le 11 et le 12 juillet: Giverny & Auvers-sur-Oise

I am going to put pictures from this weekend in their own post, so check back :)

GIVERNY
So early Saturday morning, and I mean early, we got up and went out to the Gare St Lazare to go to Giverny. We had a little ticket fiasco so the morning was a bit hectic. We had bought the tickets online and then you can go to little machines at the station to pick them up. First of all, we couldn't find the right machine. There are ticket machines everywhere but we couldn't find the ones that we needed and we didn't even really know what we were looking for.

We finally found like the one yellow ticket machine in the entire station. Lol, ok there are more than one but there are comparatively few yellow machines than any other kind of ticket machine that I can't even tell you what they do only to find out our debit cards don't work with them. So we go back to the information desk to get the whole thing sorted out. But we didn't have our confirmation number. Brittany had ordered everything online and had our confirmation numbers but she forgot them at home, sweet girl and so she bought us all new tickets. I am going to try and get her something special to pay her back because I feel like it wasn't entirely her fault but she was so sweet to buy us all new tickets so we could catch the train, especially because I know she is on a tight budget like me.

We got of the train in Vernon. The ride was very pretty. Everything is green and the little houses are picturesque. I should have taken some pictures of the ride over there. We had planned on renting some bikes once we got there but it was kind of cold and we didn't want to enhance that as we were all pretty ill prepared for the weather. So we took a short bus to Giverny.

We got there and walked through this little path to a statue of Monet and took some cliche tourist pictures but it was fun. Then, we had breakfast at a little cafe. It was super cute. I got a hot chocolate and a croissant. My first French croissant and it was perfectly flakey. Yum. I felt super french because I wore my French sandals and skirt and my beret. It was for the aesthetics of looking french in the garden although no French people are actually wearing berrets this time of the year.

Anyways, onward. So we went directly to Monet's house and gardens. Monet designed the gardens himself and actually made them to create his own subject matter for his paintings which is kind of interesting. It was like he was planning a still life but not still lol. They were very beautiful. There were all sorts of flowers and the water lillies and bamboo and everything was just like his paintings. I will let the pictures to the talking.

It was really fun, we saw two couples getting their wedding pictures there, wouldn't that be awesome? Wedding pictures in Monet's garden?! I am JEALOUS. It was really cool to see pictures in the gift shop of Monet in his garden and then later in the other museum in town and be like, I just stood there for a picture lol. So weird, and completely awesome.

We also went inside Monet's house. It was trop mignon (very cute). The walls were painted fun pastel colors of blue, green, and yellow and there were japonese prints everywhere. They had reproductions of Monet's work hung on the walls. Most of his work is in other Museums like the D'Orsay and the Marmottan. Taking pictures inside the house wasn't allowed but I got one before I knew that:

The kitchen was really cute. It was painted blue and there was blue tile all on the wall where the oven was placed and then above the sink and counters were bright copper pans. Then there was a gigantic pantry on the wall opposite the oven and a big table in the middle of the kitchen. Lol I don't know why but I really liked it.

After the house and gardens, we went to a little place for lunch. All the restaurants were pretty pricey but the one we went to wasn't too bad. I got a Tartine Chaude. It was a big slice of bread with salmon and fresh cream and lemons on top with salad on the side. It was really good. I saw another girl who got a tomatoe one with some sort of cheese (probably goat cheese which seems to go with tomatoes a lot here).

After our yummy lunch, we went to the Museum of Impressionism. They had a bunch of photographs of Monet and his family and gardens with some old documents that Monet used to plan the garden and all that. They also had a small collection of some of his work. Again, photographs were not allowed :( They had mostly water lilly paintings there but not any of the big panel ones. They were still really beautiful though. It was crazy to see them up close, and see how childish and scribbly they looked but then step back and they were beautiful.

We were able to use Alison's blackberry to go to our emails and get our confirmation numbers so we could get our tickets that we had bought online which was a lifesaver. Brittany and I made it home in time for dinner with Madame. She made us a yummy couscous with chicken and corn and sprouts. She also had bought some new varieties of cheese that she offered us. It was Rochefort and she said since it is a strong cheese, she likes to mix it with Ailet or another milder cheese. We had nectarines for dessert.

Ha ha, it was funny. Brittany was like saying she had eaten too much and Madame was like me too, il faut faire du jogging, or I'll have to go running and then she was saying how she is getting a belly ha ha, all animated like she does (sometimes we use body language to communicate lol) and then she was like I will take it all off and give it to Alexandra lol and she was like pretending to take her belly fat and throw it on me ha ha.

O and she also was very adament about making sure we were going to visit the Louvre. We are going this Friday we told her and she is like one day is not enough! You need three, four, five days at the Louvre! She kept saying over and over how we HAD to see it he he and we're like we know! and she was like no, you don't know, you have to go! Ha ha, it was fun. I like when she gets all funny like that.


AUVERS-SUR-OISE
The train ride to Auvers was less stressful but a little harder in terms of directions. We already had our tickets and I had some info about how to get there but nothing about how to come home. The trains were very empty we got another early train at like 8 am agian. We stopped in Vernon and tansferred to another train on which we were like the only people. It was me, Christy, Brittany, and Courtney. We had a grand time on the train just laughing and talking. The country side is gorgeous.

So we get to Auvers-sur-Oise and there isn't a soul in sight lol. But it was Sunday morning so what do you expect? It was really cute. About the same size as Giverny, maybe a little bigger but less touristy. There aren't as many things to see there.


