Escape from Paris - Part I

We boarded a tour bus early Sunday morning to follow two former Parisians out of Paris; King Louis XIV and Claude Monet.  Both left Paris for different reasons...and their departure had different results.

Our first stop would be at the restored home, gardens and waterlily pond of Claude Monet.  After the death of his first wife, Monet sought out a more peaceful place to dwell and paint. He found the small town of Giverny in Normandy, France and rented a home there in 1883. He purchased the home a few years later and moved his two sons and six step children (wife #2) to the home. He lived and painted there until his death in 1926. Many of his paintings are of the gardens and ponds.

His son Michel eventually came to own the home but was disinterested in keeping the gardens (probably because dad made him weed then as a boy). Upon Michel's death in 1966, the home, garden's and waterlily pond was given to the French Academy of Fine Arts, which is very ironic. It was this same academy that had shunned Monet and his Impressionist contemporaries, stunted their early recognition and forced them to hold their own Art Salons (annual art exhibits...think present day Fashion Week, but with painters and sculpters).

Monet had left Paris and built a oasis of nature where he could paint in peace. Our next stop on the tour, the Palace of Versaille, has an altogether different feel.

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