Saturday, October 8 2011
Tokyo, Japan
Sunny
Yep, writing this blog from Tokyo before I check out of the fabulous ANA Hotel in Akasaka across the street from my old stomping grounds. A blog on Tokyo to follow shortly I hope but still have to finish my blog on the long weekend in Paris which seems like a year ago!
Anyhow, another thing I wanted to do on this trip was to go to L'Orangerie and to Giverny. Despite the many times I've been to Paris, I've never had to chance to visit them both. L'Orangerie, of course, is famous for the 8 water lily murals by Claude Monet. The museum was personally chosen by Claude Monet to showcase his paintings. The water lily paintings known a Nympheas, are displayed in 2 Oval rooms under diffused light which Monet wanted. It is simply amazing. Photos do not do it justice and although the paintings have travelled, to see it how Monet wanted the public to see it is very special.
And since we went near closing time, we did not have the crazy crowds and could thoroughly enjoy the Nympheas.
Nympheas at L'Orangerie Museum
The next day we took the a day trip out to Giverny. To get there we went to the Gare St. Lazare and got tickets to Vernon. Thought we'd miss the train cuz the line was going SO slow, but it sped up in time for us to catch the train we wanted. Otherwise, we would have had to wait an hour for the next train.
Once we got off at Vernon, it was quite easy to find our way into town. Vernon itself is quite quaint and is an old Medieval town.
After asking for directions to La Seine, which took a bit cuz I was saying La Seine correctly, we found the path that will take us directly to Giverny where Monet's beautiful house with garden can be found. The path is easy to find and is across the Seine, just before a pharmacy. Signs are in English so you will have to be pretty bad at directions to miss it. (We chose to walk instead of take the bus so we could see the town). It was a lovely walk. But in hindsight, I would have rented bikes as the buses back are infrequent and unreliable. It's about a 5-6 kilometer walk to Monet's house.
The path dumps you on Rue Claude Monet which takes you to his house
Once we got to Monet's House, wow, what a magnificent garden. Unfortunately, for some reason, the city decided to build a road in the middle of his garden so the infamous lily pond with Japanese bridge has to be reached by going underneath the highway. Despite that, it was gorgeous! We also toured his house and although I knew he was fascinated with Japanese prints, I was shocked to see how many he had. We were very fortunate that it was a beautiful day. I was worried that no flowers would be in bloom, but wow, we saw the most spectacular dahlias.
View of Monet's house from the pond
Love, love the place. And I would go there again just to see it in bloom with flowers from other seasons. Definitely worth a trip from Paris.