Claude Monet’s House
Monday was dedicated to visiting Claude Monet’s house in Giverny. However, our bus did not leave until the afternoon. So, our first stop was Cloud Cakes.
Only one Métro stop away from our apartment, this became our favorite breakfast spot.
When I first read Tofu Scramble Pancakes on the menu I was skeptical. I decided to go for it anyway and ended up enjoying it so much, I ordered it again on Wednesday. Like my mother always asked, “How do you know you don’t like it if you haven’t even tried it?” Thanks for the nudge mom! ❤️
Amanda had their Cloud Breakfast, which came with a hot chocolate, freshly squeezed OJ, fresh baguettes served with butter and jam, and a croissant. I don’t know how they make their croissants, but they have perfected the art.
After breakfast, we visited the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann to see its famous dome. Along the way we found Will’s idea of Paris fashion.
The steel-frame art nouveau glass dome ringed by loggias (archways) makes this mall popular in movies and TV series (of course it was featured in Emily in Paris).
By accident, we took one too many escalators up, which was how we discovered the mall also has a terrace viewpoint we somehow had never heard about. The building behind us is the Palais Garnier, the Italian-style opera house. Enjoy this view, because the front was completely covered up while they do construction.
We think it was in London that I lost my Paris shirt. It just so happened that we were in Paris, so we were able to get a new one.
The Champ de Mars is the large park on the opposite (east) side of the Eiffel Tower, and this is where we took all our night photos during our last visit—the ones with all the massive rats! On this trip, we wanted to view it across the way from the Jardins du Trocadéro.
While you do have a nice elevated viewpoint, it looks pretty much the same from the west side. 😂
Our double-decker bus left right on time at 2:30 for the 1:15 ride to Giverny.
“I must have flowers, always, and always.” —Claude Monet
For thirty years, from 1895 until his death in 1926, Claude Monet (the most famous of the Impressionist painters), found his inspiration in the "water garden" of his Giverny estate in Normandy, in his famous water lily pond, and the white water lily.
Monet was always fascinated by the light interplays and cloud reflections on the water.
In 1893, he acquired land at the bottom of Clos Normand, on the other side of the train tracks, and diverted the Ru, a small branch of the River Epte. The pond created by this diversion would become the water garden that features on the picture rails of the world’s greatest museums.
Toward the end of April, the water lilies remained dormant at the bottom of the pond and will sprout again once the temperature of the water rises.
In S2:E4 "Love Is on the Run" of Emily in Paris, Emily joins Camille in a boat from the dock across the pond.
Monet planted water lilies at the bottom of the pond: “I love water but I also love flowers. That’s why, once the pond was filled, I thought about adorning it with plants. I got a catalogue and simply chose at random.”
The famous bridge in the distance.
Oh! The colors of spring!
“A flower blossoms for its own joy.” ―Oscar Wilde
Monet produced more than 250 paintings, over 40 of which were large format. Designed entirely by Monet, starting in 1893, the Japanese-style water garden on his Giverny estate was in itself a constantly evolving creation, changing in appearance according to the time of day and the season, and offering new perspectives to visitors as they move around.
Amanda standing on the bridge.
The artist's main themes are to be found here: his love of the infinite, the passage of time, the interplay of reflections on water.
“The earth laughs in flowers.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Monet family home.
“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine to the mind.” ―Luther Burbank
A portrait of Monet in the huge studio that he had specially built at the Giverny house.
Me in that same studio.
Looking out Claude and his wife’s 2nd floor bedroom window.
The lovely blue tiled kitchen also appears in the same Emily in Paris episode.
There may not have been any water lilies on the pond yet, but the front garden was bursting with gorgeous color.
This seems like as good a picture as any to end on. Amanda said Claude Monet’s house was the most beautiful place she has ever been. It’s hard to disagree.
