Monets garden!

Hello all,
I must show you one of the highlights of my trip to Paris!
My artist friend and I took a day trip to Giverny, where Monet had lived
and painted his famous water lily paintings.

The drive to Giverny was soooo wonderful!
The trees were all starting to turn colors, so it was amazing and then add in the quaint picturesque villages and the Seine river winding it's way around each corner, I'm telling you it was almost more then our artists brains could take!! lol
And we hadn't even arrived at Monet's garden yet!

The interior of the house is so darling, and we could just imagine Monet and his family living their days there.
No photography is allowed in the house but we were able to take a photo out through the window looking out to the garden.

The gardens are immense, there is the first section with all the wonderful blooming flowers and then there is a separate area that overlooks all the lily ponds and the bridges. One of my favorite spots was the nasturtium garden, it was such a vivid green and looked like a page out of a fairy tale!
At one point we got out our sketch pads and sat on a near by wooden bench that overlooked the famous green bridge. It was actually kind of surreal to be sitting there, in Monets garden sketching!
A couple of tourist groups walked by and gave us looks of approval on our renditions of the scene, so that was pretty amazing!

After our garden and pond adventure, we meandered up the cobblestone street and there was this stone wall with gorgeous red leaves emerging from the cracks that totally took our breath away, so more photos!

Our last stop was at the end of the street (where our driver was awaiting our return).
We climbed the stone steps up to an old church that was in the midst of renovation and sat down and brought out our sketch books again to do a quick rendering of an old white iron gate and wall.

We really didn't want to leave this wonderful little bit of paradise, but Paris was awaiting our return, so we found our way to our hostess tour guide and with joy in our hearts and minds we waved goodbye to the little town of Giverny.

It was an experience I will never forget and will become even more special to me now whenever I gaze upon a Monet painting.

Hope you enjoyed a little bit of my adventure too.
Talk to you all soon,
deborah