This was my last excursion for this week. Last night I reserved a train ride to Vernon (about 90 km outside of Paris). My first class ticket cost just 29 euro and the trip took just a little under an hour. I took an early metro ride to station Saint-Lazare, caught the train to Vernon at 08:20. The distance from Vernon to the Jardins de Monet in Giverny is about 4 km and as it was such a beautiful sunny day I decided to walk.
I was a little hesitant to go this late in the summer thinking the flowers may be beyond their prime. It is true that May through June is the peak but this time of the summer all the annuals and the famous Nymphéas (water lilies) are still worthwhile to see. Maybe a little at the end of their season but still beautiful.
Japanese Foot Bridge - the painting
the real Japanese foot bridge
A bit of background: Claude Monet (1840-1926) lived the last 30 years of his life in Giverny. Here he created a series of 250 oil paintings depicting his gardens. Most of them were painted while he suffered from cataracts. Some in the series are on display in the Musée Marmottan (Paris) and the Orangerie (Paris) houses a permanent collection of eight murals.
Nymphéas
The gardens were beautiful...it was like walking through one of Monet`s paintings......as always the pictures say it all....
PS I took a taxi back to the train station. My feet were thankful.
