Our next day started out with an early morning visit to Giverny - the village where the house and gardens of the famous impressionist artist Claude Monet are located.
Passing some fields on the drive to Giverny
Arriving in Giverny
Walking to the entrance of Monet's gardens
We started out our guided tour at the water lily pond. Monet was inspired by Japanese art prints and gardens, and used some of this influence in his own garden. He included a Japanese-style bridge over his water lily pond, but wanted it to be green instead of the traditional red.
I loved the amazing wisteria growing on the bridge
The views while walking around the pond
There is another smaller green bridge on the opposite side of the pond
Water striders in the pond
The gardens are an amazing place for bees!
Next, we headed to the gardens that are next to the house
One of the paths through the gardens
A photo of Monet in his garden
The dahlias in the garden were gorgeous
Monet's house is very colorful - bright pink, with green shutters and railings
A photo of Claude Monet in this studio
There are many Japanese art prints hanging throughout the house
The blue salon
Monet's bedroom
The view out the bedroom window overlooking the gardens
Some of the other rooms in the house
The yellow dining room
The blue and white kitchen
Admiring the lovely exterior
There was also a yard with some very round chickens in it
Some ivy covered windows by the gift shop
The building that is now the gift shop was formerly Monet's water lily studio where he was able to paint his very large paintings. The shop has many photographs displayed of Monet - at his gardens, and working on his paintings
We had some free time to spend on our own, and we decided to go back to the water lily pond to see if the water lily blossoms had opened up more since it had warmed up a bit since we had first arrived
The lilies were beautiful!
We were impressed by how large these leaves were! (giant butterbur)
The kids taking some photos
After our second visit to the lily pond, we headed down the road to the museum
The Giverny Museum of Impressionism
We spent most of our time here looking at the current exhibit - water lily paintings done by Japanese artist Hiramatsu Reiji
Many of the paintings were done on large folding screens
Different seasons were represented - this one has cherry blossom petals floating in the water
One with autumn leaves
Pictures of the artist, his studio, and his paints
Winter
We met back up with the rest of our group in the garden outside of the museum, and then headed back to the riverboat
Boarding the boat so we could head for Les Andelys
Doing the daily coloring, hehe
Sailing by some cool stuff
They had a delicious buffet set up for lunch
Beautiful view out the window
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