I'm giving Giverny it's own separate blog because it deserves it.
After driving for hours and hours it felt wonderful to get out of the car and stretch in the slowly setting sun. After we crossed the highway and headed into the town we searched for Monet's home. I actually enjoyed looking around at the town. Every building was made of stone, the streets were incredibly narrow (were one way-I hope), the main language I was hearing was English, the paths were lined with flowers, and the warmth from the sun (both the color and the heat) made me very happy. We bought our tickets and then headed down the ramp towards a door that was almost blinding to look through it was so bright out. When we passed through this door I realized that the brightness wasn't from the sun shining through the door, it was from the sun reflecting off all the leaves. We walked out into the shade, but saw all this light. It was amazing. I'm an avid gardener. My belief is that a garden should represent the gardeners’ form of paradise or heaven, and Monet’s garden definitely felt like it.
As we walked along the closest pathway to the house I looked around at the garden and oohed and ahhed at some of the plants that were on my right and left. I'd never known that rosemary could be used as a shrub, but there it was looking like miniature boxwood and smelling ten times better. I also never knew that Momma's dogpoop lillies (not the real name-just one we've given them because they stink like it) bloomed later on after their leave had gone away. Course these are only two of the many things I noted other than how the light seemed to make this certain flower glow, how the yellows all together looked, how Monet had arranged his gardens into many rows-like a farmer, and yet had strayed from the traditionally strict French style and had made everything overflow, how he enjoyed using plants that spread like wildfire (mints are an example), how certain sections would be perfect to sit and read in, how marvelous the house looked, etc. After walking along the short pathway we arrived at the front of the house. Ahmee asked Poppy to take a picture of this pink and green house that had vines growing on it and flower beds close by. Course, Poppy didn't have the camera very long. Shortly after we moved away from the front of the house I grabbed the camera, and didn't give it back until after we'd left Monet's house. Ahmee and Poppy believe that you CAN'T take pictures where you're facing the sun, that it doesn't work and it won't come out. I've done it before in the desert and those pictures came out fine. I of course took as many pictures as I could while trying to limit myself. If I had taken a picture every time I enjoyed the view we would've needed another chip. While my eyes were open they were never short of being in awe at Monet's garden. 
The short tunnel under the street led to the water garden where Monet painted some of his most famous water lilly paintings. Before we even reached the main pond I'd found several nice pictures to take. I saw that Monet had quite an eye, even when there were simply bamboo and trees he managed to make areas that were astounding. He picked trees whose foliage would display patterns when the sun shone through, he picked their spots so that people's views would be blocked partly-so that they got a glimpse of what lay ahead and became greedy to see the rest of it. He also laid it out so that the water reflected what light came through the trees. I have one picture that might seem insignificant because it's not Monet’s most famous section of the garden, but this picture showed a smaller green bridge in the distance that crossed over the creek. On the right there were trees and sunlight, and on the left bamboo and shadows, and of course on the water there were leaves, light, and reflections. Very beautiful. I think we might've visited his garden at just the right time: the sun had its golden glow and so the light was golden through the leaves.
When we ambled through the pathway towards his famous wisteria-covered Japanese Bridge I took a picture of the area where Monet sat and painted his flowers, his bridge, and the garden surrounding the lake. Poppy got the camera back to take a picture of Ahmee and me on the bridge. Ahmee wanted on of the whole me and the whole bridge, so she took the camera and walked far away. I'm a small speck in the middle of the bridge, looking down at the water. We followed the flow and moved in the direction everyone else was moving. I could've moved at the speed of a slug and not gotten tired of looking. I had to restrain myself to keep from taking all sorts of pictures of the spotlighted willow trees, of the water-lilly pond, of the flowers along side the path, of the roses that had been cut back, of the color arrangements, etc.. I did let loose occasionally to nab a few brilliant pictures. I say they're brilliant not because I'm overly confident in my own abilities, I say they're brilliant because it's Monet's garden in a spotlighted sunlight, it's going to be beautiful. I once took pictures of our own garden back on Garritt Street when the sun was beginning to go down and the light shown through the leaves and spotlighted certain sections. Those pictures turned out marvelous. I wish I could find them.
