Giverny

We had considered going to Giverny to see Monet's home there on a weekend earlier in April, but we decided to leave it for the end of the month in hopes that more things would be blooming by now. Aaron is not telecommuting this week, so a weekday trip was feasible -- and appealing, since the crowds would most likely be thinner. Wednesday looked like the least rainy of our three available days before leaving Paris for Lyon, so Wednesday it was.

Aaron and I (especially Aaron) seem to get rather camera-happy when presented with diverse plots of vegetation, so we had a field day photographing the wide range of flowers, trees, vines, shrubs, etc., that populate both the main garden directly in front of Monet's house and the area surrounding the famous water lily pond. After we had made the rounds of garden and pond once under cover of clouds, the sun finally came out, prompting Aaron to return to the water lily pond for Round II. I was happy to let him take care of that; in the meantime, I grabbed a spot on a bench in the sun and read the French novel I bought at FNAC a few weeks ago. (I'm more than half done! Very exciting :) .)

We toured Monet's house, as well, but they did not allow pictures to be taken inside. The most surprising thing about it for us was the large collection of Japanese woodblock prints that nearly covered the walls of many of the rooms; neither of us had been aware that Monet was a collector of such prints. For more information about his collection, see www.intermonet.com/japan.

View of Monet's house from the main garden



Flower ID, anyone?





I get a real kick out of these flowers whose petals look like little heads of lettuce!



One other thing that surprised us both was that a somewhat busy road now separates Monet's house and main garden from the water lily pond; visitors use an underground pedestrian passageway to get from one side to the other. I did a bit of searching online for information about when that road was built, but was not able to find anything. If you know the back story on this road (was it already there, in smaller form, when Monet lived there??), let us know!

Views of the water lily pond and some of the flowers around its edge









View of Monet's house from the water lily pond




On our way out of the grounds, I noticed this plaque commemorating the key role of Lila Acheson Wallace in financially supporting the house and gardens; the bottom of the sign reads: "... the generosity of whom has permitted this house to be reborn and the gardens to bloom again." (Note to readers who are wondering why this is significant: Lila and her husband DeWitt Wallace were also very generous supporters of Macalester College, of which both my parents are graduates and my mom is a long-time employee -- she works, in fact, at the DeWitt Wallace Library!)



We had a leisurely lunch at one of the few restaurants in Giverny and then set out to explore the tiny village, such as it is. The action seemed to all be along one main street perhaps half a mile long, where a small number of cafes, restaurants, hostels, and tiny galleries produce just enough business to make the town seem not entirely asleep. Below are a few sights around town.

Giverny -- main drag



One of the various artists' galleries we did not enter



Church in whose cemetery Monet is buried -- like so many beautiful, historic buildings in France, it appears to be under construction.



Aaron determined that a plaster dog makes the perfect low-maintenance canine companion.