Day 3: Claude Monet Foundation

I got a lift to the station to catch the navette / shuttle (a wee train like you see in seaside resorts, not an LNER / SNCF train). We arrived before the scheduled departure, but it has already departed, which was (as my brother would say) …. disappointing.

Fortunately there was a taxi pulling up at the station, so I went by taxi to La Fondation de Claude Monet. As I had a pre-bought ticket, I was quickly heading to the garden. First stop the lily pond. I have to say that the lily pond blew me away, even if May is not the month for the lilies to be in full bloom. There was just something about the place that was like nothing I can put into words. I have wanted to see the garden for a long time, and I nearly needed to pinch myself to check that I was not dreaming. I had a ticket for 9:30am and I am glad I did as it got busier later.

The garden was bursting with colour and even with lots of people, it never felt loud. Busy, yes, but not loud …. until the French schoolkids arrived in their droves with lots of enthusiasm and no volume control. It felt like the excitement of Christmas, I have no idea what the teachers had told them in advance, but they were having a great time. I wish we’d had trips like this when I was at school.

After the garden I queued to see his house. It was quite interesting and, sad git that I am, I was impressed by the incredibly old light switches and even took a photo (included for your amusement) which may or may not interest others. The photos say it all, so I won’t labour how lovely the whole visit was. I demonstrated lots of indecision, mixed in equal parts with self-control in the shop – I did buy a few things as it would be rude not to (best excuse I could come up with), but did not go daft as I have to carry around anything I buy.

Lunch was average to not great, rubbery ham in a weighty omelette that kind of beat me (excuse the pun) before I had started. It was all too egg-y, with no variety in taste, luckily the bread was nice and I managed to have “egg sandwich”, which was fine. The green salad really was green – lettuce. A bit of anything else would have made it a bit more interesting. Marks out of 10 ….. 3 or 4.

I walked back from the garden to the chambre d’hôte – 7.5kms – which was on top of all the walking around the garden, so I was ready to put my throbbing feet up when I got back. On the way back, a French lady stopped me to ask for help with the parking meter. She was trying to pay by card and couldn’t work out what to do. I was able to talk her through it in French – result … 2 happy ladies.

A quick trip to the supermarket to get some snacks for the evening – a tub of strawberries, melon & kiwi fruit – and some biscuits. I should have stopped at the fruit as the biscuits are turning out to be very morish and are undoing the good work of the fruit. C’est la vie.

Had a great chat with Delphine about my trip, wine and not tipping in restaurants (yes, you read that right – the salaries are set at such a level that the servers don’t have to rely on tips). She also mentioned a wine to look out for – Uby. I am also trying to track down Clairet (no mis-spelling, I did not mean claret), which is a lovely rosé from Bordeaux that is like hen’s teeth to find but a lot nicer to drink. It is a delicious, dry rosé of a deep pink, almost red shade and very, very drinkable.

A close up of some of the flowers