Course we couldn't stay long in the water garden and we still hadn't seen the inside of the house yet so we walked back (through the paths) to the main entrance of the house. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside and I must say, I wish I had been able to. The house was positioned so that the setting sun shown through on one side, while on the other side the rising sun would show. The windows effectively lit up the house most of the day. Perfect lighting for an artist, and I must say it was also wonderful lighting for those of us visiting his house.
Monet had no reservations when it came to color in his house. Many rooms were dedicated to a specific color scheme. An example would be how the staircase had a light green paint on the walls while a light purple was on the molding. In the entryway, or rather the first room we walked into, was called the blue living room. It wasn't entirely done up in blue, but the walls were painted blue and there were Japanese Prints in frames hanging on the wall. These prints matched the color scheme of the room (Monet collected Japanese prints). The room also had a lot of bamboo furniture.
The rooms that were flamboyantly dressed up in color were the dining room and the kitchen. The dining room was all yellow. Not all the same shade, but it was everything that was painted was painted a shade of yellow. Even the tables & chairs were a lemon yellow. The fireplace had blue ceramic tiles on it and the blue china that was on the table looked spectacular with this. Of course framing the fireplace were more Japanese Prints of various colors. The mantelpiece had a few decorative pieces of pottery. A picture was shown of the great bearded Monet in his dining room. The dining room in the picture looks exactly the same as the one I saw in real life. The colors alone would brighten anyone's mood, but of course Monet, being ever in love with the light, painted this room yellow for a good reason. It's windows were on the side of the house that got the light from the setting sun, which illuminated the entire room. I'm sure that when Monet lived this use of color in a house was looked down upon. Shoot, most people today would look down on anyone painting so much of a room such bright colors, but I thought that the room was amazing, and that Monet was a positive genius for using the light to his advantage and then playing it up all he could with his own work.
The other room that was dedicated to a color was the kitchen. I'm a lover of blue and not a huge fan of cooking. The blue in that kitchen would make me want to spend more time in there, even if I was cooking. The tiles around the sink and the stove were the same that surrounded the fireplace in the living room, and the walls were one of my favorite shades (I have a few favorites but my most favorite shade of blue was that of the tiles). The windows to this room were partially blocked off by trees. Personally, I think that this made the room even more enjoyable. After the bright cheerfulness of the dining room the hazy blue of the kitchen seems to sooth and calm (which I think I would need if I were cooking in there).
After we got out of the house I took one last "turn about the garden" where I looked at the rows of color, at the fluttering butterflies and buzzing bees, where I took a few pictures trying to capture something that would remind me of so many of the amazing sights I had seen. It looked like my form of a heaven. My form of a heaven is one that has rooms, one that has color and variety in shape, one that brings joy to those within it, one that brings calm to those within it, and one that just seemed to sparkle in it's own natural glory. There were areas where I know I would've loved to curl up with a book within that garden. There were also areas where I know I'd just want to sit and watch as the sun moved across the flowers. Then there were areas where I wanted to run and laugh and play. These are the things that that garden made me want to do. It made me want to kick back and enjoy the small things that I so much appreciate and that many people often don't get much of a chance to do.
Hard not to "stop and smell the roses" when you're surrounded by them and millions of other flowers. The one thing I did want to get away from in the garden was the crowds of people. Not that people were jam-packed like at Versailles were you couldn't turn around without elbowing someone, it's just that the people made noise, many didn't fully appreciate Monet's living and growing masterpiece. They were just there to cross off another thing that they have on their list of things to do. People go through life like it's a to do list: go to school, get a job, get married, have kids, and retire. I think it's astounding that people when they travel will not slow down enough to fully appreciate the gravity of the situation. Of course I suppose if you view gardens as a hodge-podge of flowers and you get absolutely no enjoyment out of gardening or viewing gardens, then I suppose you wouldn't want to walk through Monet's garden. If that's the case: Why did you pay the 8 pounds to view them?
