Monet’s Garden in Giverny!! At Last!

It is Wednesday morning and we are in Paris, France!  We are about to head out for a visit to one of my all time bucket list destinations....the town of Giverny, the home of Claude Monet....and the famous Lilly Ponds where he painted some of his most famous works!  Yikes!

First it’s the metro for two stops....at 7 a.m.!  We must be at the assigned meeting place for our tour pick up by 7:45 a.m.!   We get off with only 1/2 mile to walk to the pick up spot by the Arc d’Triomphe.

The last part seems like it will take forever, so we hoof up our tempo and get going!  

This is Yas, our guide, who picks up us in a van for 8 and transports us to Giverny.  We arrive first of all the tourists of the day!  We have the first moments in the Lilly Ponds to ourselves!  Amazing.

He leaves us there and the time is ours to explore and enjoy for the next two hours.  

Everywhere I look there is a photo....and a painting! Happy!

There it is....the bridge that appears in so many Monet paintings!

And the boats....like the one Monet would float in around the ponds to sketch from a different angle.  Or is it the very one?  Still floating there waiting for his return?

Ahhh, feeling so fortunate to visit this place and experience it personally!  Happy.  Filled with gratitude.

Now, on to the garden and the family house.  Here’s a photo of artist, Claude Monet in his studio.  We stand in the same room!

The kitchen is SO French, in the color blue, in the copper kettles, in the huge stove and even in the French window panes and curtains.

After we visit the house, our guide Yas, drives us to the churchyard where Claude Monet is buried.  Yas tells us more of the Monet family story as we contemplate how the days passed for them, here on this ground, over 100 years ago.  

We arrive back in Paris just in time for lunch....






A day to remember for a long long time!