We walked out to the main street and grabbed some pastries from a boulangerie for breakfast. The boulangerie smelled SO good. It was unbelievable. They had a cute little market going on but it was mostly food so we just walked through it and then onward.


We actually missed the inn where Van Gogh died the first few times we walked down the main road lol. Like I said, it was not as easy for tourists to get around. But we did eventually find it with some help from the locals. It is a very small inn. Well, it isn't an inn anymore but there is still a restaurant on the main level where Van Gogh went to dinner each night that he stayed in Auvers. He would go out to paint each morning and then return for dinner and to go to bed. They have the room where he died still intact. No one rented it after Van Gogh died there because it became known as the suicide room and was bad luck.


They had another room set up how it would have been around that time. It was a room rented out by another artist who sent for Theo, Van Gogh's brother after he shot himself. The other area on the top floor was turned into a theater where we saw a video with Van Gogh's paintings compared to photographs of the places he painted and exerpts from his letters to Theo. It was very beautiful. I love Van Gogh.


The second level of the inn was a gift shop. I just bought a postcard. They had some cool books but I already have a pretty awesome Van Gogh book and other than that their stuff wasn't that great. They have little plaques throughout the city in places where he painted and so you can see his painting versus the scene before you. They offer little walking tours to see them all but we were going to be leaving before the tour started so we couldn't take it but we got a map from the visitor's center and went around to some of them on our own.


Vincent and Theo are also buried in Auvers. Their graves were probably the most simple ones in the cemetery. All of the others have the fancy coverings that look like they are above ground but Vincent and Theo's just had simple head stones and small bushes were covering the ground in front of them. Vincent's had a single sunflower in front of it.


We also stopped in a little cathedrale there. It was beautiful. All the churches here are just amazing.


On route to the cemetary, we found a big open wheat field and Brittany wanted to frolic in it lol. We took a ton of pictures of us frollicking in the wheat field and doing jumping pictures. It was so much fun. Brittany took this one of me leaping. I will have to see if I can get some of the ones on her camera up because they are awesome.


It was weird to think that we were walking in the same paths and standing in the same places where Van Gogh stood and painted. It makes me think how connected we really are to people from the past. We are just like them, you know. Especially looking at old pictures in photography class. Like our clothes really haven't changed much. We all work and play and go out to eat. We're all the same when it comes down to it. I know that sounds like I am really stupid lol but it is just something I have been thinking about. Like noticing the similarities between cultures and times and families and people.

We went out to lunch at a creperie. Brittany got a cheese salade and I got a crepe sallees (which is a crepe with not sweet stuff on it like cheese, tomatoes, ham, etc.) with chicken, creme, and mushrooms and then we split them. The crepe was so good. The chicken on it was so tender and the cream perfect and I'm normally not a mushroom person but sometimes I crave them and I was craving mushrooms so the crepe totally hit the spot. The salade was ok but there was seriously a ton of cheese.

We went back to the boulangerie where we got breakfast on our way back to the train station and Courtney, Christy, and Brittany all bought some maccaroons. They are a lot different here than in the U.S. they are like oreos kind of, well, nothing like oreos really but there are two cookies stuck together with jam or cream of some kind. I'm not a humongous fan so I didn't buy any but Courtney loves them. She is a celiac so she can't have wheat or dairy and she is also allergic to a bunch of other things too and macaroons are one of the few cookies that she can eat so she loves them. I think she eats one every day lol.

The train ride home was kind of scary. When we went back to the train station, luckily there was someone there because it was closed in the morning when we got there. He was able to give us some directions but we were not exactly sure what we were doing lol. We kind of got on the train hoping it would get us where we needed to go. All we knew really was that it was going back the direction from where we came but it was a different line and we transferred at a different station. I should have taken a picture. There were tons of lines there. But things worked out really well. Our transfers didn't take very long at all and we were home within an hour and a half.

We got home around 4 pm so I decided to spend a few hours in a museum. I went to the Orangerie because it is small, easily seen in just a few hours and it has 8 of Monet's large water lilly panels, so it was perfect to complete the impressionist weekend. And best of all, it was free because I am a student studying in Paris!


The water lillies were beautiful and gigantic. I rented a headset because it was free to get in and it said that Monet had always imagined his water lillies to be displayed in an oval room and in such a way that if you stood in the middle it would look like you are actually in the water in the middle of a pond/lake. It was pretty much how it felt. I took video of it (p. s. how cool is that? the museum let you take pictures and video!) so I'll see if I can get it up somehow. For now the pictures will have to do.


In the lower level of the museum, there was a large private collection of a prominant art dealer who lived in Paris. He had lots of Renoir, Cezanne, and african pieces. He also had some painters I am not familiar with and some Picasso, Mondrian (i think), and others... Wish I could remember, sorry. They were great. It was a wonderful collection. I especially liked this one guy's paintings. I should have written his name down but his people paintings are wonderfully expressive and characterized. This woman reminds me of Jenna Matheson and Christy in my program lol.


There was a temporary exhibition from a contemporary artist whose work was captivating. It was colorful and urban and vibrant. I took a couple pictures but I wish I had taken a more.


For dinner at Madame's house, we had ham with wheat and corn. I love wheat. It is so good. I think I'm going to buy some to bring home lol. We also had salade with sprouts and Madame gave us apple sauce for desert. She likes to let us try new things like different yogurts and cheeses she buys. She also buys little cookies she likes to give us. So sweet. I really need to take pictures of her.