Giverny Day

Today we visited Giverny where Monet had his house and beautiful garden. This includes the famous lily pond that he immortalised in his paintings. The day promised to be very hot, but we set off early with plenty of water in the car, and cameras with all accessories polished and ready for use.
The journey was about an hour and a half, and we drove through some lovely rolling French landscapes into Normandy where the village is situated. We were not a moment too soon as the queue to enter the estate was fairly long - or so we thought. Nevertheless, we soon bought our tickets and walked through the shop, that was once the studio where Monet painted his largest canvasses, out into the garden.
At this time of year the flower beds are a riot of colour with dahlias and sunflowers vying to be queen of flamboyance. Banks of impatiens in red and white resembled huge mounds of strawberries and cream, and delicate bell flowers wafted in a tiny breath of air. Despite the many visitors we had plenty of time for photographs and to appreciate the sheer exuberance of the planting.
Our path took us to the under road passage to the Japanese water garden. Here it was cool under the tall trees, and we followed a path around the periphery of this area, getting tantalising glimpses of the water. At last we were led round to the bridge at one end of the lily pond, although it is more like a small lake, and there in front of us the lilies pushed their lovely flowers up above the sea of lily pads floating on the water.
After we had taken many photos we made our way back to the tunnel and the main garden, strolling up the avenues of flowers towards the house. Here we went in and saw where Monet lived. We were surprised and delighted to see his collection of Japanese prints. These treasures are hand-printed from wood blocks and represent the life of the "floating world" of geishas, Kabuki actors and pleasure houses of the 18th and 19th century in Tokyo that was known as Edo at that time. The collection includes works by Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai and Kitagawa Utamaro.There are also battle scenes; pictures of Westerners; and sketches of animals and the ordinary people of Japan. All are said to have influenced his work and the movement he was part of, The Impressionists.
By now, the men were getting hungry, so we bought our postcards and left Monet's house and garden to find a suitable hostelry. The queue had grown enormously while we had been inside, so we were lucky to have arrived when we did. We found a cafe with a terrace covered with sun brollies and ordered tartines and refreshing drinks before driving back to Margency.

In the evening we had a treat in store - a meal of galettes bretonnes (special buckwheat pancakes filled with ham, egg and a little cheese) and crepes bretonnes (dessert crepes served with sugar or in our case, Nutella) accompanied with Breton cider. What culinary delights around the family table!
Recipe for galettes bretonnes