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Published: January 7th 2012
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one more day - woke up downhearted - in fact even more than yesterday. On our last leg home. We had given a little thought of what to do today and had come up with a visit to Jumieges an abbey founded in 654 by Saint Philibert. We had out chateauxed and out castled ourselves and had felt that the peace, quiet and tranquillity of Jumieges could be the antidote to going home. Abbeys have a certain quiet mystery and at home visits had been made to Tintern, Valle Crucis and Rievaulx all robbed out by Henry VIII. Jumieges too had been laid waste but this time not by a king but by the peasants of the French Revolution.
We drove on quiet backroads with the sat nav guiding us away from the usual motorways. It was much more peaceful driving slowly through small villages and hamlets and along tree lined roads and I wasnt missing the faster roads one bit although it was easy to see how long it took to get from one place to the next on these back roads. Field after field passed us by and we seemed to be getting nowhere ........................when out of the
blue we fell upon the sign Giverny. Normally I would say carry on. We had made plans for Jumieges and Jumieges was where we should head for. But this was different . The gardens and house of Claude Monet the Impressionist painter on our doorstep. Could we refuse an invitation to visit .
I am a garden lover and grew up to a Spring garden full of lilac, yellow and zebra stripped crocus, tulips of every hue and bright blousey peonies. King Alfred daffodils nodding in the March wind. The smell of lilac wafting sweet scent through the May air. Red, mauve and pink gladioli bulbs pulled out in the autumn. Buttercup yellow and bronze chrysanthemums. Seven sisters pink rambling roses over the fences. I love my gardens and this was too good to miss.
Monets garden was full of visitors, some with artists palette and paint, others sniffing the flowers and most clicking their camera shutters. The house was pink and green. Two colours I would have hardly put together but to the artists eye they looked divine. The garden was packed to the gunnels with plants of every kind. Scented flowers, butterflies and the sounds of
the bees . Everywhere you looked, every inch of the garden was jam packed with some kind of flower or shrub.
The highlight of the garden had to be the water and the japanese bridge seen in many of Monets paintings. This was one time I wished I could paint and I felt disappointed that a photo would have to suffice. I wished I could come again and see the waterlilies in bloom. What a sight they must be. I guess though if you come in Spring you would see a different range of plants in bloom and it would be possible to visit each season and view something very special.
To complete the tour we went inside the house and saw the domestic aspects of Monets Giverny. An interesting insight into the world of painting I have long admired. Two hits today - a spectacular garden and Impressionism. What more could you wish to end a holiday in FRance.
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