La Série Française: Giverny

Bonjour Tout le monde! 

        I have finally arrived home safety in the United States after my 9 week excursion to Europe, and after a week of re-adjusting I am finally ready to share my adventures with you! First of all, I went to Europe as part of a study abroad program with Chez Vous Summer! where I spent 6 weeks in France. Most of it on a small beach town called Merville-Franceville Plage on the coast of Basse-Normandie. The last 4 days of my study abroad program was spent in Paris, where my mother flew in and we continued on adventuring. During my stay at Chez Vous, I, of course, practiced and worked on my French and I also went on several excursion trips between all my classes. Today I am sharing with you my personal favorite, and our very first excursion. 

Merville-Franceville Plage.
30 Minutes from Caen. 2.5 hours from Paris

Flying to France

       

      I've never flown alone internationally before, so I was quite nervous on the flights. On my first flight, I sat next this insufferably noisy snoring man, thank goodness the flight was only 2 hours. On my flight to Detroit to Paris I sat next to a relatively calmer man, we had a few pleasant conversations which was nice. When I arrived in Paris at the Charles de Gaulle airport I was met by our professor for the program, Dr. Gray (who was also my French professor at my College) and Pia, whom was part of the Chez Vous staff. I was quite thrilled to see a friendly face after a long flight.

Odd Coincidence
Charlize Theron apparently landed and walked through the entrance gates,
 just MINUTES before I did. I just missed her. 

       
       Shortly afterwards, I met the rest of the students in my class. There were four of us. Myself, Bethany from Missouri, Tyler from California, and Jake/Jacque/Josh (as we came to call him) from New York. We hauled all our luggage in the van and promptly left Paris. I was alert for parts of our drive out of Paris, but I slowly fell asleep due to exhaustion/jet lag/etc. When I woke up, we were in Giverny. 

Giverny

Monet's House in Giverny


The line was a little long getting in, but when you step out from the ticket entrance you are surrounded by gardens. 

At first the line to go into the house was a bit long, so I decided to first spend my time exploring the gardens. Even for a cloudy day in early May, the flowers were blooming and simply gorgeous. I've never seen to many kinds of flowers in a single place. After exploring the gardens in front of the house, you had to take an underground tunnel going under the street to the water gardens across the street. 

It was simply breath-taking. As an art-student I could see why Monet chose to settle down in a place like this. The serenity and the sheer amount of colors inspired me as well. Made me regret not bringing anything to draw or paint with. 

After seeing the gardens I went into Monet's house. There were no photos allowed so I just gazed at Monet's paintings, and MASSIVE collection of japanese prints. I simply adore Non-Western Art and it made me squee with joy. 

Le Maquillage - UTAMARO Kitagawa (1753-1806)
My personal favorite print from inside of Monet's House

Anyways, until our next adventure!