 |
| What if you could walk and talk with one famous artist? Who would that artist be? Well, for me, for the longest time, it has been Claude Monet. I say "has been" because at the end of May, 2000, I came as close as I ever will to walking and talking with Monet himself. Let me share with you some of the moments I experienced as I walked and talked in the gardens that Monet created himself.
Click on the smaller images to view the larger versions: |
    |
|
On the very first day, I fell in love with the French countryside. Each time the van turned on to a new road and took my mother and me closer to Giverny and away from the airport, I found myself wrapped in the same feelings of awe that Monet himself must have felt as he traveled on the train from Vernon to Gasny. Reading in my books, I learned that Monet, upon seeing the town of Giverny out the window of his train exclaimed, "I am enchanted. Giverny is a splendid place for me." This is the same way I felt looking at all the towns we were passing. How on earth could you choose just one place to live? All of the towns are just so special. I just wanted to yell to the top of my lungs, "Let me out, this must be it...it is so beautiful."
|
|
    |
|
|
But then we arrived in the small town of Giverny and the hotel where I would stay for 8 days. What a wonderful treat to be able to stay right down the street from where Monet lived. And what an awesome task to paint the same sights that Monet saw, and paint in the same paths where Monet painted.
|
|
    |
|
|
After settling in the hotel, mother and I made our way up the street taking pictures at every opportunity.
|
|
    |
|
|
||||
