A quiet day and a visit to Giverny

Tuesday was a quiet day with Virginia at school in the afternoon while I worked on my U3A talks.  Today, however, was much more interesting as we went to Giverny, to visit the home and gardens of Monet.

An early start took us by Metro to La gare Saint-Lazare where we purchased our tickets to the little town of Vernon.  Since we had a reasonable time to wait before our train left, we went across the road from the station for coffee and a pain au chocolat in a rather seedy cafe.

A rather seedy cafe

But the coffee and pain au chocolat was not too shabby

We boarded the train and within an hour were in Normandy and disembarked.  We were quite impressed with the train which was fast, clean and very pleasant.  We then boarded a bus which runs to the trains' schedule to take passengers to the sumptuous small village of Giverny.  A short walk from the bus stop took us to Monet's house and gardens.  The house is fascinating and appears quite small when one is inside, but from the outside it is possible to see that it is, in actuality, quite large. The views over the garden are exquisite.

View  of the House

Part of the Kitchen

The gardens from an upstairs bedroom window

The gardens are divided into several parts.  Of course, there are the wonderful flower beds with all the rich colours and smells of an early summer.

View down the front of the house

One of the many magnificent flower beds

When we were at Auvers sur Oise at the weekend we noticed that there were beds of Irises, reminiscent of the famous paintings of this flower by Van Gogh. But to be perfectly honest, they were not at their best. On the other hand, at Giverny, they were magnificent.

Irises in the garden

Although the lilies in the pond were not at their best, the Japanese bridge and the water are still charming. It seemed to be the day for the frogs as well since they were leaping around on the lily pads.

A frog amongst the lily pads

The Japanese Bridge

Lily Pads

Rowboats in the lower part of the pond

The last time we were in Giverny, it was spring and although it is spring now, the unseasonably hot and dry weather has meant that we were fortunate enough to see a summer garden this time.

We finished our visit to Giverny at the musée des impressionnismes where an exhibition of Pierre Bonnard's work was on display.

For anyone planning a trip to Paris and Giverny here are a few tips.  There are half-day bus tours from Paris which cost around 90 euros.  On the other hand, you can go to Vernon by train and on to Giverny by bus.  You can pay the admission fee for the Monet house and garden and the musée as well and the total for all of this will be about half of what you would pay for the organised bus trip. Of course, the best part of doing it on your own is that you can spend as little or as much time on the trip as you want.  There are pamphlets in English and the staff at the Gare saint-Lazare are very helpful.  So, save your money and have your own adventure.