Adventure in France - Giverny - the Gardens

The Gardens at Giverny are magical – mostly tall plants with brightly coloured flowers.  A lot of sunflowers.  I loved all of it.  Sadly we could hardly see the famous bridge over the waterlily pond – there were so many tourists standing on it, and they would not move.   There were so many people we did not bother to walk around it.  

The haystacks are in a field opposite the car park - we sat here after our visit to the house and had an ice cream. Lots of families having a picnic and picking apples.

Along the road leading to Monet's house there are several colour-themed gardens to walk through.

A bubble machine outside a house,

Monet's Gardens

Look - a bed of pelargoniums!

Beautiful blue china flower planters.

Tigridia

The Waterlily pond

Here you can just about see the crowds on the bridge

Another view of the crowds on the bridge

Back to the garden on our way out

We visited the Museum on our way out, where they were showing paintings by Henri-Edmund Cross.  He has an interesting style - his paintings were made up of dots.  We thought very clever but were not keen.  Some of them looked at bit chocolate boxey.

 This one was not painted with dots, and I liked this a lot - an early painting I think.

Another early one, but I think when he first started to use the dots, so not so 'dotty'. 

On the way out of the museum, there were some paintings by a Japanese artist - forgot to write down his name.   It did say he was greatly impressed with Monet's work and he painted a lot of water lily's.

Our final train journeys to and from Giverny were not without the dramas we had experienced on our previous train trips in France.  After the muddle on the TGV I had specifically asked the ticket inspector on the platform if we were able to sit anywhere on the train  Looking at our tickets he said yes.  It was only one stop to Vernon and we sat in some very comfortable red seats.   At the station returning to Paris we got on the train standing at the platform and after we had been sitting for a few minutes we discovered we were on the wrong train - another quick exit.  When we got on the correct train we made our way to some seats we saw vacant, and Sandy was told by a seated passenger that we were in First Class and that red seats were First Class and Blue seas Second Class - Sandy remarked did she look like a second-class person?   So, another hasty retreat to find the correct blue seats.  But we laughed at the fact that we had sat in First Class on the way to Vernon. You live and learn!

The next day we sadly had to make our way to Charles de Gaulle airport for the return flight to Gatwick where we picked up the car to bring us back to Shamley Green,   It was a wonderful, fun packed holiday.   We saw some great paintings by some great artists - not always to our tastes, walked a lot and had a lot of laughs.  And enjoyed some lovely wine and discovered cassis ice cream.

I hope you have enjoyed my recollections of my holiday with Sandy in France.