On Sunday we visited Giverny, home of (Oscar) Claude Monet. We had seen a poster advertising a special impressionist exhibit at the Museum of the Impressionists and were not disappointed. The Clark Collection is from the Clark Institute in Massachusetts. These seriously rich folks dedicated their lives to collecting fine art and then established and endowed a museum to house their collection. The works here are the cream of their impressionist works. It was stunning and most paintings that we had never seen before. This would be worth seeing if you are going to Massachusetts!

After the museum we made the pilgrimage to Monet’s home, studio, and gardens. Being an August Sunday it was crowded, but nevertheless we enjoyed our visit. We didn’t go into the house this time as we had done it before and didn’t feel like seeing it again. His studio is now the gift shop. Just to stand in that huge open space and imagine what it would be like to paint in such a structure is mindboggling. He created the studio expressly so he could have a place to paint the large water lily canvasses. After strolling through the flower gardens, we followed an underground passage beneath the road to Monet’s ponds created more than a century ago. He diverted water from the nearby river and used small dams to create a series of ponds. He carefully stocked the ponds with water lilies, planted trees and flowering shrubs around them, and made himself a park in which to paint throughout the seasons. We spent at great deal of time photographing the ponds and plants.

To end the day we drove to Moulin des Forges, a place we had visited in 2003 for lunch. It’s a small mill turned restaurant that sits on the river at the edge of the village Forges. There is a small public park across the bridge from the mill, beautiful fields, hills, trees, and the mill with its wheel still turning in the current. We may go there for dinner sometime this week, but decided we probably won’t go there to paint.

That’s my post from our village Tabac (tobacco store and bar) that has wifi if you buy a drink. I’m sitting with my beer watching a thunder storm outside. We stayed home today and painted. More on that later. Here are some photos from yesterday.

Paul

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