A Fork And A Suitcase

This is part 4 of my visit to Giverny, France. After strolling through the beautiful Le Clos Normand, the garden by Monet's house, I made my way to the underground passage, which leads to the second garden.  During Monet's time he had to cross train tracks to get to the other part of his garden.  Monet bought this neighboring property ten years after his arrival at Giverny, it sat on the other side of the railway tracks.  He had a pond dug up and later enlarged; and in order to fill it in Monet had the stream Ru, an arm of the river Epte, partially diverted.  Monet's inspirations were prints he has seen of Japanese gardens.  We got very lucky that when we got to the water garden the crowds were scarce, and we could take our time admiring its lush beauty.   It was quiet, peaceful, and the numerous frogs creaking in the pond created the only sounds.    There were moments I felt as if I stepped into a painting.  How lucky was Monet to

Part 3 of my Giverny visit. Finally!  After years of anticipating, looking at photos online, and planning, I have entered the beautiful grounds of Claude Monet's home and gardens.  The property is divided into two sections: Le Clos Normand is the part with the house and the beautiful garden and the Japanese inspired water garden on the other side of the road. Claude Monet lived in Giverny from 1883 until he died in 1926.  When Monet and his family settled in Giverny in 1883, this area was an orchard enclosed by high stone walls.  Monet cleared out the area (about 2.5 acres), and created a spectacular garden.  He did not care for order, or very dark colors, he grouped flowers by color and blended simple flowers with the rarest of species, mixed annuals and perennials.  Tall iron arches are the centerpieces creating a beautiful path to the house. There are fruit trees, ornamental trees, climbing roses, long-stemmed hollyhocks, multicolored annuals, and so much more.  It must b

This is the second post about visiting Monet's home and gardens.  As I said previously, I decided to spend the night in the area in order to, hopefully, avoid the huge crowds.  Monet's estate is visited by over half a million visitors each year, and most of them are day tripping in from Paris.  This means that most people arrive in the morning and start making their way back to Paris a bit after 4pm.  I booked La Pruniere, a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Vernon, which is situated a thirty-minute walk from Giverny.  The guesthouse is owned and managed by a lovely woman who welcomed us very warmly.   I found this 18th century traditional timber framed house to be incredibly picturesque.   Our room was beautiful and spacious, although there was one beam in the middle of the ceiling that I had to watch out for.  My mom is much shorter so she was ok, but since I am 5'9" I had to duck a little.  It was fine for one night but I can see that gettin