Giverny

Giverny would have been an obscure place of little tourist interest if not for Monet, the impressionist painter who lived and painted many of his canvases here. It was a dream came true for me when I finally got to visit this small quiet town. Getting there wasn't as difficult as it seemed. Monet's house in Giverny is only open in the spring and summer months and for the rest of the year, they are closed. So what better time to visit than now. So here we are, posing right in front of Monet's doorstep. Pictures are not allowed in the house. His furnishing and the paintings that decorate his walls (besides his own) were very much Japanese. He seemed to have this fetish for all things Japanese.

When you step into his house, one can sense that Monet is someone who leads a very simple life. His house is not fanciful but contains enough amenities for one to live comfortably. Another feature of the visit are Monet's gardens where Monet got most of his inspiration from. And therefore it is no surprise that we spent most of our visiting time outdoor. Quite apparent from the pictures, Monet's gardens are properly preened and extremely well taken care of till this day. There is a huge variety of flowers and it makes one happy even to look at it.

From his house, we have to take an underpass to reach the other side of the road where the water lily ponds and the Japanese garden are found. Once there, I feel as if I am part of the paintings Monet painted. It seemed so surreal. If not for the hoards of tourists and school group, I may have thought that I was in a dream.

And lucky us managed to find a good spot where we can take out our palette and acrylic paint out to start painting the garden. Many stopped by and complimented our paintings. To us, the products were not fantastic nor professional enough; it was more the atmosphere and the whole experience that makes what we were doing look so pleasurable to us and to others. Time seems to fly past when you are so focused and absorbed in a task. It took us nearly 1.5 hours to complete our paintings! And by the time we finished, we nearly froze to death!

After Monet's house and garden, we took a walk around Giverny. And like Monet's gardens, there were lots of pretty flowers everywhere and all the tourists (including yours truly) went gaga over them. It seems too good to be true!

After walking for more than half a day, we decided to rest our feet and relax our minds over a late lunch. The salad and magret de canard were great and in my opinion, was one of the best meals we had in the entire trip. Or perhaps I was really hungry.

Often times in Singapore, we are too busy and too practical to do things we did in Giverny. This trip to Giverny not only help cross out one item in my bucket list, it also gives me time to smell the flowers, a luxury hard to come by in the rat race we are in...