I'm a fan of France (as you may have suspected), but the region of Normandy holds a very sweet spot in my heart for many reasons. I'll save those reasons for another day's blog because today I want to tell the world about what's coming up in Normandy in 2013. 

The Normandy Impressionist Festival will begin April 27th and go until September 29th, 2013, and it will surely leave an impression on anyone privileged to visit the exhibitions. In 2010, the first Normandy Impressionist Festival was held and attracted more than a million guests and this year promises to be even more wonderful.

With its central theme being "water", there will be six major exhibitions during the festival. We all know that the Impressionists (think Monet, Pissarro, Van Gogh, Sisley, Manet, Renoir) painted along the Seine River. They drew their impressions and inspiration from the magical and varied light and landscape along the Seine River that stretches north from Paris to the English Channel where it ends in an estuary in Le Havre. Just as the Seine mirrored its surroundings in its dancing light, so the the artists mirrored their varied impressions of what they saw and felt.

Just like the Seine River, the plans for the Normandy Impressionist Festival are always in motion and new events are being added to the program all the time. Along with the expected views of paintings and photography, the artistic flow of dance, theater, video, music, architecture, and cinema are also to be included.

Here are some special exhibitions to note:

1. Musee des Beaux-Arts in Rouen: Reflected Color from April 27 to September 29, 2013
2. Musee des Beaux-Arts in Caen: Summer at the Water's Edge from April 27 to September 29, 2013
3. Musee d'Art Moderne Andre Malraux in Le Havre: Pissarro and the Harbors - Rouen, Dieppe, Le Havre from April 27 to September 29, 2013
4. Musee des Impressionnismes in Giverny: Paul Signac from March 29 to July 2, 2013
5. Musee des Impressionnismes in Giverny: Hiramatsu's Tribute to Monet from July 31 to October 31, 2013
6. Les Pecheries, Cite des Terre-Neuvas Museum in Fecamp: Monet's Cliffs from April 27 to September 29, 2013

Keep checking the Normandy Impressionist Festival website for new events being offered. The variety is as varied as the Seine has twists. You'll be able to see the works of amateur painters sharing their talents throughout Normandy. Fashionistas will be able to delight in the Impressions Dior in Granville with an exhibit running May 4 to September 22, 2013. This exhibit will feature some of Christian Dior's creations because Dior spent his childhood in Granville.

Women and the Sea will be the theme for an exhibit in Honfleur at the Musee Eugene Boudin from June 29 to Setember 30, 2013.

In Avranches, the Musee des Manuscrits du Mont Saint-Michel will feature Victor Hugo and the Sea from June 14 to September 15, 2013, since the sea was so much a part of Hugo's drawings (yes, I said "drawings"!). So many people think of Victor Hugo as only an author with such treasured books as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables, but he was also a prolific drawer, too, and did more than 4,000 drawings!

I think you'll be impressed by Normandy in 2013.