Morning with Monet

Giverny, May 15th

After waking up with the chickens and having a great breakfast (see previous blog), we set off for Giverny, the little village where Claude Monet lived and did most of his painting. We toured his home and his expansive gardens. We were not permitted to take pictures inside the home or of any of the many original paintings on display but the gardens were free game.
This has been a true highlight of the trip so far. It gave us a much greater appreciation for his way of looking at the world and how he interpreted it into awesome art.

The pictures will tell the story:

General layout of the gardens and the house.

Literally acres of gardens of all kinds.

Some areas are nicely organized by color and type.

Arbors and fruit trees as well.

Other beds were a real eclectic mix of color and form.

Hey, we really do go nicely together!

Proud flowers.

Flower symphany.

Flower celebration!

Take me to the dance.

Monet is probably best known for some of his lily pond paintings. He was a prolific painter, rising a 5 a.m. to paint and  then have breakfast and immediately return to painting. 

As you may know Monet was influenced by oriental art. He has many Japanese
water colors, ceramic vases and artifacts in his home and he had this
Japanese style bridge built over his pond.

Does this look like a Monet painting?  

Throughout the garden but especially around the pond you could see
how light shaped the spaces and added another deminsion. In Monet's writings
he talks about painting "light", not objects. It is the air around the subject
that he strove to capture in his art.

And here is what I captured!
Lovely girl on a lovely bridge with lovely wisteria filling the air with a lovely scent.

The lily pond was quite shaded and was host to many vibrant flowering
shrubs. You would think this one would burst into flames.

Just an explosion of excitable color.

Very stately shade.

And every time we came across poppies,
 Blanka would point and say "oh, take a picture of that one."
I won't tell you how many poppy pics I have.