Water Lilies

Today we spent the day in Giverny, the location of Monet’s house and gardens where he painted his famous Water Lilies and other paintings. We had to take a train out to a small town called Vernon. We quickly learned that when taking a train out of Paris you should check train times ahead of time, if not book your tickets in advanced, and get there early. Today was Labor Day in Europe and a lot of people seemed to be traveling. We got to the station about 20 minutes before the train we wanted was going to leave and we had to wait in a huge line to get our tickets. We made it on the train with only minutes to spare. There were no seats left, however, and we had to stand crammed next to a ton of other people.

Eventually we made it to Vernon and rented bicycles from a café outside the train station. It was highly recommended to ride a bicycle the three miles to Giverny. We found it a bit frustrating at first, though. We got kind of lost in the beginning and it was really hot. But it was pretty to look at the scenery.

By the time we reached Giverny we were starving and very thirsty so we had lunch and then got in the long line to see Monet’s house and gardens. After an hour wait we finally got in. It was definitely worth the wait. The garden was amazing. It was full of beautiful blooming flowers (a large number of which were tulips, my favorite flower) in a variety of colors. My favorite part was being able to walk on the green, arched bridge that he painted. I love his paintings of that bridge and the surrounding willows so it was incredible to see them in person.

We then visited Monet’s house. We were incredibly lucky because today was the opening day of an exhibit of Monet’s paintings of his gardens in his own house. This is the first time since they were painted that they can be seen in the same garden that they depict. It was really neat to see the paintings first hand after having just seen the actual setting.

After that we decided to head back to the train station. Our ride back was much more enjoyable. It had cooled off a bit and we weren’t stressed because we already knew where to go. We rode leisurely back, taking in all the scenery and enjoying the nice people of the French countryside who all said “bonjour” to us as we passed.