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Published: September 9th 2014
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Today was a little bit different from our other days so far, but a great day! Instead of touring Paris today, we had a day-long tour with Ann-Clair who took us to both Giverny and Versailles.
Ok so to start, Giverny is this tiny village about an hour outside of France that to this day only has a population of around 500 people. So why the trip to Giverny? Because that's where Monet had his house, gardens and water lily pond! It was beautiful!!! Mom and I have always been big art people with a special love for the impressionists and so we were especially excited about this mini excursion. It did not disappoint and this is something I feel the need to recommend to anyone coming to France, art lover or not. The house was cool to see but the main attraction was definitely the outdoor portion - both gardens and lily pond.
A little background - Monet didn't really a start to make money until later in his life when he could finally afford an art dealer. He was close with his art dealer friend and after he had made enough money, he purchased this house and
gardens so that he could spend the rest of his life devoted to painting and studying Impressionism. After his first wife died and his art dealer went bankrupt and left town, Monet moved into this house with his two kids and his art dealer's wife and kids! Super scandalous and apparently the people of Giverny (population of only 200 at the time) were not big fans of Monet. Knowing that Monet did multiple studies of the same landscape, the people of the town would purposefully mess up his landscapes by cutting down trees or moving haystacks he had been painting! Not very nice! Luckily, Monet had his beautiful gardens and lily pad pond to study and paint. Apparently he would also often study the scene and then wait until he was in his studio to paint. Amazing, if you ask me!
Anyway, we drove there this morning and started out with his gardens. There were so many beautiful different types of flowers blooming and Ann-Clair said it's always so different every time she is there. She said June is especially beautiful but personally, I thought September was especially beautiful. We crossed under the road (in his day he just
walked across the road) over to his lily pond. It was just breathtaking especially when you think about how much time he must have spent studying how the light reflects on that pond. It was just lovely and I didn't want to leave! We did end up going back and ending the morning with a tour through his house, which was cool to see where he once lived. I was struck by how colorful his house was - he had a blue room was very blue and a yellow room was very yellow. It seemed like each room in his house was a very bright different color, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since he was an artist with a garden full of colors!
After seeing his grounds, we got a bite to eat at a nearby cafe and then walked through more of Giverny - which, of course, was adorable. The village had lots of old stone and cute old windows and doors with ivy and flowers and lots of character. I guess I'll get my full-time apartment in Montmartre in Paris and then my vacation house in Giverny!
Early afternoon we got back on the
road and headed back in the direction of Paris but stopped at Versailles. I have always heard many things about Versailles, so I was eager to visit. It's definitely as big as I've imagined it - probably bigger, with gardens that would probably take a whole day or two to work your way through. We toured through part of the palace seeing many of the drawing rooms, the bedrooms of the kings and queens and of course the large Hall of Mirrors. It was very ornate with an excess of colored marble, gold, and Italian paintings and sculpture. We learned that it was different from most palaces and large buildings from it's time in that there was no hallway that had entrances to each room - instead the rooms acted like one big hallway leading from one room to the next. Say you wanted to go to the Hall of Mirrors... well you may have to go to the king's bedroom to get there! I believe there were backrooms and other exits and entrances that we didn't get to see, but for the most part the flow seemed to be that it was from one room to the next. We
also learned a bit about the three Louis's that lived there. The first was, of course, Louis XIV - the sun king - because his symbol was the sun, which was seen all over Versailles. He was the one that turned what was his father's hunting grounds into the palace it is today. He lived to be 77 and had a ton of money from all of his war conquests and what he was able to import from all over the world. His great-grandson was the next king as all of his male children died before him. Louis XV was not very well liked because he was weak and made all of his mistresses into people the court were supposed to support and recognize. Then came Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette who only reigned for a short time because of the French Revolution and they were ultimately beheaded. It was quite the palace for only 3 kings, but very cool to see.
After the inner tour, we attempted the gardens, but all of the fountains were off so it wasn't as impressive as we had hoped. We walked around a few of the gardens but they were mostly giant shrubbery and trees sculpted in a way that was meant to be labyrinth-like walls, but without all the fountains, it really wasn't very exciting (I'm sorry to say). It was okay at that point though - we had a long day and we were ready to be back.
For dinner, we walked down a few streets to a pedestrian street full of restaurants and selected one that had good ambiance and was outdoors. We blindly ordered a bottle of wine (because we aren't very well-versed in French wine) and of course it was delicious. I had French Onion Soup and had my first Escargot (courtesy of adventuresome eater, Drew) and it was delicious. After another nice French meal, we headed back to the hotel and here I am finishing up today's blogpost. Tomorrow is the Louvre in the morning and dinner at the Eiffel Tower! I can't wait! 😊
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