We were lucky enough to have a quick trip to Giverny this week. C found out he still had seven days annual leave which he didn't know he was entitled to, and with the luxury of being able to take a day off midweek we were able to check the upcoming weather forecast and get super-cheap flights to Beauvais, from where it's only a little over an hour's drive. It was a wonderful sunny day, and we had a little mini-holiday. Since the option was a day-trip to Clare/Galway to look for more sloes which we don't really need, and blackberries which it's probably already too late for as it was an early season this year, I think we made a good choice.
Here are a very few of the photos - I have culled my two-hundred and fifty or so photos into an album with just seventy-two HERE if you would like to see some more.
This plant fascinated me. They look like something from a fairy garden. These open up onto a white flower, and then when the flower fades leaving a star-shaped seed head, it almost closes back up into a pod again. I think I took at least a dozen photos just of this one plant.
Mostly in the house - which was very crowded and consequently not photo-friendly.
We had been planning to get a later train back to Paris, but at this stage in the heat we felt we didn't want to walk around the town just for the sake of it, and the shuttle bus for the earlier train was due to leave in about twenty minutes so we went for it - and the next post will be a few photos from a very quick walk we took in Vernon before the train. If we had been planning to get the earlier train, I think we might have felt rushed, but because it was a spontaneous decision when we felt we'd seen enough of the garden, there was no pressure on us. It was beautiful to see Giverny again, but I hope that our next visit will be an autumn one.
We visited Giverny on the Friday of our trip to Paris. It wasn't our first choice of day, having just arrived on Thursday afternoon, but with a train strike scheduled for Monday, and thunderstorms for Sunday, we thought Friday was the best option. It was hot and sunny, as you can see. I'm breaking the photos down into three posts so that they aren't too picture-heavy.
The queues were much longer than on our last visit four years ago, but they were very proactive and ushered a lot of us in through the group entrance. Since that's just at the underpass to the water garden, we visited the water garden first.
For some reason, I was sure I had started my blog in May. But recently I looked back, and it was 22nd April 2009. So today is my blogiversary - who knew I'd still be going 8 years later.
Yesterday was my birthday - so I took a memory trip back to two years ago when we were in Giverny and I never got round to editing and sharing photos from that day. My sister and aunt got a slideshow of ALL the photos; the overload is why I never got to do anything about them.
Here's a quick pick. It was a lovely day - Easter was late, so the gardens opened to the public a little earlier than usual and we were able to go on our last day in Paris. It changed the whole feel of the trip from just a city break to a holiday, because we got the train to Giverny and then we were right out in the countryside. When we arrived, the gardens were full, because there was a big group from a cruise ship. We walked around the gardens once in the throng, then sat on a bench at the back of the water garden for about half an hour enjoying the peace (and a cuckoo calling in the distance), and then when we walked around the gardens again, they were practically empty.
Now I think I want to make a card with my dogwood die!
