Hortensia (aka Hydrangeas)

I love hydrangeas.* 

If untended they can turn into a hot, brambly, overgrown mess... however if they find their sweet spot- a little sun, a little shade, and most importantly: the right amount of water, I think they are actually one of the most beautiful flowers in the world.  It's easy to look at a giant plant and think it's just a mess of  unruliness, but I think that hydrangeas have a delicate, dainty quality about them that you don't really appreciate until you take a minute to really look at them up close... and I love that contradiction about them.  

I think another part of the reason I love these flowers so much is that they remind me of my maternal Grandparents house in Sonoma, CA.  They had two acres just a few miles south of the downtown plaza and they were able to grow virtually anything there.  My Grandmother had a few areas with gorgeous light and dark pink hydrangea plants, as well as a ton of red, yellow, white and peach roses.  While the roses outnumbered the hydrangeas by like 5 to 1, for some reason I always think of both plants whenever I think of her or their property (that I still loooove soooooo much). 

I think Normandy and Sonoma have very similar environmental conditions- rich soil, a lot of hot and sunny summer days and fresh, cooling air coming off the sea in the evenings.  Driving around the Normandy countryside really did remind me a lot of driving around the Sonoma Valley... cows and sheep grazing in fields...small dairies... flowers all over the place.. and cute houses and estates clumped together in adorable little villages (although yeah.. Normandy's villages have just a *bit* more going for it in the centuries old charm department).

Another thing Normandy has over Sonoma?  HOLY HYDRANGEAS BATMAN!  while you see them a lot in Sonoma, I could not BELIEVE how abundant and beautiful they were as we got closer to the coast.  I saw some of the most gorgeous flowers I have ever seen - dark blue and violet petals so saturated with color it looked like they had an Instagram contrast filter applied.  Intense and vibrant dark pinks that gave the flowers a depth you do not see in normal pink flowers- not <<fuscia>> so much as a cross between magenta and hot pink and purple. 

Stunning.    

Seriously, I could have spent a full day just driving** around, seeking out as many color hydrangea plants as I could find, taking a ridiculous amount of photos with multiple types of lenses. (*or instead of driving, riding one of those adorable old WWII era upright cruiser bikes with a basket.. which of course would have baguettes and camembert cheese a bottle of wine in it, as well as my camera).  

On the drive back, from Veules les Roses to Rouen, Matthew was a good sport and stopped the car so I could grab a snap of these.  While they are not the most dark and intense blue flowers I saw on the roadside, they are stunning none the less.  (and as a bonus, we found these in a village called "Dudeville", so that just adds to their level of pure awesome :) 

I think this plant was in the village of Veules les Roses

love, love, love.  

OK, enough gushing about a flower.. for now anyway.

* I did make the caveat in my previous post that I was waxing poetic a bit due to the overwhelming stunning-ness of the French countryside.... case in point?  this post.  deal :)