Giverny

Sunday morning started off beautiful, so we decided to visit Giverny that afternoon. But first we ran some errands, visted the market and such, and when we were finally ready to leave it was 2:30 and partly cloudy. By the time we'd reached Giverny, which is about an hour from Paris, it was raining. And of course, I hadn't brought the umbrella. Anyway, we had come that far so we decided to stick it out.

Giverny would be just another small French village if Claude Monet hadn't moved in during the late 1800's. Now his property, house and gardens, are open to the public. We walked through the house, which wasn't all that interesting, and back out into the rain through the front garden, the Clos Normand.

Honestly, the Clos Normand wasn't that interesting either, but our opinions could have been dampened (literally) by the rain. So we crossed the road to the water lily garden, which we both enjoyed much more. The weather actually allowed for some pretty decent lighting, and David took some beautiful photos.
As usual, you'll find them all on Flickr.

One of my favorite things about France is how it reminds me of impressionist paintings. For example, I'll be driving down the road to work, looking out the window, (not keeping my eyes on the road), and suddenly realize, "I saw that in a Van Gogh once!" Which is entirely possible, I think Van Gogh's house is not far from Meru.

Anyway, the Japanese bridge and water lily pond were amazing to me because they were just like the paintings. Dave said "Well I could be great artist too, if I had this in my backyard".

On the way home we were trapped in inbound Paris traffic for three hours. Hence, we were reminded why we don't take day trips on Sundays anymore.