Paris!! Day 5: Monet's Gardens!!!

Thursday was my last full day in Paris and it was my favorite!!  I had really been wanting to see Monet's gardens in Giverny, France for about a year now.  However, it is about a 2 hour journey away from Paris and therefore Camille could not go because she had class.  I was planning on going by myself and was in the process of sorting out the details when Camille's parents surprised me with the trip of a lifetime!!  They bought a tour of Monet's gardens AND the Palace of Versailles!!!!!!  I was SO excited about the trip and completely humbled by their generosity!!!  I was planning on making a huge blog entry of the whole trip, but this first section ended up being so long that I thought I better break it up.  So this is what the first part of my amazing trip entailed....

About 35 people were in the tour group together and the guides spoke both English & Spanish, which was wonderful because it helped me to practice my Spanish after not speaking it for a week!  We took a very nice charter bus into France's country side.  The drive was absolutely beautiful!!!

After winding around the bends of the country we arrived at Monet's house and gardens in Giverny!  It was a crisp foggy morning.  The foggy mist was so beautiful and truly added a bit of magic in the air.

Monet's House!

Looking out over the gardens from Monet's bedroom window

It was really fun to be able to tour Monet's house and see where he lived.  They had his gallery room set up with copies of some of his artwwork, and many of the paintings I had seen the originals of in the Musee d'Orsay!!!  It was so much fun to be able to have seen the origional painting by Monet of his garden and then two days later be actually standing in the exact place that he painted.  I truly felt like I had stepped into one of his paintings!

I would have assumed that Monet decorated his house with a similar impressionistic style artwork, however almost all of the art consisted of Japanese paintings. 

My absolute favorite room in his house was the dining room!!!  Since Giverny gets a lot of fog and rain, Monet wanted his dining room to look like sunshine and for those in it to feel bright and warm.  I think he captured the feeling perfectly!!  I absolutely LOVED this room and would have one like it in my own house, even though everything was yellow.  I was not overwhelmed at all by the yellow, I absolutely adored it!!  It was just so happy and bright!  The room also had bright rich blue accents, which suit the room perfectly.  I just LOVED it!!  So this is my fair warning that my dining room might be this intense one day (minus the floor)!   : D

Monet said that his greatest piece of artwork was his gardens, this is because he carefully placed each flower and color in a certain spot for him to paint.  He was able to see the picture in his mind that he wanted to paint before a seed was ever planted.  Only after "growing" his painting would he pick up his paintbrush.

I had such a wonderful time exploring his gardens in the cool mist and discovering all the different types of flowers exuding their brilliant colors, I could have stayed there all day!

The Exquisite Gardens!!!

The flowers were truly incredible here!!!  I was in Heaven!!!

 

The pretty mist

There were SO many brilliant shades of tulips that were all in their perfect peak of blossoming.  They were absolutely stunning,  I have never seen tulips this remarkably beautiful.  Purples, pinks, yellows, reds, oranges, whites, it was truly spectacular!!

 

The colors in these tulips are so strikingly beautiful!

 Monet's gardens were broken up into two sections.  The first section by the house can contained most of the flowers.  The second section was across the road that used to be railroad tracks when Monet was alive.  Here is the second part of his gardens where his famous waterlilies were painted.

Daffodils by the pond!  One of my absolute favorite flowers in the whole world!

I've never seen daffodils like this before!  How fun!!

Beautiful weeping willows by the pond

The famous bridge in his water lily paintings!

After we finished touring the gardens, we ate at this delicious restaurant!  Our meal was so delicious!  We had salad, salmon pate, chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, apple pie, red wine, and coffee.

I sat by a lovely woman from Australia who I had made friends with on the bus.  She has a 19 year old son whose father was never in the picture.  She said she was very lonely now that he was at college and decided to do something for herself, so she is taking a 5 week vacation and traveling around Europe.  She was so shy and sweet, I was so glad to meet her.  She had been in Paris for a week but this was the first time she ate at a sit down restaurant here, because she had just been picking up a sandwich an take it back to her room to eat alone.  I really liked this woman, she was so sweet and thanked me for sharing her first meal in Paris with her. 

This artist was painting outside our restaurant.  I just loved him, he looked so authentic and very French, complete with his scarf, hat, and cigarette.  We had a lovely conversation and I truly enjoyed meeting him even if it was only for 15 minutes, and his paintings were so good!

Beautiful tree outside the restaurant and sweet little swan bench

There was a watermill beside the restaurant too!

Foggy pasture beside the restaurant

The charter bus was parked beside this pasture with several horses!  I'm sure most people didn't even notice or care, but it made me so happy!

Headed to Palace of Versailles!!

This part of France was so incredibly beautiful I could easily move there tomorrow!!  The town had little quaint stone houses with ivy that were nestled amongst the rolling hills covered in grass and flowers.  I really fell in love with Giverny and am dying to go back already!!