We had planned to take the train to Vernon/Giverny to visit Monet’s house and garden, famed for being the location where he had painted his water-lily series of pictures, 8 of which were in the Orangerie museum. Unfortunately there was a general public transport workers’ strike that day and we had no choice but to take one of the half day coach tours to Giverny. Departing at 0815, the traffic out of Paris was bad and we only arrived there at 1030am and were told to meet back at the coach by noon. We had the audio guide option which was a good choice as it meant that we could listen to all the relevant Monet and Giverny information during the coach journey and just enjoy the gardens when we got there…and we only had an hour and a half.
Walking from the coach car park to the garden, we arrive at the bottom of the picture and immediately took the underpass to the pond and water lily gardens on the right, leaving the house and flower gardens for later viewinga little stream led into the garden…A few European starlings watched over le jardinusing my camera with it’s wide aperture set at F1.4, I attempted to get some of the soft focus bokeh effects like one of Monet’s impressionist paintings….Crocuses by the streamand then a first glimpse of the famed green Japanese bridgethe famed willow fringed waterlily pond at Giverny….a quiet corneran impressionistic view of the pond in black and whiteand in colourpretty flowers were everywhereThe Japanese bridge with lots of visitors on it…from another anglewater lily pondcontrast in coloursMonet’s water lily pondafter 45minutes, we took a last look and headed back to the underpass to go to the flower beds and the house….In front of the house, there are rows and rows of flower beds, all in bloom, in a myriad if coloursMonet’s house can be seen in the backgroundOrange mistpastelspurples…yellowsJust a happy explosion of coloursAnd in the middle of the garden, the trellised archways under which Monet was often photographedmore crocusesanother view of archway with the house behindafter seeing al the flower beds we finally approached the housewhich is fronted by a riot of colours….La maison de Monet a GivernyMonet’s living roomLiving room in monochromeThe dining room in yellowMonet was famed for his impressionist art but his own stated greatest masterpiece was …his garden at Giverny
All too soon we’d run out of time and had to catch our return coach after a total of 90minutes only…..the ‘5 hour’ half day tours only give you 90minutes here and it’s woefully inadequate. we could easily have spent twice that time here and be happy…so if we were to do it again, we’d definitely go by ourselves and linger. Monet’s house and garden at Giverny is a place for art AND garden lovers…..it’s well worth the effort getting out here. highly recommended!
The Natural Traveller 