We went through the gift shop, where we ran into even more people. Luckily there were so many things to check out I didn't even really notice all the people. I ended up getting a picture of the Monet's front door (with the arch work over the front drive and the vines growing up it). Monet had cataracts, every day his eyes got a little worse and his vision became hazier. You can definitely tell that the painting I got was one where his eyes were getting pretty bad. Colors blend and blur and it seems like you're looking through a haze. I love it. It makes me so happy to look at that picture. I want Iain to check out some of the paintings. The ones he painted towards the end of his career show my vision when I take out my contacts.
Course I also got a book about Giverny that showed all kinds of pictures. The photographer didn't come to Giverny when the sun was out. I don't think they were from France, the French appreciate their sun too much. I'm glad I got this book though because it shows pictures I wasn't allowed to take, such as the dining room. Course, my picture would've been better because the light I got made the room shine.
After we purchased our things we walked, very slowly, up the ramp and back out onto the not so wide street of Giverny. We had to dodge cars that came down this street as we looked for a hotel. We found a very large one that wasn't far away from Monet's house at all. You just turned right and there just a two blocks away was the hotel and restaurant. This was full. However they did send us to a local b&b that was much farther down the road in the other direction. We walked back to the car, drove down the super-thin road, and looked for the b&b. As we reached the end of Giverny we started to wonder if we needed to head somewhere else when I spotted it. It had an iron gate and vines growing up and over the front wall. It also had vines growing up over the front of the house. Something I must mention is that even though vines are TERRIBLE for the structure of the house (roots break up the mortar and tend to weaken the wall), they always bring me great joy. As we walked up I was surprised and delighted to see that the front door was wide open. We pushed through the iron gate, ignoring the doorbell entirely, and stepped into a much more subdued (but none the less beautiful) front garden. The iron gate made a noise however that was heard throughout the house and shortly and tall man with red hair came out saying, "Bonjour! Hello!" and being as polite and friendly as ever. We asked him if he had room for the three of us. At first he said no he didn't have one room that was big enough for three people. Then he said, "But I do have the family suite." We liked the sounds of that so we followed him inside.
Before I even reached the suites I was in love.
As we entered there was light coming in from the left hand side of the hall, this was coming from the window in the living room. The living room's colors were red and white and black, and had a fireplace in one corner, two coffee tables that had interesting books on them, a chandelier that was illuminated by the light coming through the window (like Monet’s house, this house also was placed so that the light shown through different sides in the morning and evening), on the right side of a door in the wall there was a set of bookshelves that housed tons of killer books (as well as a tv, a radio, and a record player). On the other side of the hall was a darker room that was still nicely furnished with a large rectangular table covered by an iridescent cloth. On the wall at the end of this table there hung a mirror. Obviously, this room was the dining room, or breakfast hall.
The family suite was through the door that was on the opposite wall in the living room. Once you walked through this door you arrived in a thin hallway that was done in mostly yellow. Both ends of the hallway had doors, on the right a WC (toilet room) and the other a door leading to the outside, which was blocked off. There were three doors that were along the wall in this suite. The one in the middle was the bathroom where the shower and the sink was, this room was green and yellow (while it might sound wrong it looked lovely in real life). The one on the right hand side was the one with a window facing the setting sun and the gardens, this one was done in all yellow. The door on the left side of the bathroom was done in darker colors. Red, white, dark brown, and a bit of green where predominant in this room. Of course, I knew that this room would get all of the rising suns light. The man said that the price would be over a hundred euros a night for the suites. When Ahmee just about said no he said, "Well we don't have anyone here so we could give you a discount of one hundred euros a night." We took the price, thanked him profusely and complimented him on the house. He told us before we headed back to the car about the garden in the back yard. We decided we would have to have a look when we got back and that we would drop our things off and go get money from the atm in the next town over. Before we left the b&b man introduced us to his fiancé and his daughter, who came home shortly after we arrived. His name was Jean and his fiancé’s name was Claire. It was then that I realized that the front door had been open for them.
