SATURDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER - PARIS

Thanks to the recommendations of Chris Hammond we had a wonderful day tour of Monet’s garden, lunch at Gourges and an afternoon at the Versailles Palace.
Afraid of being late we left the studio at 7a.m, not realising that even on Saturdays the trains run really often. We were over an hour early so after picking up our tickets wandered around the gardens of the Louvre (opposite the ticket office). I was in a silly mood this morning...probably from getting out of bed too early and I took these photos of statues. Maybe you'd like to caption them like I have.


Henry remembering he'd forgotten his undies!




....and his deodorant.......

No mowing needed here.....

We joined a bus tour which was almost full -- but very low key.
About 50 kms west of Paris was the amazing garden of Monet, his house and Japanese inspired garden area have been beautifully restored and maintained. The Dahlias were particularly lovely and reminded me of the ones my grandfather used to grow.

 

Much of his work (including his famous water lily shots were painted here) The biggest problem all day was trying to not get your photos bombed by other people whose photos you were bombing!!!
All morning you kept seeing more beautiful things to photograph.





                

 

For lunch we stopped at this beautiful restaurant and the ambience here was amazing.

 

                        
First course of set menu

On then to Versailles. I didn’t know what to expect exactly as I’d done no real research on the place. The over the top opulence was mind-blowing (although most of the room’s furnishings were replacements of the originals). The paintings and especially those on the ceiling are superb. The restorations are continuing and are very impressive.  Here too the gardens are lovely, but after this morning we didn’t wander in them for too long.

 

 

Originally a horse stables for 2000 horses!

The countryside on our tour was typical of what we saw from the train, very green considering it has been summer. Many small villages and farmhouses whizzed by.

 

 We returned to the tour office through Paris, a walk to the market for bread and cheese and then the metro back…….. 7.15 return. A long day but one I’ll long remember.