Another weekend...another road trip. This time we took a trip to Giverny France, home of the impressionist artist Monet for the last 40 years of his life. It was a short, (53 minutes) train trip from Paris, this time from Gare de Lazare. The train actually goes to a village called Vernon. Giverny is 4 kms away. From the train station one can walk, taxi, bus or bicycle. We contemplated biking, but at the last moment took the bus.
On other trips, we have headed out from Gare de Nord, Gare de l' est, Gare d'Austerlitz and now on this trip Gare de St. Lazare. We seem to be testing every train station in Paris. We were not overly impressed, but perhaps it is because the station is under renovation.
The village of Giverny was a small rural community when Monet moved there, and apparently initially he was not very popular, as he attracted a lot of other artists to the area. If they could see it now! There are the usual parking lots, alterations to roads, tunnels under roads so tourists do not get run over by buses and tractors etc. Add to this. the local restaurants that have all expanded to handle busloads of tourists. Perhaps because of the heat today, or it being August, it actually was not that busy on our visit. Entrance to Monet's Home
The farmhouse.
Genya on the porch of Monet's house. 
This is the view from Monet's bedroom window The home was large, but they they needed it because of the large family. Monet had a blended family, 8 children..sort of an 19th Century Brady Bunch. We were a bit surprised by the size of the gardens. And, of course the famous lily pond, inspiration for several of his paintings.
We end this blog posting with a floral tribute to Monet's garden.
One wonders - who maintained Monet's gardens when he was alive? Was Monet a gardener or did he just paint the results?
ReplyDeleteActually, he did have gardeners, about 7 if I recall from the information. He did make decent money in his lifetime and could afford staff. I guess pictures get more valuable after a painter dies, if you go online you see that some of his works now sell in the $20 - $40 million range.
ReplyDeleteI think Ghandhi once said that weaving is good but spinning is better.
ReplyDelete