All posts tagged: Monet’s Garden

A Pictorial Tour, part one!

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On our recent trip to Spain, Portugal and France we took an obscene number of photo’s which took forever to edit once we got home. After natural selection got rid of about 700 of them, we were left with about 1400 images of varying degrees of quality and/or interest. Here, in no particular order are a few of our favourites. La Boqueria market, Barcelona. The best thing about La Ramblas, a wonderful, diverse marketplace. Chateau Chenonceau, Loire Valley. The valley is full of Chateau’s and this is as stunning as they come. Amboise Chateau. Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial. A moving tribute to the brutality of war. Paris. Still the best city we have visited, could spend months here and not get bored. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao. Truly the best museum experience ever! L’Abbey Fontevraud, Loire Valley. Atmospheric, moody, haunting…and the best meal of our trip. Livrarian Lello & Irmao, Porto. How good is this bookshop? More tourist attraction than viable business…they should charge admission, just don’t tell them! Juno Beach, Normandy. B&W suits the somber …

Impressionable Tapestry!

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Yesterday was ‘rancho relaxo’, and other than a bit of driving, so is today! We are off to Bayeux, near the D-Day beaches, pretty much west of Chartres but to get there we first head north about 100kms…only a slight detour, to visit the most famous small garden in France, Monet’s Garden in the hamlet of Giverny. Claude Monet, one of the leading Impressionist artists of his era, lived most of his life in a little farm house surrounded by glorious gardens in a tiny little village, inspired by its beauty to present the world with masterpieces such as his water lilies paintings. This joint sure is popular, it was packed and only about 10.30 am! Another couple struggling through the throng told us it was the most crowded attraction they had encountered on their holiday, and that included Versailles! Which incidentally was why we chose to come here, our other choice was Versailles but the horror stories of ‘selfie-stick’ hoards put us off. It wasn’t too bad, just needed the tour groups to get …