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Come Paint in Normandy April 14 ~ 28, 2001

At the turn of the last century the 'Impressionist' painters were leaving Paris and travelling to Normandy - to the beautiful bucolic countryside, to the wonderful light of this fascinating region, and to the seaside ! Join us - Come Paint in Normandy, France with Henry Vyfvinkel Artist/Instructor Rouen - 6 nights Honfleur - 5 nights Paris - 2 nights

NORMANDY is an old province with a romantic history embraced by pristine pastures, orchards, and picturesque villages of winding streets and timber houses tucked into rolling countryside that ends at dramatic chalk cliffs skirting the Atlantic ocean. ROUEN is the ancient capital of Normandy. It is still a navigable port on the Seine River and in spite of the war's battering still contains an overwhelming number of lovely churches, chapels, towers, fountains and old cross-beamed houses. The city is full of poignant reminders of Joan of Arc, who was burned alive there on May 30, 1431. The spot of the pyre is marked by a mosaic in the sidewalk of the Place du Vieux Marché in the pedestrian medieval quarter. The cathedral of Rouen is one of the most beautiful examples of French Gothic architecture. The façade was used in a series of paintings by Claude Monet to study the effects of lighting at different times of the day on the same subject. Claude Monet's Home The Water Garden HONFLEUR 'The Artists Paradise' This beautiful little town on the Seine Estuary, at the foot of the Cote de Grace hill was an important strongpoint until the 15th century and acquired true glory through the part played by its mariners in the 17th century Norman Voyages of Discovery. At the turn of the last century when the coast of Normandy was fashionable with the Romantics Honfleur began to fill with painters - not only those who were Norman born such as Boudin, Hamelin and Lebourg but also Paul Huet, Daubigny, Carot and others from Paris and foreigners such as Bonington and Johnkind. Artists have continued ever since to visit Honfleur. Baudelaire, who stayed in the town with his mother in her old age, declared "Honfleur has always been the dearest of my dreams" and while there wrote his "Invitation au Voyage".