Day 9 - Monet and Van Gogh; 10,400 Steps

I got up at 6:30 this morning to be ready to be picked up by Paris City Vision tour company.  I decided to take a tour to Giverny and Auvers-sur-Oise mainly so I could do both in one day, though since I have been to Giverny twice before, it wasn't high on my priority list.  I just didn't feel up to taking the train to Auvers-sur-Oise at it would involve a transfer, and more complicated than the Metro.

This was to be a small group tour (8 max) in a van, and I lucked out: first with an excellent driver/guide who was very patient with me; and second, there were only three of us in our group!  My companions were a young woman from Tokyo and another from Bombay.  We were a very international group, and by lunch time, we felt more like three friends spending the day together than like a tour group.  The woman from Bombay speaks excellent English and she should as I learned that English is her only language. The woman from Tokyo speaks some English, but was more difficult to converse with.  She studied French in school and learned some English when she was in the US for several months.

Our first stop was Giverny.  Our guide took us through the group entrance and helped us get through the big groups gathered there, then left us on our own for about 90 minutes.  This was my third visit to Giverny and it has always been one of my favorite places, but today it was so crowded.  The river cruise boats, ie., Viking, all stop here, plus the big tour buses from Paris.  There must have been 6 or more large tour groups.  We got there about 9:30, and still didn't beat the crowds. The line to go into Monet's house was so long that I didn't even try to go in because I knew it would be cramped inside.  My biggest challenge was to take a picture without 100 other tourists in it.  When Mom and I first visited Giverny in 1994, I don't think there were more than 50 other people there.  It wasn't this crowded even in 2010.  I am so glad we visited when we did.  If this had been my first visit, I would have been very disappointed.

Of course, it is September, so many of the flowers are past their peak, and it rained last night, so the flowers looked a little drippy.  But, the lily pond, which is my favorite spot, was beautiful - despite all the people crowded onto the little bridges.

After visiting the garden, we made a short visit to the Impressionist Museum down the road.  Originally, it was a museum dedicated to American Impressionists who either studied with Monet or were inspired by him.  That is what it was when we were there in 1994, and it was one of our favorite museums - not just because they have some of the best "toilettes" in France.  Now, though, it is simply the Museum of Impressionists and they display the work of one artist, changing the exhibit a couple of times a year.  The featured artist right now is Henri Manguin.  His work seems to borrow heavily from Monet and Gauguin, and others - as though he couldn't decide on his own style.

We had lunch at a charming place, Le Moulin de Fourges, which has an old water wheel.  The restaurant in the building with the water wheel caters to individuals, but  the pavilion where we were caters to tour groups.  Again, I was glad we were a group of just three.  I made the comment that I could tell that the people there were not French because it was so noisy!  If the room had been full of French, the noise level would have been considerably lower.  However, the food was actually pretty good.  The starter was a fish tureen - tuna, I think - with lettuce and tomato.  It was good, but a little fishier than I prefer.  The main plate was a chicken breast with a mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes - also good.  And, for dessert, an apple tart with a very small scoop of really delicious vanilla ice cream.

Our next stop was Auvers-sur-Oise, which is a small town north of Paris where Van Gogh spent the last two months of his life.  We visited the house where he rented a room; unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures.  The room is very small and the only thing in it now is a chair, but there had been a bed and dresser when he lived there.  The only window was a skylight.  There were three other artists living in the house at the same time.  We walked up the hill to the church and were surprised that there was a choir and small orchestra practicing for a concert later today.  I got a copy of the program, which includes Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Strauss, among others.  We then went up to the cemetery to see the graves of Vincent and his brother Theo, who died just six months later.  While officially Van Gogh's death was ruled a suicide, there is still some question about the circumstances.

It was a long day riding in the van, but it was nice to get out in the countryside, seeing small towns and villages, grazing cows, and fields of crops.  It started to rain as we got closer to Paris, but most of the day was partly cloudy and chilly.  It was after six when I got back to the apartment.