Day 5: Monet's Gardens in Giverny
Giverny is a small village about an hour west of Paris. It is where the artist Claude Monet (1840-1926) lived and worked for most of the last 40 years of his life. He was instrumental in the impressionist movement that dominated the art world in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The photo above is of the lily pond at his house where his most famous paintings originated. Most of them prominently feature the water lillies and the bridge in the background. The photo was taken from the other bridge crossing the lily pond. The one below features two boats similar to those that appear in some of Monet's paintings.
Getting to Giverny from Paris is easy, whether by car or train. There are also guided tours that originate in Paris for those who are not independent travelers. We chose to take the train to visit Monet's Gardens. The train departed from Paris Gare St. Lazare at 10:11 AM and made one stop prior to arriving in Vernon, Normandy, at 11:03 AM. From the train station there are a few options to get to the house and gardens. There is a walking path that is several km in length, bike rentals from the cafe in front of the station, a bus that costs 5 Euros each way, or 'Le Petit Train.' We chose the latter option for the 20 minute ride. The ride was efficient with some commentary but we couldn't hear much of what was being said. We arrived at the car park across from the village of Giverny about 11:45 AM. Our tickets for the grounds were scheduled for 1:30 PM but we were able to enter a little past one.
Giverny itself is a quaint village with artist's shops, a few small cafes, and a bakery that sells sandwichs (that's what the signs say in France). There is also a garden museum with a little more upscale cafe.
The gardens in front of Monet's house are very beautiful and worth the visit. There are hundreds of varieties of flowering plants, some in full bloom, on display. Above the gardens is the house. Touring the house took about 15 minutes and featured some excellent photo spots from the second floor plus a couple of Monet paintings and one by Renoir. The photo below is from the second floor.
After leaving the house, we walked down to the lily pond, which is located across the road from the house/gardens. A pedestrian underpass takes visitors beneath the roadway. In retrospect, it would have been better to visit the pond first and then make our way to the house because the path to exit the grounds requires one to go back to the house and through the gift shop. At least there were a couple couches in there to rest weary feet and converse with other visitors. Since our return train to Paris wasn't scheduled until 5:54 PM, we chatted and shopped, then stopped off for a drink at a cafe near the house. About 3:45 PM we headed back to the car park for the ride to Vernon, hoping to take an earlier train back to Paris. However, the 4:00 PM departure of Le Petit Train was already full. We were given a refund of 15 Euros, which we used to pay for a one-way ticket on the shuttle bus at 4:25 PM. Back in Vernon, we learned we could only board the train we were scheduled for so a visit to the cafe across from the station was in order. Our train arrived as scheduled and we headed back to Paris, dined at an outdoor cafe near our hotel, and called it a night. Visions of water lillies danced through our dreams that night.
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