Le Volcan

In Le Havre yesterday, waiting for the ferry back to Portsmouth, we saw two highlights. One was this structure by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer - a concert hall with an adjoining library, rather obviously known as "the volcano."

The other was the splendid Musee Malraux or "MuMa" with a terrific collection of impressionist paintings. I enjoyed watching people looking at a whole wall full of paintings by Eugene Boudin. On the waterfront, there was a contemporary sculpture dwarfing the modernist buildings by Auguste Perret and Pierre-Edouard Lambert, with which much of the City was rebuilt after World War 2. 

Opposite that yesterday, the Queen Mary 2 was moored. Near there was a fine view across the port from the very spot where Claude Monet painted his "Impression, soleil levant" "Impression, soleil levant" in 1872 - the painting being the star attraction at Muma's current temporary exhibition "Impression(s) Soleil."

Now I am back in range of decent wifi I can add links to highlights from Tours - the magnificent stained glass, much of it 21st century enhancements in the huge Cathédrale St-Gatien and the eye-popping glass sculpture near to the Pont du Wilson across the Loire.

And finally from this holiday, the grounds of the hotel Domaine de la Tortiniere had woods carpeted in white and purple flowers which were delightful to walk through but whose identity I could only guess at - cyclamen?