We’re Back

We are back from a 2 week vacation to France. We were on a river boat that plied the Seine from Honfleur (on the Atlantic) to Paris. It was some trip. Over the next few days, I’ll post pictures of the area. Since I took about 3000 pictures, there’s a lot to plow through, so I’ll start with the easy ones.

About midway through the trip we visited the gardens of Claude Monet. Considering they are relatively small (I would say less than 2 acres) they are filled with colorful flowers, a meandering stream, great droopy willows, and wonderful bridges. The gardens are a photographers delight! Take a few minutes and enjoy some of the flowers and scenery.

After seeing these gardens, I knew how impressionism started. I also knew why he painted water lilies so many times. They are absolutely stunning.

The famous bridge...the hard part was finding a time when there were not a zillion people on it!

More water lilies..this time with a person in a boat. His job was to keep the pond clean.

It’s the perfect place to just sit down and “smell the roses”...problem is there are not many roses...just lots of other flowers.

On the perimeter of the garden is a narrow stream.

Then there are the flowers. I took 260 pictures in these gardens alone...so this is a small sample of what is there. Honest...I did take time to look at the pretty around me too.

Even the bees think the flowers are cool.

Sometimes a perfect flower has a little imperfection.

Morning dew?

I have no idea what this flower is, but this gaudy bloom sure attracted my attention.

I saved the best for last. This beautiful waxy orange bloom is just about perfect! I have a bunch more pictures of the garden...I might post them another day. If you have the opportunity to visit Giverny, take in the Monet Gardens as they are truly inspiring.

Now, I’m going to process some more pictures...so watch this space.