Giverny is another place I have wanted to go to for SO long. Unlike Vaux-le-Vicomte, it's quite accessible from Paris... I've just never wanted to go on a tour bus with loads of other people. I wanted to have my own time and space to wander around.
Giverny is the tiny little village near the Seine river in Normandy, north of Paris, where the painter Claude Monet bought a house in 1890 and set about creating the gardens that he wanted to paint. He created beautiful gardens, including the water lily pond that he famously painted many times. Besides the gardens, you can also visit Monet's house that he shared with his wife.
Monet was one of my favourite painters, and I was really keen to visit his house. I left the campsite at 8:20am, and got to Giverny at 8:45, parked up, had a quick look around then joined the queue before it got too busy! It didn't open until 9:30am.
Finally, we were allowed in and I made a beeline for the house. There was another entrance by the gardens for the tour buses, so I thought I would get through the house before the crowds came over.
It was a truly gorgeous house, with colour pops all around and the most amazing artworks - Monet collected a lot of Japanese woodblock prints and etchings. Unfortunately all the artworks were copies and not the real ones but it really gave you a sense of what he liked. Their house was also really comfortable, it felt like you could just have a seat and kick back and relax (if only the house wasn't full of people!).
I left the house to go to the gardens. God they were beautiful. No wonder Monet wanted to paint his garden over and over again, it looked different from every angle, and it was so pretty, even in the dodgy weather that I had! A couple of guys in waders came over and got into a boat - they rowed into the pond then jumped in! They were wearing a tub as a backpack and were pulling excess lilies out of the water and popped them in the tub. I assume it's to keep up the health of the pond and stop the lilies from taking over too much. It was fascinating to watch!
I did two laps around the pond, then went back to the garden by the house. I could have stayed there for ages if it weren't for the amount of people... Just too many in one place for my liking! But I slowly walked through, snapping some pics of the pink house behind the lovely rows of flowers.
I left Giverny at 12pm. I'd sat in the camper and decided that I would drive to the coast. It was about a 3.5 hour drive, but it wasn't a bad one. I stopped at a supermarket on the way there to pick up some lunch and then stopped at a picnic area to eat it (one of the many things I love about France - picnic areas everywhere!).
You might remember at the very beginning of my camping trip that I stopped off at a place called Yport, and didn't really have a good night because the stress of driving to France had got to me and resulted in a migraine? If not, link here (scroll to the bottom). Anyway, 6 weeks later, I returned to the same campsite in Yport. It was a lovely summer's day, there was a spot for me (I think I got the last one!) and I parked up and walked the very steep path to the little town below.
The one thing I remembered about the campsite in Yport is the amazing view of the cliffs and the ocean and they certainly didn't disappoint this time around. If anything, I was more excited to see them because I was feeling good and looking forward to a wander around. I'm not exaggerating though when I say the path was very steep - it was crazy and I was half expecting to slip over and slide all the way down! Luckily that didn't happen... But I got down to the bottom and walked along to the pier to marvel at the cliffs.
I had a wander through town as well, as it was such a lovely afternoon - warm and sunny but not too hot. I popped into the little church and watched the fishermen for a bit, before going back to the camper... all the way UP the hill!!
I got back to the campsite with a lot of puffing and panting and settled in for the evening. My position wasn't as good as it was last time, and it was a LONG walk to the toilets and back... I set my alarm early and went to bed early.
Campsite: Camping Le Rivage
Rating: I rated it 7/10 last time, but this time it would be about a 5/10. I had to use the other amenities block that was closer and it wasn't as nice. It was also a really long way away, which was a bit inconvenient.