Giverny

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Today we had a bus excursion from Paris to Giverny to see Monet’s home and gardens.  I’m so glad we did that.  As we waited at the agency for departure time, we noticed Les Tuilleries across the street, a spacious flower and sculpture garden connected to the Louvre that we enjoyed wandering through five years ago.  It was good to revisit.

(See top of the Eiffel Tower in the background)

 While waiting in line to get on the bus, we heard English words—no, not just words but whole sentences—coming from the couple in front of us.  What fun it was to get to know them a bit—they’re from San Clemente, California.  We had a lively tour guide whose English was understandable.  She gave us quite a bit of historical information on Claude Monet, his family, his gardens, and his painting.  I was surprised to learn that he was born in 1840 and died in 1926; I didn’t realize that he was part of the 20^th Century. 

The entire adventure took about 6-7 hours (75 minutes on the bus each way).  We had a little direction from the guide once we were on the grounds, but mostly we were on our own.  Tall and low flowers of all colors filled the garden with paths running through it, and various herbal scents filled the air. 

 

The pink house was spacious—large rooms, high ceilings, a dining table that would seat about 12, a modern kitchen for its time with blue and white tiles, a large woodstove, an arrangement of copper pots across the top of the kitchen. 

 A lovely home, but, oh, my, the gardens.

We wandered away from the house and perennial garden to the Japanese garden. To create this garden of water lilies, Monet diverted a local river, even though the mayor said “no.”  By that time he was reasonably famous and had his way.

On the lane back to the bus with bubbles!

We took a taxi back to our hotel, cleaned up a bit, and went down the street to La Coupole, known as an American bar; however, it is a very French restaurant.  Robin had read about it and thought we should try it.  It may be known as one of the best restaurants on the Left Bank of Paris.  It certainly thinks it is!  On our way back to the hotel, we encountered a street musician playing the saxophone--he played a Beatles tune for us, and Robin was two euros delighted.