So finally I was able to get to Giverny. There were some serious train cancellations today (maybe 25% of trains were actually running that direction) but I managed to find times that worked and weather was more or less working with me (gray clouds but only a little sprinkling of rain. Fair warning, basically all of these pictures will be pictures of flowers or paintings, with an old building or a selfie thrown in.
Upon arriving in Vernon you can take a small train/shuttle to Giverny, which is about 20min away. All of the pictures above are just from walking the streets of Giverny to get to the ticket booth where you can get access to Monet's house and gardens. It is a super cute little town and if I was going to live somewhere in France, I'd want it to look like this (without all the tourists). After getting my tickets you enter the gardens which is its own kind of floral masterpiece. He preferred the "wild" look, instead of things in neat little rows, so you can see slight design aspects to it, cut through by little paths, but for the most part it feels overgrown, in a good way.
A little tunnel under the road takes you across to his water garden where his famous Water Lilies painting was done. It definitely has a Japanese zen feel to it with the little bridges, swaying willows and bamboo shoots. My favorite flower was this pinkish-orange lily that was growing along the waters edge in a few places. And it was neat to see that CO Columbines grow here too in a few color options.
And then of course the Japanese bridge (which I believe has been updated slightly since Monet's time to hold all the tourists). It has beautiful twisting vines on it and there are some old canoes tucked away by the bamboo shoots.
Back to the main gardens you can enter Monet's house and see all the Japanese prints as well as some of his own work. I love all the bright colors in his house. The kitchen is super cool! That huge old stove and all those copper pots hanging along the wall. I'd be ok living in this house, with those awesome gardens right outside.
This little map gives you an idea of the layout and size of the house, main garden and water garden.
After this I visited the Musée Impressionnismes a short walk down the road from the garden. It was cool, though fairly small and had a few different impressionists but also a little Monet.
It was raining lightly after this but I wandered around town for a bit and then took the little train back to the station to wait for the train. I was rather limited on return trains. I probably could have explored for another hour, but the next train after wasn't for another 3 hours and I didn't think I wanted to try to kill that much time by myself.
Sorry for the massive amount of photos of just flowers, but thats what you see at Giverny. It was fun, my first day trip out of Paris by myself. In a week and a half I will go to London on my solo trip. Super excited about that! Back to work tomorrow. Til next time!
Upon arriving in Vernon you can take a small train/shuttle to Giverny, which is about 20min away. All of the pictures above are just from walking the streets of Giverny to get to the ticket booth where you can get access to Monet's house and gardens. It is a super cute little town and if I was going to live somewhere in France, I'd want it to look like this (without all the tourists). After getting my tickets you enter the gardens which is its own kind of floral masterpiece. He preferred the "wild" look, instead of things in neat little rows, so you can see slight design aspects to it, cut through by little paths, but for the most part it feels overgrown, in a good way.
A little tunnel under the road takes you across to his water garden where his famous Water Lilies painting was done. It definitely has a Japanese zen feel to it with the little bridges, swaying willows and bamboo shoots. My favorite flower was this pinkish-orange lily that was growing along the waters edge in a few places. And it was neat to see that CO Columbines grow here too in a few color options.
And then of course the Japanese bridge (which I believe has been updated slightly since Monet's time to hold all the tourists). It has beautiful twisting vines on it and there are some old canoes tucked away by the bamboo shoots.
Back to the main gardens you can enter Monet's house and see all the Japanese prints as well as some of his own work. I love all the bright colors in his house. The kitchen is super cool! That huge old stove and all those copper pots hanging along the wall. I'd be ok living in this house, with those awesome gardens right outside.
This little map gives you an idea of the layout and size of the house, main garden and water garden.
After this I visited the Musée Impressionnismes a short walk down the road from the garden. It was cool, though fairly small and had a few different impressionists but also a little Monet.
It was raining lightly after this but I wandered around town for a bit and then took the little train back to the station to wait for the train. I was rather limited on return trains. I probably could have explored for another hour, but the next train after wasn't for another 3 hours and I didn't think I wanted to try to kill that much time by myself.
Sorry for the massive amount of photos of just flowers, but thats what you see at Giverny. It was fun, my first day trip out of Paris by myself. In a week and a half I will go to London on my solo trip. Super excited about that! Back to work tomorrow. Til next time!
Glad you finally made it there! Great photos! Looks like a beautiful hideaway.
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