6/12 - A Day in Monet's Garden in Giverny

Today begins with me being on a quest. Every trip has a quest at some point... And sometimes more than one. Today's a little side quest is I really need to find tooth floss.  I've been able to confirm with the manager of the hotel & Stefani that the grocery store or pharmacy are what i need, but neither are open yet.  I also need a razor.

Secondary side quest ended up being to finding the basic breakfast supplies to have my yogurt..... A bowl.... And a comfortable seating arrangement.

First I sat by the door, then someone decided to leave the door open.... Always.  Then i went to an interior seat... And you can see above how challenging that is to maneuver.  Life in Europe.  Wonderful breakfast - getting used to auto-serve espresso - but seating is a challenge.

Clover's egg side-quest to the perfect soft boil.

Today we head to Monet's home & garden, then a Seine River cruise before dinner at le creperie.

Quick surprise before I left - there was a man washing his hands in the bathroom when I came out of my stall.  I jumped with surprise then chuckled it off & told him "Always a surprise - takes some getting used to."  He smiled (also American, I think - this is at the hotel).

Our tour guide for today is Patric. He is an older man with white hair who wears multi-colored fluorescent tennis shoe crocks.

He explains the strange buildings we saw towering over Paris from Mont Martre yesterday. They are “Monseur” & “Madame” but not really of much controversy or consequence.

We follow the River Seine for most of the drive.  It winds through the plain as we make our way west toward Normandie.  Low & wide, it will go all the way to the Ocean, while we will stop at the Atlantic.

Clover takes a sitting up nap.  Due to traffic the drive takes much longer than expected.  

Actually - most of the bus takes a nap.

I see the Limestone cliffs, which are part of the same geological structures that we see off the cliffs of Dover.  I learned last year that these used to form a single connecting structure, which has now been worn down from the waters of the North Atlantic forming the English Channel (or, a the French call it "la Manche" (the sleeve because it forms a srip like a shirt sleeve between France and England - for that bit of information I must thank my High School French teacher.).

Giverny is our destination. The home of Claude Monet until his death at 85. He was a heavy smoker, which apparently makes the difference of living 20 years more than if you work closely with radiation like Marie Curie (~65 at time of death).

I take lots of pictures & notes at Giverny. I will switch to those now.

Monet's Garden

Smell honeysuckle before I see

   Block out tourist chatter 

children's voices in all languages transcend words

    Oooooos waft on air with the scents of clover…. earth…. fresh rain

Today Monet's moments would include the pondkeeper scraping the surface for excess duckweed - keep the olive green water lily shallow stagnant waters from overflowing into detrital-laden dead zones

   Foxglove… hardy perennial lilies… burst of tiger lily fireworks 

    Monet loved the big picture - the large macro world

   I love the small - close-in moments where anther & filament join - pistil & stamen become the feature of an image rather than an afterthought impression of a brushstroke fire burst

But there is always the focus and the blue in a picture - perspective dictates all

Sun comes out from clouds - or rather clouds shift to allow the life-giving rays do their work on our fertile little orb.

This active petit focus of the Artist's brush - long gone, but living still through the memories & focus of we who lose ourselves in his moments.

Light changes 

The daisies are first to respond

Then water droplets gathering on petals of the tiger lilies.

Comments of others as they pass.

“Camillia” - “Camillia?” - “Camillia.”

“... is going to drive me to drink…”

Selfies on bridge - moments stolen & remembered later from an image if it is not lost.

Will they remember the smells? The sounds? Birds with their see-saw call - Mocking back and forth down the garden

I wish i had the names for calls

   Tweet tweet tweet - trill

   Tweet tweet tweet - trill

         see-saw-see-saw

  Tweet tweet trill

         see-saw-see-saw-see-saw-see-saw

cherry trees - petals gone - pregnant ovaries growing plump at the new beginnings of life

elder couple sits on a bench

I want to also

I am told to come along and leave this fairy land

But I'm caught up in this garden

Smells of roses - English hedge roses have the most alluring flavour - tempting me to stay just a little longer

I see my group ahead - they have seen the house & now circling - circling - too fast for me

Is this an oubliette?  

   round & round

but they forget the world in sitting rather than walking 

When i take a picture of a photographer I feel the dysphoria that old impressionists painted another who painted the scene as well

the closest thing here to blue is still purple

garden walls made of chert and chalk from the nearby mines. other life from a long ago fantasy - distant deep geological memories of life - less ephemeral than paint

We return to the world outside where elected car caries us along at its own pace - while we long for the slow world of that garden.

Notes from Patrick, the tour guide - 

Monet was born in Paris but moved to Loire, Normndy when he was about 5.  He began making charicatures of teachers, which were being locally old by the time he was 17.

Monet made his start by painting seashores, then met and joined the Impresionists.  The impressionists were bocked from Museums & shows, which is why they created their own show.  

They frequently went out to the countryside to paint in plain air (en plein air).  The new paint in tubes made it possible to do this.

Monet collected Japanese paintings, which formed the idea for his water lily paintinggs that are placed in the Orangery

Monet's son donated Giverny in the 1960s to the French government.  The people restoring the garden found flowers, trees, and other plants to grow there, which were found in Monet's original paintings.

Additional Pictures from later in the day when we returned from Giverny.