Monet’s Gardens at Giverny
October 10, 2007
It was one of those days when you wake up and just feel like going somewhere - get out of the city, trot down to the country, and breathe some nonpolluted air for a change. Where could I go, where could I go? Mont St. Michel? Too far. Vaux-le-Vicomte? Not in the mood for a chateau. My jaded caffeine-toxic brain needed to be revitalized (and not by loud discos in the Marais…so over that by the way). No, I needed some nature. You know, flowers, birds, trees and the like. And then the answer came to me. GIVERNY.
You hear so much about Monet’s famous gardens in Giverny. My mother has several embarrassingly large posters of his Nympheas framed in our den back in the U.S. I had a couple of his waterlilies (before I knew about art that actually moved me) adorning my bizarrely hybridized punk-rock-romantic teenage bedroom of a decade past. So even though I’m no longer a blind fanatic of Monet’s work, I figured it was high time I paid a visit to this magical place that inspired so many misguided wall hangings.
I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED!
Be patient, these pictures might take a while to load. I am bombarding you with a gigantic visual feast!
Giverny is a miniscule village with one main road and a handful of side paths that’s a stone’s throw from the slightly larger town of Vernon. The train ride there was truly blissful, despite being in the company of overly-excited elderly tourists. If you hang back long enough and wait for the initial rush of people to pass, you get to see the village in its unpertubed state of peaceful tranquility. There’s no one here, with the exception of a few shop-keepers who are almost too friendly, beckoning you toward their cafes to drink their overpriced coffee. Hmmm…I have my all-powerful thirst-quenching 0.39 cent Franprix bottle of water, thank you! I shall save my money for the also overpriced, slightly tacky and utterly useless souvenirs instead!
I thought that being this late in the season, there wouldn’t be much to see. Thankfully, I was wrong. I think everyone was really happy to be wrong, especially this spritely old English gentleman who stood at the entrance in his patch-tweed blazer and messenger cap quivering, “Good heavens! I thought it was going to be barren! But look! It’s overflowing with color! Sheer magnificence, I tell you!” Monet’s Garden WAS really really beautiful.
His house was made of crushed pink brick and covered with climbing ivy (more on the house later). The garden connected to the house is called the Clos Normand, which is considered the “flower garden.” Flowers of mixed varieties (from the everyday to the rare) tower imposingly along the narrow dirt paths. Here is a more comprehensive list of plants for those interested.
The central alley is covered over by iron arches on which climbing roses are supposed to grow (but there weren’t any when I was there). That massive patch of ground cover in the center is made up of nasturtiums, which to my untrained eye looked like monstrous clovers at first.
Monet didn’t like organized nor constrained gardens so even though the flowers are planted in squared-off plots and beds, they still grow rather freely and the effect is like an English cottage garden where many different flower species intermingle in a sort of beautiful chaos.
There are also lots of gorgeous fruit trees, like this glowing crab apple.
A bit farther from the house is Monet’s famous Japanese Water Garden where gigantic weeping willows bank a large pond filled with water lilies. It was just like in his paintings!
It wasn’t until ten years after Monet moved to this retreat that he began construction of his water garden. He bought the neighboring property and hired people to dig out a pond, much to the opposition of the locals who thought his strange foreign plants would poison the water. I got such a kick out of thinking about these French peasants hissing vehemently over exotic bamboos and Japanese maples.
Here is one of the two bridges that were featured in so many of his Nympheas paintings.
And now for the interior of the house. I love how simple and rustic it was, although I suppose this was probably considered rather fancy in its day. There’s a humbleness to the place. Replica paintings hung on the walls of the downstairs studio. There is a large black & white photo of the master himself standing admist the original paintings in the center of the room.
Japanese paintings adorned the rest of the house and were found everywhere from the bedrooms to the hallways. I don’t know if these are replicas though…I would assume they are.
I love this kitchen! The handpainted blue tiles and the copper cookware are gorgous.
