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~ A fairy-tale cottage by the Seine in Normandy

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Tag Archives: Normandy

Normandy Impressionist Festival 2020

06 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Culture, France, Normandy, Things to do

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Art, Impressionism, Impressionist, Le Havre, Monet, museum, Normandy, paintings, Paszko, Pizarro, Pont-Audemer, Renoir, Rouen, Seine

Delayed by the Covid19 crisis, the Normandy Impressionist Festival is now bravely rescheduled to  4 July – 15 November 2020, at museums and sites all over Normandy. We managed to see three of the exhibits. 

First, at Le Havre’s striking dockside modern art museum MuMa, Electric Nights brings together impressionist images of cities lit by artificial lights.

You get a sense of the wonder as artists explored the effect of the new lighting and the scenes it opened up.

Next, to the Beaux-arts museum in Rouen, where part of the collection of coal magnate François Depeaux is being shown together. His paintings formed the foundation of the museum’s collection.

The Seine and its changing light is depicted in many of the images by both the most famous and lesser known impressionist painters.

Quirky paintings we loved: the collector’s young daughters by Georges Picard; and Monet’s turkeys.

Last to Pont-Audemer and a retrospective of contemporary impressionist Malgorzata Paszko at the tiny Alfred Canel museum. The theme of the festival is light and colour, and Paszko’s work celebrates and recontextualises the nocturnal blues and shifting horizons of the earlier impressionists.

The large canvases pop and shimmer and you can lose yourself to them – a rare pleasure, in 2020.

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Gemma Bovery – A Norman Story

06 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Culture, Food, Normandy

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Books, film, Flaubert, Gemma Bovery, Madame Bovary, Normandy

We’re getting excited about the forthcoming French film of Posy Simmonds’ comic novel, Gemma Bovery. Set in Normandy, it’s a modern retelling of the classic French novel Madame Bovary – with a heavy dose of English irony thrown in. The book is great on the English and the English in Normandy, on our relationship with the food, the countryside and the French. The film is released on September 10th in France, and stars Gemma Aterton. Here’s the trailer.

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Ships Ahoy!

16 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Culture, France, Normandy, Travel

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Armada, France, Normandy, Rouen, Ships

Every five years, tall ships gather in Rouen for the Armada. They then sail back down the Seine together to Le Havre. Here are some of the boats, which you can visit, this weekend in a very crowded Rouen.

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Le pain: la fin de la faim!

13 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, Normandy

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bread, museum, Normandy

On Easter Monday we visited one of my favourite close-by places, an undiscovered gem of a museum: the bread oven, a cottage in La-Haye-de-Routot in the middle of the Forêt de Brotonne that maintains a traditional bread oven. Most weekends they bake and sell hundreds of their sweet-smelling loaves all afternoon. On this day, as well as the loaves, there was chocolate-filled brioche, an Easter treat.

Bread storage, Bread Oven Museum, Normandy

Bread Oven, Normandy

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Brocante in London and Normandy

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Normandy, Things to do, Travel

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brocante, France, home decor, House in France, Normandy, shopping, shops, Victor Hugo, Villequier

It was in the Isère last year that I found a table solution for our troublesome kitchen-diner space in London. Visiting a friend in her chic chalet in the French alps, I saw a table that was just perfect: long and narrow, made from lustrous French boards, with a modern touch in the smoky iron legs. I asked where she had found it–an antiques shop in Grenoble, perhaps, or an estate sale in the French countryside?

Not at all. It came, in fact, from The French House, which is in York and in Fulham not five minutes from our London home. They go all over France and collect wonderful furniture and decorative objects. They also make furniture using reclaimed wood. They had made my friend’s table, and they would make ours.

Table from The French House

The also had these mid-century French card chairs which they polished up and reupholstered for the table ends. It felt wrong to buy French furniture from a London shop when we spend so much time in Normandy. At the shop they weren’t surprised at all. They said many people buy furniture for French homes in London. There isn’t enough time to get around and sift through the brocantes yourself.

French card chair

I have yet to explore the brocantes in Normandy – something to look forwards to. Here’s a site that lists all the brocantes and flea markets and antiques fairs in Upper Normandy. And if you can’t get there in person, Sharon Santoni, who runs group trips to French flea markets,  has a delightful online shop, My French Country Brocante.

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Another quite fabulous option, if you can find it, is Home Art & Matiere just down the road from Les Iris in Villequier.  Occupying the old pilot’s house, right on the Seine, H.A.M. is a wonderbox of treasures, each room painstakingly curated and filled with carefully chosen artifacts. The kind of place you go to find what you didn’t know you wanted.

