European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 19, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Great clock the gilded timepiece is set into an archway Over the Street the governor of the clock lives in the Small House beside it. Rouen is impressionist country. Monet painted several versions of the facade of the Cathedral Manet Courbet and Boudet among others routinely stopped in the City on their Way to the coast. A Northwest from Rouen Are the coastal stops of etre Tat Dieppe and the Harbor of be Havre where Picasso Renoir Degas and Gauguin All set up easels near the end of the last Century. Monet did several studies in Green of the sea crashing into the Chalky White Cliffs. A the Trail of the impressionists of course runs most directly to Honfleur and Ferme Saint Simeon the 17th-Century inn where Courbet Monet Jongkind and Boudet came to vacation and paint it has been called Quot the Birthplace of ,a t Boudin recalled his first studies at the inn Quot hoping for the Success that came Only very much later. The artist paid 40 francs a month for room and Board then but inflation has since taken its toll. A double room now runs about $95 a night around 1860, the Walls of the rooms were decorated with sketches and caricatures done by guests. Today much of that Art resides in the Eugene Boudin museum in Honfleur which also features work from a sampling of other impressionists. Honfleur is to be visited for its 100-year-old houses quiet quays and the wooden Church of Saint Catherine its Belfry built on the roof of the Bell ringer s Home next door. An open Market is clustered around the Church each sunday morning. Boudin s crowd might not recognize the City of Caen today for 10,000 of its buildings did not survive world. Warll. But the impressionists would surely spot the matched Abb Aye Aux Hommes and Abb Aye Aux Dames which remain standing in All their gothic glory. William and Mathilde of Flanders commissioned the abbeys As penance for their marriage a Union of second cousins that did not amuse the  much of Caen is the City s 11th-Century fortified Castle built by William before he sailed for England in 106g. Tucked inside the thick Walls is the City s modern Fine arts museum. A 1 Caen is the Gateway to the rest of Normandy. Down the Orne to the coast Are the invasion beaches what were pleasant bathing and picnic areas in Monet s Day. On a Day they frothed with colors steel Gray ships a against a Pearl sky the Orange Flash of Barking guns Olive drab/55 Black. And red. Farther on is the Normandy the impressionists never. Noticed their mistake can be corrected with a tour up the contenting Peninsula to the port of Cherbourg to a ranches and the Abbey of . Altogether Brilliant dabs of color for those of us who paint Only with the mind s Brush