I got in trouble for sneaking in this last photo of the kitchen. The very attentive guard dashed toward me in disapproval and waved me outside. I’m not sure why they wouldn’t allow photos inside the house…the artwork is not original and I can’t see how a flash (even though I didn’t use one) would damage the furniture…
Anyway, outside you can see how the little details such as the blue and white checked curtains and green shutters add so much to the overall look and feel of the house. There’s such an amazing amount of color everywhere you look and they all work so harmoniously well together.
Now we venture away from Monet’s House and Gardens and into the rest of the town. Here’s the small church where he (and the rest of his family) was buried. Again, the tomb was discreet and unassuming, resting quietly to the side of the church, almost completely overrun with plant-life.
And lastly, it would be a shame if I didn’t mention the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny, which also boasts of a small garden. Why a museum of American art you ask? Apparently there was a huge influx of American artists into Giverny around the later years of Monet’s life. They settled down near his house and also produced a substantial amount of Impressionist paintings.
This garden is much more organized and features a series “rooms” created by thuya and beech hedges. Each room is either thematic (aromatic planets, roses, etc) or monochromatic (pink, white, yellow, or blue). It wasn’t nearly as impressive as Monet’s Clos Normand but it did seem to attact a lot more wildlife as I saw tons of butterflies weaving in and out of its dense flower beds.
Anyway, Monet’s Gardens are open until the end of this month so if you get a chance, I really do recommend a visit. I was very pleasantly surprised by all I saw and was glad that I got out of the city for a day.
Practical Info:
Monet’s House & Gardens WEBSITE
Hours: 9:30am - 6pm Tues - Sun (closed Mon) from April 1st - October 31st Fees: 5.50€Getting to Giverny from Paris:
- Take a train to Vernon from the St. Lazare Train Station = 23€ roundtrip (45-90min depending on which train)
- take designated bus from Vernon to Giverny outside the Vernon Station (follow crowd) = 4€ roundtrip (5-10min)
- exit parking lot and follow crowd about 200m to Monet’s House & Gardens
- make sure to get train/bus schedule at the St. Lazare station so you know the return times
Categories ART | 8 Comments »
Weegee Exhibit at the Musée Maillol
October 3, 2007
I went to the Musée Maillol today to check out the Weegee photo exhibit. Arthur Fellig (”Weegee”) was a photographer/photojournalist who’s famous for his shockingly graphic black & white images of crime-ridden New York City in the 1930s-40s. He was always quick to be on the scene, sometimes just minutes after an traumatic event, and brought to light the city’s seedy underbelly of gangster shootings, tragic accidents, and sexual taboos.
My dilemma with this kind of gritty, sensational street photography is the issue of propriety and human dignity… on one hand, these up-front and personal “of the moment” photos bring awareness to the harshness of urban reality, revealing misfortunes and adversities that we want to ignore. It forces us to face the issue of our own mortality and its sometimes tragic unpredicability.
But then, on the other hand…capturing these victims at their most valunerable, when they cannot refuse to have their photo taken, and then to put these horrific images on display for the public to see…it just really strikes a bad cord with me. It just seems exploitative and underhanded. And Weegee really prided himself in these accomplishments, which makes me kind of uneasy. I mean, where is the line, you know?
I suppose in some sense, Weegee was more of a “tabloid” photographer than anything else, depending on scandals and good timing. There was this one particular image which I can’t find online (and I didn’t bother snapping a photo of it at the exhibit) where a woman is on the street, bleeding profusely and reaching out for help. Behind her stood a sailor who instead of paying attention to her, was smiling at the camera. It’s things like that that bother me.
Of course, not all of his photos are just based on these subjects! There are many others that were not about death and destruction.
For more info, check out the exhibit if you’re in town or Weegee’s book Naked City.
Address.
Musée Maillot (Weegee Exhibit ends Oct. 15)
61 rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris
métro: rue du Bac
Wed - Mon. 11am-6pm (closed Tues.)
Categories ART | 6 Comments »
Little People in a Big World
October 3, 2007
I find this Little People project to be just so cool. Little toy people interacting with the big real world. Check it out. Some are funny.
Kind of reminds me of The Borrowers. Do you remember that book? I loved it as a child.
