Day 70 - Friday 12 July - Giverny

 Friday 12 July

While we were waiting for our bus from Gare du Nord at 9:16 to go cross country, I spotted this guy getting off one on his way to work.  I chased him up the street a bit to get the photo.
 

We joined a queue to get our country rail ticket.  They wanted passports (no - then write your name and DOB) and double checked everything as we went along.  The train went from St Lazare 10:17, and crossed the Seine 3 times.  We had only been able to get single tickets, so I jumped in and got our returns as soon as we arrived at  Vernon - no questions asked - here's one ticket for 2.  We had a choice of little train or bus from Vernon at 11:15, so we bused to the village of Giverny where Claude Monet, the impressionist painter, lived from 1883 till he died in 1926.

We first joined a long queue to buy tickets, then went in to see his house.

 

Lots of his work, and also paintings that he had collected. Lots of tourists, especially annoying were the ones who stood in the middle of an important view - eg on the verandah of his house, on the arched bridge - and just stood, for 5 minutes doing nothing.  Made us try to think of a collective noun for Asian tourists. 

 

Then we walked through the flower garden,

 and into the much nicer water garden where the famous bridge and water lilies are, very peaceful.

By then it was lunch time, and after that we went to the 'musee des impressionnismes Giverny', where they have more of his work, and at the moment at large number of paintings by Jean Francis Auburtin, who was 25yrs younger than Monet, and followed the same style.
 

There was still time for a walk to the village church, then the whole transport saga in reverse, with no inspections,  brought us home again. And I think that today was the first in about 6 weeks that I haven't raced in and stripped off, even if it's only been shoes. The north is cooler than the south. Hope it stays this way.