While in the car I daydreamed. I was daydreaming about the nice cozy rooms of that b&b and how I would love to journal in those rooms and listen to music in there and read those books. I think that Ahmee was doing the same thing because as Poppy was getting the money in the atm she said that she'd like for us to sit out in the back garden and admire it for a while once we got back. Suddenly my stomach rumbled. I immediately thought of having dinner in the garden back at the b&b. Ahmee was all for that idea and so after we got money we went into a grocery store and bought the supplies for a fabulous picnic. We bought two different types of cheeses, a baguette, chicken meat, dried olives (really good actually), two green apples, asparagus, some sort of spread, mayonnaise, plastic forks and knives, and two table covers. All of the grocery stores we've been to so far in Europe have required that you bring your own bags. This one was no exception. It wasn't a big deal for us though; we just placed our food in the middle of the two clothes and carried them like those kids in cartoons who're running away from home.
On the way back I daydreamed about all the things I wanted to do inside, and I daydreamed about eating outside. Once we got back we quickly grabbed the food and headed around to the back of the house. Of course Ahmee and Poppy asked if it was alright to eat back there and the b&b runner said it was no problem and pointed out the umbrella table in the back right hand corner.
The garden wasn't as full of flowers as Monet’s was. This one enjoyed flowers along the edges and roses up the middle. He had a rose trellis going down the middle of his back yard. Could tell he was an avid gardener and was more interested in the flowers than anything else in the garden. Why do I know this? Because I'm the same way. Mowing is normally the last thing I want to do in the garden. It was obviously the last thing he wanted to do as well because the grass was beginning to need a trim, while certain flower beds had obviously been weeded recently.
We got to admire the garden as we ate our treasure trove of food. Not too much was said there for a while as we ate and prepared our food. As we each tried different combinations though we started talking more and more and pretty soon we were holding conversations about all kinds of things. Ahmee looked at me as I was looking lovingly at the garden and talking about the rooms and what I'd like to do in there and she said, "You really like pretty rooms don't you." I do like pretty rooms. I like looking at them. I like dreaming them up. I LOVE living in them and doing things I thoroughly enjoy in spaces I that bring me such joy. The food, the conversation, and the surroundings greatly enhanced our moods and by the time the food was gone I was certain we'd become full in more than one sense of the word.
Later I sat in the living room typing away at the blog, doing a much better job at it because I was eager to write, to create, and to project the wonders that I'd seen on this trip. As I did that Ahmee read one of the books that was on the table (twas the pin-up book) while Poppy wrote in his smaller journal. After the sun had gone down and I'd turned on the lights Jean came in and asked if we wanted some tea. He also saw my laptop and asked if I wanted the wifi. I was astounded that they had wifi there and was incredibly happy that they had it. After saying yes please and grinning profusely at him he went to grab our tea and the password. When he left I turned back to Ahmee and Poppy, still with the grin on my face and said something along the lines of, "Oh yeah I like this place." Ahmee just laughed. Unfortunately, our computer wouldn't work with the connection, so even though they had wireless, I couldn't have it. Didn't kill my mood in the slightest.
I drank my tea (caffeinated because I wanted to stay up a bit) and typed for ages. After Ahmee put her book down I decided I should probably start heading to bed as well so I put the laptop up and looked at the books like I'd wanted to. The books on the bookshelf were quite interesting. Most of them were in French and I couldn't figure out what their titles were, but then I found some of J. R. R. Tolkien books, Dan Browns books (The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons), and one book that had Japanese writing as the title. On the coffee table I looked at the Chats book (cats), and Ahmee's pinup book. Shortly after I set that down I went to my room, put on many layers of clothes, and went to bed. Unfortunately I didn't sleep very well. Even though I had one two layers of socks, my feet still froze. The rest of me was fine, and I was definitely sleepy, my frozen feet were the only things that kept waking me up that night.
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