A year ago from now, I visited Monet's Gardens in Giverny. I haven't been into Art and painting all my life. It all started just a few years ago. Back then, I visited every free art gallery in London and even took on painting myself, about 2 years ago! :)
When I saw pictures of Monet's gardens on the internet - the place he used as his inspiration for lots of paintings (lilies!!) I knew I would have to go there pretty soon. As I had never been to Paris at the time, the idea of visiting gardens was just perfect as it is just about an hour train journey from Paris! Even more so, there is a direct train from London to Paris. Perfect yet again. Not so perfect was the fact that unfortunately every time I'm off and it is during school holidays, the tickets prices soar, doubling or even tripling in prices. I do not even want to remember (and I don't think I do any more:) how much I paid for the tickets.
Anyway, once in Paris, me and my mum spent hours before boarding the train to Vernon. Long queues everywhere, to buy Metro tickets, and the tickets to the gardens, then waiting at least an hour for the train...A lot frustration and queuing...Once in Vernon, you still have to take the shuttle bus or small carriage train or a car (?) - forgot the name of it, to get to Giverny. We didn't know exactly what to take and as I did not see the bus straight away, we bought the tickets for that small vehicle where most people went as well. But this car went so slowly, took us around the tiny streets of the town which I found was only time-wasting and it was open so we could feel the chill (in April) and the fumes from the engine! Not a very nice experience.
But finally we arrived at our destination. The experience of strolling through the gardens, enjoying the sight of colourful flowers (I love flowers!) and little paths, sitting on Monet's bench, walking up the stairs to his villa, exploring the rooms in the house, feeling the history, was truly mesmerising. When we walked through the garden and still did not see a single lily, I thought to myself: 'Is that it? No lilies?' I thought that maybe they were not there any more. Fortunately, I asked the lady who worked there and she said that another garden was on the other side and as far as I remember you had to take a brief walk to go there. It was a bit separate from the villa and flowers. I told my mum that we had nearly missed the lilies! OMG, I would have been extremely gutted if we just had gone home and then I would have found out that the lilies were on the other side of the flower garden!! Lilies were beautiful... I still can't believe that I got to see everything and see that historic place. Simply amazing. And I have to say, it is a vast land that Monet had owned.
After the trip back to Paris, we took the metro to check-in to the hotel and in the late evening we went to see the Eiffel Tower which was another one of my dreams...:)
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