Of course there’s a catch: it’s only open on Sundays from 3 – 6 pm. Our recommendation: take lunch in nearby Caudebec-en-Caux, and tour the Victor Hugo Museum. From the museum go left along the river to the old pilot’s house, and then browse to your heart’s content as the sun goes down.IMG_3906

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Pont-l’Évêque Market Day

25 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, France, Normandy, Travel

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calvados, chestnuts, Flowers, Food, France, Market, Normandy, Pont-l'Évêque

One of the joys of spending time in Normandy is visiting the area’s bountiful food markets. Our local market, held on a Friday, never disappoints: but in those weeks when we’re traveling or otherwise occupied on a Friday, a close second best is exploring the other markets of Upper Normandy and Calvados. This month we made our way to Pont-l’Évêque, where the weekly market is held on a Monday. It’s home to the eponymous cheese, and to a lovely church which survived wartime bombing.Church, Pont L'Eveque

The point of local markets is they change every time. You go for the seasonal produce and for the individual sellers. It’s the opposite of supermarkets, where it’s downright inconvenient when the aisles are changed around adding a precious few minutes to your already too-long shopping time.

In the first week of November, there were chestnuts, quinces, and the alien-fabulous chou romanesco. I’ve never cooked any of these, although the guests at our cottage the week before had collected chestnuts in the forest and roasted them over the open hearth. I’ll have to try that, and here’s how.Chestnuts, NormandyQuinces, Normandy marketChou romanesco, Normandy

I love these pre-prepared bundles of meat: so lovely and neat and easy, the original, organic, guilt-free ready meal.Pont L'Eveque Market

And the chrysanthemums were flying: you could see them lining the village streets, and all around around the cemeteries where families were marking November 1st, a day of remembrance. We left some by the cottage gateposts: I wonder how far into the winter they’ll last.chrysanthemums, Normandy

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Cider Days

14 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, France, Les Iris, Normandy, Property in France

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apple trees, apples, autumn, Buying a house in France, calvados, cider, Food, France, Normandy

Autumn is all about apples in Normandy and, by association, cider. Normandy is the only region in France that doesn’t produce wine, but it makes up for it with an amazing array of cider and its more potent cousin, calvados.

We’ve tried much cider and calvados in Normandy. Everyone with a couple of apple trees seems to have a go at brewing. When we were house hunting in the region, no visit was complete without the owner offering a sample of their very own tipple, and we’ve seen more than a few dinner parties off with a bang by introducing their DIY calvados.

Orchard with sheep, Normandy

The nearest cider maker to Les Iris, signposted on the main road to Sainte-Opportune-La-Mare, is excellent. Like champagne, his cider comes in doux, brut and semi-brut.

Cider, Normandy

He also maintains a vigorous vegetable garden, and sometimes sells extra produce alongside the cider. He takes the children into the garden, lets them choose their vegetables, and pulls the selected plants out of the ground, shaking off the rich dark earth. It’s the freshest lettuce and rhubarb in the world.

Vegetable garden, Normandy

In our garden there’s only one very old and gnarled apple tree standing guard by the gate. One of these days it will go: until then, it insists on producing an abundance of large green-red apples that turn brown within seconds of being cut open. Still, we’re delighted to have a token apple tree, and one of these days we might plant another, of the cooking apple variety.

Apple tree, Normandy

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An English Garden in Normandy

28 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in France, Normandy, Property in France, Things to do

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architecture, France, Gardens, Gertrude Jekyll, Les Bois des Moutiers, Lutyens, Normandy, Varengeville

This is a month for visiting gardens. After showers in April and May, Normandy in June is in greenish bloom. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the most famous garden in Normandy. Shortly after, I visited another, less famous but equally wonderful garden–let’s call it the most famous English garden in Normandy.

The house and garden Les Bois Des Moutiers were created from 1898 onwards by the Mallet family, who hired the then young English Arts & Crafts era architect Edwin Lutyens and the wonderfully named and widely influential garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.

Les Bois Des Moutiers

Gertrude Jekyll is famous for creating gardens that feel like series of outside rooms. Each one has its own scheme of colour, scent, and seating.

Les Bois Des Moutiers

Les Bois Des Moutiers

Les Bois des MoutiersBench, Les Bois Des MoutiersLes Bois des Moutiers

Look at this amazing wisteria, trained to grow as a tree. The gardens, with their hedges and bushes and secret paths, create a wonderful natural playground for children.Honeysuckle, Les Bois Des Moutiers

Les Bois des Moutiers

You can hike around the extensive land behind the property, and there are wonderful views. The house can be visited by private appointment only. And should you love it enough, ask about buying it as the family are seeking to sell to the right, suitably considerate, buyer. Price on application only.

Les Bois Des Moutiers, Varengeville, Normandy

The property is situated in the charming Varengeville-sur-Mer, which is south of Dieppe on the Normandy coast and just over an hour, cross-country, from Les Iris.  Hike up the road outside the property to the church at the top for a spectacular view of the sea.

Les Bois Des Moutiers, Varengeville, Normandy

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The most famous garden in Normandy

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Culture, France, Normandy, Things to do, Travel

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Art, Flowers, Gardens, Giverny, Monet, Normandy, paintings

Giverny–where Claude Monet lived and painted for 43 years–is certainly the most famous garden in Normandy, perhaps in all of Europe or even the world. It was here that he created the water garden with its iconic Japanese bridge that he painted over and over and which hangs, in reproduction, on a million institutional walls.

