Day Nine- Flowers and Friends

I can't remember how I first heard about Monet's Gardens.  I think perhaps a friend at work suggested it as a great half day tour.  Our travel agent (who also worked at The Children's Center then) had never been, but had heard they were amazing!  Once I looked them up on the internet, I was sold and we made a plan for Vonette, Charon, Mom Hall and I to go on Saturday morning while Gary and Gary K. hung out and rested at the hotel.  It was not supposed to be very wheel chair compatible which is why we planned it like that.

Until that day three weeks before our trip (give or take a week) where Gary mentioned to Vonette and Gary K. that there was a Disneyland in Paris.  Now Vonette and Gary LOVE Disney.  They immediately began researching it and within a day or two were asking if it would be possible for them to spend Saturday at Disneyland.  (So much for a day for resting!)  Plans were made.  Vonette and Gary got their shuttle at 7:15 a.m. and we headed out around 7:45 (with Gary--the good sport--taking Vonette's spot on our tour.)

Like in England, it was nice to get out into the countryside a bit and we enjoyed our drive out to the gardens.  Due to the nature of the gardens, they don't do tours actually in the gardens, so after watching a brief film in the van on the way there, our driver dropped us off with directions about when and where to meet him later.

On the way out of town, you could see a build-up of police presence through much of the downtown of Paris.  Some roads were closed and it was a bit tricky for the driver to pick up one of the couples traveling to the gardens with us. There were at least three protests which were scheduled to take place that day and there was concern about conflicts and looting activities.  Like both of our prior guides had mentioned, French people love to protest and go on strike and other similar activities.  Kevin said it was a national sport!  Little did we know we were going to see it a bit more up close and personal that we expected.  More about that later---

Monet's Gardens are the actual gardens which were built by Claude Monet and he lived there for the majority of his later adult years.  He became a master gardener as he built his gardens as a spot for painting.  The pond, the Japanese walking bridge, the lily pads all became subjects of his paintings.  His home has also been restored and was fun to visit as well.  It has many of his private collection of paintings and also some of his own work.

It is no surprise to anyone who knows me that I took a lot of pictures of flowers.  I actually may make a book of just the gardens because I love flowers so much.  I would love to have a garden like this (and of course, the volunteers who help it grow.)

Enough words---Enjoy---The Monet's Gardens

Giverny, the village surrounding the home and gardens are also beautiful and most of the buildings date back at least to the 1800's. 

Flowers everywhere--

A view of the house

 

The entrance to the house--

Monet loved color and his home shows that everywhere.

In this room they have copies of many of his famous paintings which are hung all over the world in museums and private collections.

The kitchen--

You can see how tall the flowers are in the beds around the house.

Under a small tunnel to the other side of the gardens, you find these bamboo growing-- this is the side where Monet develop his pond which he expanded and changed until he got it just the way he wanted it.  The later part of his career was mostly painting the pond and the lily pads which he loved.

The lily pads

Charon, Mom Hall, and Gary on the bridge--

I stepped off the bridge and tried to get a picture of them on the bridge but the leaves made that difficult.

So, one story that must be recorded--You can see what a gorgeous spot this is and the views off the small bridge are stunning in both directions. It was a pretty day and perfect for the light and reflections off the pond in-between the trees and the lily pads.  Mom Hall notices in the middle of all of this--a brown spot which was oddly shaped like a rat.  Although Gary tried to convince everyone it was a dead lily pad--she was right.  On closer inspection, it was a dead rat!  We laughed so hard...both because mom saw it and we all tried to convince her it was not one.  We still laugh about that.

The only downside was it was crowded, especially towards the end of our visit.  It turned out to be a community day which meant it was free or reduced prices for the community.

Back to the flowers---

Upon leaving the gardens, we ate at a local cafe and then wandered the village for a bit.

Our drive back to Paris was interesting.  Our driver was very concerned about the riots taking place in downtown Paris.  Many streets were closed or being closed and he was constantly being updated from his dispatcher and also was trying to listen to the news on the radio.  There was no traffic around the Arc of Triumph (remember 12 roads run into that roundabout) and on the major shopping road because they had just be opened after being closed much of the day.  We saw a small group of protesters surrounded by police in riot gear off  a side street, but otherwise everything was calm except for the police vans everywhere and police with guns on the roads.  Eerie sight!

Then as we approached our area of town, the driver was unable to turn where he wanted to.  After following a long detour, he told us that he couldn't return us to our hotel, but could drop us off about a 15 minute walk away from the hotel.  We agreed to that.  We wanted to get to the hotel and we could see that the roads were blocked by police.  He circled around and as we approached the drop off spot, the road was opened and he was able to make the needed turn and get us all the way to our hotel.  A sweet mercy--we weren't sure about walking for 15 minutes in unfamiliar place with police and road blocks everywhere.

We made it back and were able to have a quick rest before the next event of the day!  Friends!

This is Laura and Dan Post.  Through the miracle of Facebook, she and I had reconnected.  She had been living in the Seattle area but we have been unable to connect when I was there, because our schedules didn't match up.  They are now living outside of Paris and made a 30 minute train--20 minute car ride from their flat in a castle to meet us for dinner.  Friends are amazing like that.

We knew Laura from Hong Kong days.  She served a short time as a counselor to me when I was Relief Society president in our ward there.  We have not seen each other since 1992 and we have never met Dan, but you would not have known it if you had seen us at dinner.  We had crepes at a small cafe eating outside at a small table--it truly does not get more French than that.  We had dinner crepes....and then 2 hours later had dessert crepes and Laura and I talked (with Dan and Gary adding their comments from time to time.)  I think we were there for 3 1/2 hours.

On our way home from dinner, I snapped this picture which people from Hong Kong would immediately recognize--the Hong Kong-Shanghai Bank.  I was surprised to see it in Paris.  This was our bank years ago in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Charon and Mom found their own way to another restaurant and enjoyed a quiet dinner themselves, while Gary and Vonette played the day away in Disney. 

By 10:00 pm, we were all ready for bed because tomorrow we were heading to ROME!