Categories ART | No Comments »
I do not heart French bureaucracy
September 26, 2007
Meeting the French social security people makes me want to cry. Tears of despair. And hopelessness. I already have this irrational fear of dealing with financial personnel so you can imagine my horror when I had to attempt to brave the terror that is pinched-lipped bird-lady at the LMDE office.
Did you know that you had to keep the code sticker on your medication boxes? The actual stickers themselves?! You’re supposed to peel them off of your medication and paste it on your social security claim forms, even though the codes are already printed on there when the pharmacy fills out the forms for you! What is the logic behind this?! I ASK YOU, WHERE IS THE LOGIC!!!
So of course I won’t get reimbursed for most of my medications because I’ve long thrown out the boxes. But thankfully the prices for drugs here aren’t nearly as high as they are in the U.S. so it’s not that big of a deal. Still though, I wish someone had told me. SCREW OVER THE FOREIGNER, why don’t you? I expect nothing less.
Categories Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
What I’m Wearing Challenge
September 20, 2007
Okay, to be entirely honest, I was a bit horrified when I realized Alice has tagged me in one of those silly memes, this one being particularly embarrassing since it asks the character-defining question “what are you wearing right now?” which made me wince as I looked down at my blue “whale of a good time!” pajama pants dotted with massive smiling sperm whales.
So it’s 1:30pm and I’ve just woken up an hour ago and was sulking groggily around the apartment making coffee and looking for the jam for my toast. But I have good reason for sleeping in because I stayed up until 4am last night trying to put together a comprehensive lecture on the Zone System* for my photo students, which I’ve realized is so much more difficult to explain than I ever imagined. DIE, ZONE SYSTEM, DIE!!! :( *Not to be confused with the Zone Diet, which once upon a time I also tried and promptly discarded with the same chant.
Anyway, so if you want what I’m wearing NOW, it’s 1) a black long-sleve crewneck from Zara 2) a Cardigan sweater from American Eagle that my Mom sent me last week (I think the color is “oatmeal heather”); and 3) white pajama pants with blue whales on them. I’m all snug and warm (my studio is FREEZING) and that’s all that matters.
If you want to know what I am planning to eventually don on for the rest of the day, it will be 1) black turtleneck sweater found cheap in one of those dodgy street-side vendors (5€!!); 2) black trousers and 3) royal blue suede ballet flats from Repetto.
Now for a little FASHION REFLECTION: I wear black a lot. It’s not so much a fashion statement as it is just simple convenience. And it becomes much more of a challenge to seek out a variety of textures, cuts, and embellishments when the color stays the same. My brother always jokes that I have “20 of the same black shirt” which is so not true! They may be all black but they come in different shades of black, in different materials, different sleeve-lengths, different sizes, different everything!
I also like to wear a lot of grays, whites, and browns so I guess a great portion of my everyday wardrobe is very monochromatic. I’m with Alice on the “classic with a twist” style preference. Most of my clothes are simple and clean-cut. None of those frilly ruffles or pretty lacing. That doesn’t mean I don’t like the latter, it’s just that I know they won’t look good on me. And that’s really the key, isn’t it? Knowing what you can or can’t pull off.
I do, however, get my kicks in with ACCESSORIES. I LOVE bold and colorful accessories!! Enamel and red jade bracelets, turquoise stone necklaces, large antique rings, earrings made out of Venetian glass, vintage and wool scarves (I also own four Hèrmes scarves…but I hardly ever wear them in fear of damaging them), and quirky screenprinted handbags, etc etc etc. Most importantly, my accessories may not always be very valuable in price but they do carry a lot of sentimental significance as most are connected to a good backstory. It’s really nice to remember that “This was the pair of earrings I got in Morroco…after that monkey attack” or “This was the bracelet that a tribeswoman gave me in northern Namibia” and the like. After all, things are just things. It’s the memories and emotions attached to them that give them their value.
This post has gone on WAY longer than ever intended so I’ll stop here. I guess I’m supposed to tag other people but I hate being imposing so I’ll just leave that up to you. If you want to participate, leave a link to your entry about this topic in the comments section.
P.S. Sorry for posting an entry with NO PICTURES. Will you even read the entire thing when there are no pictures to entice you?
Categories FASHION | 3 Comments »