Creativity sailed most of night and we passed through 4 locks. Good sleep, good breakfast, docked at Vernon and off we set for Monet's garden in Giverny. Beautiful morning and we beat the crowds for an idyllic stroll through the gardens and the house. Very colourful and relatively informal gardens and with the property now in the hands of the Monet Foundation. Delightful small town of house proud owners and a number of galleries.
Back on board for a savoury pancake lunch from a local chef on the Sun Deck as we set sail for Les Andelys. Once docked, we took the low road (not allowed to take the climb to Richard the Lionheart's Chateau Gaillard which was built as a fortress in 1196 and overlooks the town). Les Andelys is one of the prettiest we have experienced anywhere - much of it Elizabethan, with the Parish Church of Grand Andeley dating to the 1200's and a magnificent retirement home on the waterfront in what was previously a massive abbey.
A lot of shipping activity all along the river - predominantly working boats and barges.
Dinner beautiful as we sailed by long stretches of magnicent river front properties, many of Elizabethan flavour and size. Very easy to see the past relationship of Britain and Normandy when you look at the predominant architecture of these parts. Sitting in a lock, as I write this, the northernmost of 5 through which we have passed.
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