Giverny

Emilie wanted to go on a small trip for her birthday, and she ended up picking Giverny as the location. Sarah, Becca, and I joined her on this little adventure. The day started bright and beautiful, and as (more or less) always we missed our train by just a little bit. To give us credit, we got there before the train left, but we didn’t have enough time to actually buy tickets for it. So, instead of going earlier in the day as planned, we ended up going on the 2:20 train. This was a blessing in disguise as it allowed us to grab a bite for lunch. It was an hour to get to Vernon where we caught a bus to Giverny.

When we got off the bus we just followed the crowd through the streets, and eventually found the main stretch of the town. Again (as in the first day going to Les Baux de Provence), we went on a jour férié, so the place was completely and utterly packed. We got in a line immediately thinking that it was the line to get into Monet’s house. In a way it was since his house was in the garden, but it was more or less good that we got into this line.


Since there were four of us we split up and took turns holding the place in line. First Emilie and Sarah went to see just how long the line was and buy ice cream for all of us. When they returned, Becca and I ventured off in the opposite direction and found free gardens to wander through and a magnificent poppy field (coquelicot). Becca went back a week later with her parents and apparently the field had gone into full bloom in only a week’s time. But it was still gorgeous while we were there even though only a few of the flowers had bloomed. After our little wander we went back and waited while Emilie and Sarah explored.



It eventually came down to the point when we would only have half an hour left in Giverny, and the line was still quite long. We gave up on trying to get in and just walked the periphery looking for a view in at least. While doing this, Sarah noticed the group entrance, and since it was so late in the day it turned out that they were letting in individuals as well. We got in that line instead, and then we decided to ask about getting to the front of the line. Sarah used her womanly wiles, and after explaining that we had to catch our train since the one after would take 3 hours to get back to Paris, the security guard helped us get through the line faster. We got our tickets, and then the real journey began.


We went immediately to the nymphéas area, and it was magnificent. There were all sorts of different flowers to look at, the bridges over the water were covered in wisteria, and they even had bamboo. One area also had cotton gum and it looked like there was a light snow cover on the ground.


We all took this in as quickly as possible while also snapping as many photos as we could. Somehow we managed to take a couple of group photos, and when we realized the time we hightailed our way out of the gardens. It was a bit of a maze to get back out, and we didn’t have any time to stop in the house at all. We hurried back to the bus and caught it just in time to actually still get a seat on the bus. I thought they would have stopped letting people on the bus once all of the seats were full, but no, they let people stand in the aisles.


Getting back to Paris was no hassle, and in all it was a good day that yielded a few amazing photos. The place was gorgeous, plain and simple.

More photos: link.