Vendredi at Giverny

The "profiter bien" theme continues!  Today I went to visit the village of Giverny with some of my JYF friends.  It is about 80 km from Paris, so we took a train to the town of Vernon, and then walked about 4.5km to Claude Monet's hometown. He rented the house starting in 1883, and was able to buy the house and surrounding land in 1890.  He added a studio and a greenhouse and continued to grow his garden, one of his favorite subjects for his paintings.

 Crossing the Seine!

 House in the River Seine...

 Pedestrian Path to Giverny.  It is the end of the semester and we could not spend 13 euro each to rent a bike...yay for walking!

 Beautiful French country home.  I want to live here.

 Throwing the KKG Key with a blue and blue iris :)

Claude Monet

Monet's Gardens



 Monet's House

 Blue on blue!

His house was so bright and colorful, like his paintings.  It was "interdit" (forbidden) to take pictures inside the house, but I live on the wild side, so I snapped a few....oh the things I do for my dear readers...

Salon with some of Monet's amazing paintings



 Even more amazing paintings, a bust and self portrait of Monet

 View of the gardens from upstairs

I LOVE THE TILES IN THE KITCHEN!

I even thought about buying some in the gift shop.  But they were 9 euro.  Tant pis...

 I wish I could garden...brace yourselves for an insane amount of flower pics!

 flower power

Iris season at Giverny!! I had no idea there were so many kinds of irises...



 Purple and white iris

 lavender and white

Red and yellow



 white and yellow

 We then meandered over to the Japanese style gardens...who knew bamboo would grow so well in France???

Ah, the bridge....



 The Water Lily Pond

why are there no water lilies you ask? well it's not the season sadly.  They are in full bloom in September.  Looks like I will just have to make another trip....la vie est dur.  The massive Water Lily panels are housed in the Musee de l'Orangerie near Place de la Concorde.

 So many flowers, so little time!

Thank goodness I do not have allergies.

Les Filles de Giverny!



 This reminded me of Snow White for some reason...

 Looking over to the house

 J'adore Giverny!

 Rowboat

1 French Hen

Here is my bad/hilarious French chicken joke:  What does a French chicken say when you punch it?  OEUF!



 For a mere 310 euro, you can buy a Giverny scarf by Hermes...

As we headed out of the quaint village we stopped by the church were Claude Monet is buried.

 This is the memorial for the crew of a Lancaster Bomber that crashed in Giverny in June 1944.  The metal is part of a propeller.

Tomb of Claude Monet and some of his family members

Water Lily Pond

Venice at Twilight



La Prominade

Bisous,

Allison