A visit to Giverny, however, doesn’t start with the lily pond, but with the rather fabulous–and previously unknown to me–Clos Normand, his magnificent wildflower garden.

The garden, which fronts his house, is laid out in corridors of colour: one purple, one yellow, one pink. Flowers and rose arches rise on either side. Even though it’s crowded – on a midweek afternoon during school season we waited 20 minutes for our tickets – you can lose yourself wandering through the fragrant lanes.

Flower garden, Giverny

Flower garden, Giverny

Le Clos Normand, GivernyFlower Garden, GivernyGarden, GivernyFlower garden, GivernyFlower garden, Giverny

We visited in early June, and the flower garden was bursting with colour, all poppies and peonies and hollyhocks and irises.

Irises, Giverny

Peonies, Giverny

Hollyhocks, GivernyPoppies, GivernyPoppies, Monet's Garden, Giverny

All those poppies recall the Monet print that hung in my childhood nursery, the one of a girl and her mother walking through a poppy field, the girl wearing a boater not unlike my school uniform hat, and the mother wearing a scarf and carrying a parasol.

The gardeners were busy at work, tending to all that wildness.

Gardener, GivernyGardener, Giverny

If the flower garden offered more than I expected, then the water garden was slightly underwhelming. The two gardens are intersected by a busy road, and there is noise from the traffic on the road. And to be fair the day was grey, the light flat. The pond is really very small, and not as lovely as it is painted in oil and hanging on the walls of the world’s great museums. It reminded me of visiting the most famous gardens in Japan. Like this one they were perfect on a small scale, and elbow to elbow as crowds of tourists sought just the right picture for their holiday blog.

Le Jardin d'Eau, Claude Monet, GivernyLe Jardin d’Eau, GivernyMonet's Water Garden, Giverny

Monet’s house is worth a look. It has been renovated recently, and rooms on both floors are open for viewing. The bedroom overlooks the gardens. The painter’s bed is curiously small for two people, and the ensuite bathroom is luxurious. What is known as the yellow kitchen is in fact a dining room with a large table, with a smart blue kitchen beyond it. It seems that the Monet family enjoyed their entertaining–and who wouldn’t, in such a spot?

Door to Monet's house, Giverny

The children brought along The Magical Garden of Claude Monet, which takes a child and a dog on a tour of house and gardens. They enjoyed discovering the places shown in the book – especially Monet’s boat.

There are a number of official and unofficial websites dedicated to Giverny, of which we found the best for visitor information to be the Claude Monet Foundation website.

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An Abbey in April

29 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in France, Normandy, Things to do

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Abbey, Benedictines, cycling, France, Jumieges, Le Bec-Hellouin, most beautiful villages in France, Norman Conquest, Normandy, Tooting Bec

We are lucky enough to live near three of Normandy’s important abbeys: the great ruins at Jumièges, and the Benedictine abbeys at St-Wandrille and Notre-Dame in Le Bec-Hellouin. This last is famous not only for its abbey and monastic community but for its situation in one of the most beautiful villages of France.

Le Bec Hellouin, Eure, NormandyLe Bec Hellouin, Eure, Normandy

We set out to visit Le Bec-Hellouin on the kind of drizzly grey April day that tries to make everything look depressed but just can’t seem to manage to wipe away the green blossominess of a Normandy April.

Le Bec Hellouin

As is so often the case in Normandy, the history of Bec starts out in France then gets knotted up with England. The abbey was founded in 1034 by a Norman knight, and quickly became an important intellectual centre for the Catholic church. A number of the monks from Bec went on to become Archbishops of Canterbury.

Le Bec Hellouin, Eure, NormandyBell tower, Le Bec Hellouin

After the Norman Conquest, the abbey was enriched with properties in England. The then village of Tooting Bec belonged, at one point, to the abbey, and was named after it. If you stand in the global-suburban-London bustle outside the Tooting Bec tube station today it’s hard to imagine any kind of connection to this quiet valley in northern France.

Abbey, Le Bec HellouinAbbey, Le Bec Hellouin

The abbey suffered after the Revolution, and only the medieval belltower remains. After the Revolution the abbey was used as a cavalry barracks, and elegant buildings were added in the eighteenth century. In 1948 the abbey was reinstated, and today it hosts an active Benedictine community.

Abbey, Le Bec HellouinStatue in the chapel, Abbey, Le Bec Hellouin

The monks sing vespers most Sunday evenings in the simple chapel. There is an excellent bookshop with Benedictine products including ceramics manufactured by the monks in residence.  It’s peaceful yet quietly active place, busy with visitors taking walks through the parkland, groups on spiritual retreat, and the monks in white-hooded robes going about their daily life.

Abbey, Le Bec HellouinCycle route, Le Bec Hellouin

For the best views of the abbey, it’s worth turning left out of the gates and across a little bridge towards the old railway station. Look back to the abbey accross the fields. At the old railway station there’s a cycle path running along the former railway line towards Evreux which seems a wonderful way to visit this countryside.

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