20-21 July – Stopped in Laval

20-21 July – Stopped in Laval

We spent Friday in Laval making arrangements and doing chores. Kris’s bike needed a new tyre, as his rear tyre had worn through to the canvas. We also had the chain changed on my bike. Once again we had good service from Declathon, with the mechanic doing extra checks and adjustments for us.

We researched a train to Paris, to catch our flight home, and decided on a hire car instead. We also bought a gift for nephew Liam. Kris’s bike also broke a spoke in the afternoon. So it was a busy day.

We spent Saturday exploring the town of Laval. It is a city with a bit of everything for the tourist – including an old city, a river, remains of castle ramparts and a chateau.

The highlight for me was the Laval Museum of Naive Art. The museum was created in homage to painter Douanier Rousseau, who was a native of Laval, and boasts that it has Europe’s finest collection of Naive Art. Many of the paintings showed scenes of Laval or French countryside, though there were also some gorgeous naive paintings from Eastern Europe, done on glass.

I was thrilled to see two paintings by Séraphine, as I was so moved by the French film about her life (it is a must see – ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9raphine_%28film%29)

 

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