Giverny

Giverny is lovely. Home of Claude Monet, the impressionist painter, Giverny is a charming tiny village nestled into a lovely green countryside. I'm not going to lie--if I was independently wealthy (or somehow able to find a job in this teensy town), I would move there.

This is the cafe where Amy and I had lunch after touring Monet's property.

The food was great, but when I asked if they had apple juice, the waiter gave me a really confused look, which made more sense when I saw this:




Monet's property is gorgeous. It includes two huge gardens, one a little more structured and manicured--full of flowers. The other is a little more natural looking, though it is obviously very well maintained. This second garden area includes the famous pond of lily pads and the Japanese bridge. (And surprisingly, a little forest of bamboo.) And of course there is the main house, with it's peachy-pink stucco and green trim. I love it all.

Pink blossoms on a tree.

On the property they also keep chickens, apparently. I could not figure out for the life of me why they were BURROWING themselves into the ground. Anyone know anything about this? I thought maybe the hens would do this to lay eggs in and keep them all cozy, but since at least one of the chickens pictured is a rooster, I don't think I'm right.

Ames in the garden.

A tulip in the first garden.

Me on the Japanese bridge (with a nice old lady).

Amy on the Japanese bridge (with a super clueless man).

Trees make me happy.

Back by the pond with the famous lily pads and weeping willow, Ames and I camped out on a bench and decided to try our hands at creating impressionist works of art with oil pastels and blending sticks.

This is my attempt.

This is (almost exactly) the perspective we had from our bench.

Surprise! Along with the Japanese bridge you will find a small bamboo "forest" in the second garden.

Back in the first garden.

I'm working on getting more comfortable with manual settings on my camera, so some of the exposures are off, but I think you can get the general idea of the beauty of this place. If it wasn't covered with tourists, it would be an extremely peaceful place, so I can see why it appealed so much to Monet and inspired such beautiful work.

If you enjoy Monet's work and have the time and desire to make a short day trip out to Giverny, it's definitely worth it to stop by Monet's house and then grab lunch or ice cream before heading back to Paris. There isn't enough to keep you occurpied for more than a couple of hours, though, so I wouldn't expect to spend a whole day here.