). In the 12th century, it was restored and reinforced by Henry II of England (keep and entry). Other works were carried out in the 14th century. In 1437, it was captured by John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury.

The castle's role declined in the 16th century and it was ordered to be dismantled by Mazarin in 1647. Transformed into an agricultural centre under the Ancien Régime, it comprised a motte with a stone keep, a lower court linked to the motte and defended by a curtain wall flanked in the east and west by two fortified gateways (14th century), a drawbridge and, in the lower court, a medieval barn, a 17th-century corps de logis and a dovecote. The condition of the site deteriorated.

The ruins are private property. It has been listed since 1926 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

We could not go into this really old site because it's private property, but we were able to take some photos. 

Our next adventure was to hunt down a Cave aux Fees, a prehistoric fairy "cave" in the countryside. Our granddaughter, Flora, has a fairy garden, so we thought that she would like to see photos of a fairy cave. This one took us past someone's farmhouse, up a rutted dirt road, to a funny little fenced-off plot. Apparently, it was believed that fairies (the mean kind, not Tinkerbell or the Tooth Fairy) hung out here to screw with and scare people.

And then it was time for lunch. We drove to Mantes-La-Jolie to see the Tour Saint-Maclou, a remnant of a church that stood there in 1015. (It was destroyed by William of Normandy in 1087.) More info at https://www.manteslajolie.fr/ma-ville/decouvrir-mantes-la-jolie-1/la-tour-saint-maclou. 

Next door to the tower was a building with lovely Trompe l'œil all over it. 

We headed back to Versailles for a nap, a walk around town, a hunt for a 12-volt car charger for iPhone (Peaugeot may not have gotten the memo about USB), and dinner at a local creperie.

On our drive, we stopped for local strawberries. Unfortunately for Dan (but fortunately for me... do they stink up a car or what???), they did not have boiled peanuts.