Saturday, August 8, 2009

Giverny


We left Paris on Wednesday morning headed for Normandy in our adorable rental car. A little pale blue Fiat 500. The weather was beautiful and it felt good to be out in the gorgeous French countryside. Our first stop was Claude Monet's home and garden in Giverny, about an hour's drive east of Paris.

Monet's pink, vine-covered house sits at the top of his large sloping garden. The top half of his garden is a big jumble (just how I like it) of perennials, roses, shrubs and trees set in formal rows.

The bottom half of his garden is his water lily pond, made famous by his paintings. Chatty tourists (including me) quietened to a hush as soon as they entered this part of the garden. It felt like we were in a church rather than a garden. It really is spectacular. I took lots of photos, but none do the lily pond and weeping willow trees justice. It has to be seen to be appreciated.

I'd love to return to the Marmottan Museum to see Monet's paintings again, now that I've seen the place of his inspiration.

2 comments:

  1. What a treat that you get to go see the subjects of his paintings! It looks amazingly beautiful.

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  2. Wow! That must have been heavenly to have seen this place of inspiration. Maybe someday you will have time to paint something in your garden. Keath only started to paint when he was 70ish. from Irene

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