A beautiful garden on a beautiful sunny day - Phil & Jill

Imagine how happy we were today when we woke to bright blue skies and a promise of a very sunny day after yesterday's drizzle. We were off to Monet's garden! We walked to the station, a 20 min walk, taking the now familiar backlanes before coming to the main Rue St Jeanne. We were early for French traders at 8.30am and the areas were deserted and quiet. A far cry from what we have experienced from this lively city later in the day. We wanted to catch the 9.15 intercity train to Vernon, the closest station to Giverney. Much to my astonishment people were lined up at the Vendu Guichet (ticket counter) even with 6 people selling tickets. I was watching the minutes tick by with customers doing far more complicated arrangements than mine. Much to my amazement again, although we were only going 4 stops on this train (which was heading to Paris) I had to show my passport and give our dates of birth before the ticket was issued. The trip cost 30 euros return for both of us. 45 minutes of comfortable travel through fields, over the Siene and past some small villages and we gof off at Vernon.

From my reading I was under the impression that a shuttle bus serviced Giverney ftom the Vernon station. Given the number of visitors this garden attracts I mistakenly thought it would be a circulating form of transport. No, wrong!! The bus comes to meet the trains arriving from Paris and the next one wasn't til 11.15am...it was now 9.50am! I saw these English people hovering around the sign. We suggested that perhaps we could share a taxi when we spied a big taxi on the next corner. So the six of us piled in and for 10 euros for both of us problem solved It is 3kms from the station to the garden. The taxi driver took us up right to the front door and we could already see hoards of people heading to queue for entry. I stood in this same queue for approximately 30 minutes. Fortunately Phil found a nice shaded seat near the entrance.

However from the first view of the garden (once you get through the shop!!)was breath taking. The first thing that hits you is colour, initially from many colours of pink roses. There was a place to sit and just take it all in -take time to smell the roses, as they say and listen to the birds singing. It is a time I will remember for ages. I was taken over by the sheer beauty everywhere, helped of course by a most beautiful summer day.

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How's this guy - a real French guide - bow tie and all!!

Claude Monet was born in Normandy, the son of a grocer. His mother died when he was quite young. He was raised by his aunt. He wasn't good at school and drew pictures of his teachers. When in his teens, his talent was starting to show, his Aunt wanted him to be a painter much to the annoyance of his father who wanted him to be a grocer too. Claude studied in Paris but in his early years was not accepted by the Salon. The criticism of his work was that it was sloppy and looked unfinished. Monet was interested in light and using small brush strokes to change the perspective of the image. One of his main friends was Renoir, with whom Monet went to paint in Italy.

When Monet married Camille and had a son Jean, he was do poor because of lack of sales, that Renoir had to give him money for food for the family. Claude and Camille took refuge in London during the war years and had a daughter whilst living there. Claude liked to paint the same subject over and over in different light. It became an obsession.

Camille died when she was 32 and Monet and the children had to move in with friends Alice snd Ernest. By now Monet was getting a number of sales. He eventually married Alice after her husband died. Between them they had 8 children and had a happy household in his house. He lived here until he died at age 86.

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They had a cook who served up wonderful meals in this kitchen. The house has virtually been left Monet had it with some personal photos along with the furniture.

The garden takes considerable maintenance to keep all round blooming. Although Claude started off with 6 gardeners and wanted irises planted because they were his favourite and although I don't know how many are employed currently, these 3 were hard at it.

Of course we all know about the water lily pond and the green bridge, well today it was at its prime. The water lillies were fully blooming, the reflections were at their grandest and there were in fact two green bridges - one at either of the large pond.

Two other incidentals caught my eye. This girl with her white parasol and this young couple who just seconds before this photo he had got down on bended knee and proposed to his young bride to be. She said 'yes' and he pulled out the ring in the box. She was crying... I was crying as I congratulated them. When you see this you know romance is not dead!!

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So we had a fabulous day but when you are travelling independently you have to expect the unexpected. It was time to return to Rouen. It was now 2.30pm and as we had the telephone number of a taxi (or so we thought) we were confident we would make the 3.07 train. But no! Phone was engaged. Fortunately in the morning I had asked the driver where the shuttle went from. His response went like......errrr ohhh (say it with a French accent and shrug) over there to the right, to the left and to the right to the round about....errr just there!! Oh yeah. Well at this point of the afternoon I said to Phil we have nothing else to do but hightail it to the bus. Well many questions to locals and no sign posts, we eventually found the bus stop with all the other big coaches taking groups. I could see no sign for a local bus. Luck was with us again....just there was a taxi pulled up and a young Spaniard started talking to the driver. I asked where they were going....he said to the station....I said can we join you and the driver said...hop in. Whew!! There was only one more train going to Rouen tonight. I can tell you, I was panicking....when we got back to Rouen Phil said he had it all in the bag!!!

Two very happy travellers to have been lucky enough to see Monet's garden. I agree with all my friends who have seen it before me, it is beautiful.