Claude Monet lived in a house in Giverny, France for over 40 years of his life. He has always been one of my favorite painters, specifically his "water lilies" paintings. He made hundreds of paintings just of water lilies, and the reason he did it is because he was influenced by the gardens at his place in Giverny. Well I've already made numerous trips to the museum in Paris where there are 2 full rooms of these paintings, so I had to take it to the next level! A trip to Giverny was definitely in order.
This past Tuesday the weather was supposed to be beautiful, I was in Paris, and Thibaut had the day off. It was a perfect opportunity to go! We left in the early afternoon, took the hour train/bus ride to get out there. When we first got there we noticed something funny... not ONE person was speaking French. Thibaut was literally the only French person in the place. Apparently Giverny is a tourist hot spot for retired American folks. Oh, and we were definitely the youngest people there, too. I guess people who aren't retired are usually working on Tuesdays, not sure what the whole "work" thing is about. We started off the afternoon at a delicious Crêperie, of course I started with a mushroom and cheese crepe and ended with a Nutella one (I would just eat Nutella with a spoon if it wasn't so bad for you). Crepes are a specialty in Normandy and that's where we were, so it seemed necessary to try some. I have to say I was pretty impressed.
After our bellies were full of Normand goodness, we headed over to the gardens and the home of Monet. There's not much to do there except hang out and stroll around the gardens, and the weather was definitely the best that we could have ever asked for. His house was pretty normal looking on the inside, with a very country feel, the kind of place that I dream of living! It was really interesting to see the gardens and especially the water lilies pond. Walking around it's so easy to see how he was influenced by the place! It was so peaceful and beautiful, a dramatic change from the hectic Parisian life that we had to go back to that night! This place is pretty enough to inspire anyone to want to paint, I think I need to perfect my stick figures before I can move onto the big stuff though...
The view from Monet's porch
1 comment:
LOVED all the info and pics! Thanks! Looked like such beautiful and peaceful place. You definitely pick the best places to visit!!!!
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