La Seine a Giverny
At 9am I have more than an hour before my train leaves Paris for Vernon. So I kill some time wondering (sic) the streets and consequently manage to just miss my train. Now with another two hours to kill I go to a small supermarket to buy some food for lunch. The surrounding area is not very interesting. Most of the stores are closed. For some unknown reason the city has been largely deserted since I arrived two days ago.
I return to the train station and find an awkward place to sit on a slightly raised ledge outside the information office and I eat a small serve of sushi and a bread roll with chicken and salad. I save a mushroom quiche and two bananas for later. I add the leftover soy sauce from my sushi to the roll. The sauce runs chaotically over plastic bags threatening my clothes and sundry. I save my valuables and get rid of the mess in a near by bin and sit and read and wait and sit until it is time to catch my train.
The train is clean and modern and the second class seats are comfortable and the fine I have to pay for not having validated my ticket is only 10 euro.
At Vernon it takes 10 minutes for the bus to fill up and then we are off to Giverny, the home of Claude Monet. I arrive and stand in line half an hour for my tickets. Of all the various types of waiting one can do, waiting in line is one of the most tedious.
It has been a bad start to the day and it is 2pm before I finally step inside the gate and breathe a deep sigh of relief, let the stress fade away and enjoy my surroundings. At first sight Monet's garden is simply a large garden of beautiful flowers and such gardens are delightful but not especially rare. But the flowers are beautiful, the day is sunny and its not long before I am aware of the added enchantment that comes from realising that they are not just flowers, they are
Monet's flowers and there is something familiar about the garden and this is even more apparent when I make my way to the small streams and large ponds with water lilies, a small foot bridge and two small row boats nestled by the bank.
I head back to the garden of flowers but then I change my mind, return to the pond and find a seat facing the two boats and I sit and eat my quiche, enjoying the view and the sunshine.
His two story house is also lovely to wander through and I am astounded and delighted when I find that his dining room is painted almost the exact same yellow as my kitchen at home and Monet's adjoining kitchen is almost the same blue as my adjoining laundry.
I wonder if he painted it himself or if he personally chose the colours.
After the house and gardens I visit an art gallery of impressionists. There is probably fewer than 150 pieces in the gallery. But for me the highlight is about 20 Renoir paintings. A teenage girl looks at a Degas painting of ballerinas exercising and I wonder what she thinks of it.
I visit a small church and light a candle for loved ones. Monet's grave is behind the church.
There is still some time so I wander up a small walking trail. There are some blackberries by the path and I pick a handful and stuff them into my mouth. Some are sweet and some are tart and all are delicious. There also many blueberries and I try one but it is acrid and I spit it out. Either it isn't ripe or it isn't a blueberry. Up the hill there are fields of wild-flowers and wonderful pastoral views overlooking Giverny and Veron. The Seine glistens in the distance.
I return to Giverny, the bus, Vernon and Paris. I am in a good mood so I decide to go to the Eiffel Tower and ascend to the very top. It is just past 8pm and the sun is descending so perhaps I can be there for sunset. But when I get there there are enormous lines and it puts me off.
Instead I take a river cruise for an hour along the Seine. When the cruise finishes it is dark and the Eiffel Tower is lit up. On the hour there is a light show and the tower sparkles as white lights flash on and off over the entire tower.
It has been a good day.
