Monet Maison et Jardins

Sat, Aug 29, Giverny:  Up this morning and downstairs to enjoy a lovely full breakfast prepared by the owner himself, after which we headed to Giverny and the Monet Maison et Jardin.  Everyone warned us there would be lines, but we zipped right in.  I bought the tickets weeks ago on line.  The gardens are beautiful.  He bought this property and moved here in 1886 when he was 46.  He built the lily pond, and both the gardens and lily pond were the inspiration for most of his paintings since.  The house is much larger than I thought.  A very comfortable home and he created for himself a beautiful, bright and airy studio.  After touring the house and gardens we stopped at a little café for some lunch.  On the way over here, I took a stab at driving the car.  I thought I did pretty well.  Only jerked it once and never stalled it out.  Mike thinks he’s an Indy driver now with this six-speed Opel.  Back to our lovely B&B and relaxed with the resident cat.  Think we’ll go back to Giverny for dinner tonight.  Tomorrow we head to Normandy.  That’s if we/I can program the GPS correctly (sigh).  A beautiful, sunny day today and really warm—somewhere in the 80s.

Walking through Giverny.

Touring the gardens.

So beautiful!

Dining room in Monet's home.

The kitchen.

Look at that stove!

Photo of Monet.  He reminds me of Hemmingway.

Back to our B&B.  That's our entrance up the stairs.  This used to be a barn.  Animals were housed downstairs, people lived upstairs.

The resident cat.