Giverny, France

Giverny, 4 October 2013

Many years ago, Cindy and I were traveling in the area where we are now, NW of Paris, and Cindy wanted to go to the home of Claude Monet to visit the gardens that he made so famous with all of his paintings.  When we got there I noticed that they charged an admission fee, and being the jerk that I was then, I said we could make better use of the money than visiting a museum.  I pulled over near the gardens and we got out to see what we could see from the road.  I even lifted Cindy up so she could get a better view.  I have since been known as the King of Cheapskates, a title that I don’t cherish.  (From CC: He has made up for this many times over.)

As we were planning this trip I decided to do the right thing and we therefore were up and out early one morning from the hotel and heading to the Musée de Claude Monet.  We parked and walked INTO the museum, paying the full price for tickets.  I felt vindicated!  It was an incredible experience, one that I highly recommend to anyone who might be visiting the Paris area.  I have never seen such beautiful gardens anywhere.  Every place you looked was different and breathtaking.  We toured his home, which is light and airy and filled with his works.  His work area was mostly windows providing exceptional views to various aspects of the gardens. I loved the dining room, which was painted bright yellow with a long table in the middle that seated fourteen.  Beyond that was a beautiful blue kitchen with one wall that was lined with copper pots and pans, and there was an enormous wood-burning oven that could be used to cook banquets for dozens. Another side of the kitchen was covered with windows, again looking out onto the gardens.

We spent the next hour or so wandering the gardens including the pond with the famous lilies and just enjoying the sheer beauty of the place.  There was an abundance of flowers - many of them annuals that were very familiar to us including cosmos, dahlias, and snapdragons – plus many that looked very exotic.  Turns out that Monet did most of the planting and maintenance of these gardens, although given his prolific output of art, I don’t see how he had the time.  I particularly loved the groves of bamboo and the canals that surround and feed the pond of lilies. Because of the time of year, the gardens were not crowded – just a few busloads of Chinese tourists who practically ran though the gardens since they couldn’t smoke there, and a smattering of American high school kids on tour. There were times when we felt we had a portion of the garden to ourselves and we cherished those few moments.

Mentally and spiritually refreshed, we left the museum/gardens in search of lunch in the small town of Vernon.  As you can see from the clip, it is simply a beautiful little village, just large enough to have lots of amenities but small enough for a one-hour tour by foot.  That done, we selected a small bistro and had a lovely lunch before heading back to our hotel for a well deserved nap.

That evening our hotel had a jazz duo playing during dinner and I think they played every Beatle song ever recorded.  We had a very light dinner and lingered over cognac long enough to listen to some of the music of the second set, which was far more interesting.  We actually got to bed early since we had a long trip the next morning to Honfleur.  We’ll report more on that later.   Cindy and Wm