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Paris Chelsea Tour 2013
Trip Recap May 15th – May 24th, 2013
May 17 th Day of Leisure
Everyone had things to do today…a day of discovery!
May 18th
After seeing the water lilies at the Musee de L'Orangerie we were ready
to see Fondation Claude Monet, his home and gardens. We drove into the
beautiful countryside and reached our destination in plenty of time to see
not only the gardens but his house too. A visit to the Studio which is now a
huge giftshop for that special memento is a must before strolling through
the village of Giverny, a wonderful walk with lots of shops and gardens
along the way to the Hotel Baudy where we met for lunch. A walk down to the
end of the street to see where Monet is buried, passing by the Musee des
impressionnismes Giverny and its wonderful pocket gardens. Then we make our
way back to Paris.
I don’t know how many times you have seen Giverny but I can never get enough
of this magical village, its history and of course the most wonderful, soul
inspiring garden of Claude Monet.
‘If, I can someday see M. Claude Monet's garden, I feel sure that I shall
see something that is not so much a garden of flowers as of colours and
tones, less an old-fashioned flower garden than a colour garden, so to
speak, one that achieves an effect not entirely nature's, because it was
planted so that only the flowers with matching colours will bloom at the
same time, harmonized in an infinite stretch of blue or pink."
The house, with its pink roughcast façade, where the leader of the
Impressionist School lived from 1883 to 1926, once again has the colourful
decor and intimate charm of former times. The precious collection of
Japanese engravings is displayed in several rooms, as the master of Giverny
himself had chosen to. The huge Nympheas studio, a stone's throw from the
house, has also been restored. It houses the Foundation's Shop. The gardens
have been replanted as they once were and offer for the admiration of
visitors the "painting from nature" which Claude Monet's contemporaries
considered one of his masterpieces. The rectangular Clos Normand, with
archways of climbing plants
entwined around brilliantly coloured shrubs, lies varying colours of the
painter-gardener who was "ecstatic about flowers".
Lastly, the Water Garden, formed by a tributary of the Epte, lies further
away, shaded by weeping willows. With its famous Japanese Bridge, its
wisterias, azaleas and its pond, it has once more become that setting of sky
and water which inspired the pictorial universe of the water lilies.
Our lunch was at Hotel Baudy….the history continues. The former Hotel Baudy
housed the first painters - mainly Americans - who came to work in Giverny.
The garden presents a collection of ancient perfumed rose bushes planted in
the shade of trees along the slope of the hill. The hotel has kept the
decoration of the dining room where the residents used to meet, and also the
studio where they liked to work. When Claude Monet came to Giverny, the
hotel Baudy didn't exist as such. The small "epicerie - buvette" owned by
Angelina and Gaston Baudy offered nothing but a simple meal. There were no
rooms available to welcome travelers - in any case, who would want to sleep
in this little village? In the spring of 1886, all this changed. The
American painter William Metcalf arrived at Vernon station and came to
Giverny by way of a little train that, at the time, passed through all the
villages from Vernon to Gisors. The Norman countryside offered the young
artist a magnificent spectacle of blossoming apple orchards and rolling
hills. Metcalf regretted that he had left his paints behind....
Once back in Paris we then visited the Jardin du plantes, the main botanical
garden of Paris. Founded in 1626, Jardin des Plantes was first established
as a royal garden of medicinal plants and wasn't open to the general public
until 1650. It was designed and planted by Guy de La Brosse, the physician
of Louis XIII.
Covering about 28 hectares, and located on the Left Bank of the River Seine,
the Jardin itself boasts tropical hothouses that are home to a variety of
unusual plants, native mostly to Mexico and Australia. There's also an
Alpine garden, a magnificent rose garden, and an Art Deco-style winter
garden which in itself is a stunning glasshouse. They maintain a botanical
school, create demonstration gardens and even exchange seeds with other
botanical gardens. You will also see here some very old and majestic trees.
NOTE – I used a very professional and great step on guide this day from
Discover Walks. Alexandre is one of the owners and very helpful to all of us
… if you need the services of a guide while in Paris
www.discoverwalks.com
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