Versailles & Giverny

Forced to get up early as tour picked us up at 8.45am!  Oh no!

Church in Versailles

Went in a little mini-bus with 3 other tourists (a young guy from South Africa, and 2 middle-aged women from USA) to Versailles & Giverny.

One of the American women was the stereotypical bad US tourist: loud, large, and an organised tour addict.  Say no more!

Versailles was the summer palace of the French kings and was where Marie Antoinette lived for a while.  "Let them eat cake," which is a saying she's famous for but never actually said ... but if she had, she would have been the perfect girl for Jeff (see yesterday's blog)!

The palace is so incredibly lavish and over the top, it's hard to exaggerate just how extravagant the whole place is: gold leaf fences out the front, paintings on every wall & ceiling of every room, gold leaf covering massive ceiling decorative artworks, carvings and artworks throughout the whole palace, and beautifully manicured gardens (including canals) that are about the size of Kings Park!

Inside Versailles Church

After roaming around Versailles for 2-3 hours, we went off to Giverny which is what we were more interested in.

Giverny is where Monet lived, painted and built his gardens including the pond where he painted his famous waterlilies.

Along the road to Giverny, there are lots of houses that have dug themselves into the mountain (since a lot of quarry stone was dug from here to build palaces and buildings in Paris).  Funny to see a garage that goes into the side of a cliff!

The countryside is so green and the little villages are so quaint ... all very pretty!

Just outside Giverny, we stopped for lunch at a beautiful little place with a waterwheel, next to a stream, meadow and forest.   So beautiful!

Paintings on the Ceiling

Giverny was also very beautiful & Monet's gardens were amazing!  No point describing them - just look at the photos!  We can see why Monet wanted to live here!

On the way back, we all fell asleep.

Came back and did a very exciting thing: our washing!  Then had yummy Italian for dinner!

Paintings on the Ceiling

Tending the Gardens

Hall of Mirrors

and 10m tourists

... a few less

Versailles Palace across the Pond

The Grounds go on forever

Such beautifully manicured gardens

Where SS were stationed during the war

What a place for Lunch!

Monet's Bridge

In the gardens

Gardens

Flowers

Where Monet sat & painted

Waterlillies

Reflections

Tulips

Waterlillies

Colours

Parked on a park bench

Garden vista

Flowers

View from Monet's Bedroom

Getting Inspiration

Monet's House

Getting Inspiration