Giverny - a stroll through Monet's garden 

By Mike K-H

Recently, a Freebooters visitor asked for advice about taking two young girls to Paris for a week. Since they all loved impressionist paintings, they could easily spend time in city art galleries, but there was also one place well out of town that was easily reached by bus - the house and gardens of Giverny.   

Monet lived at Giverny from 1883 to 1926 and in 1966 it was bequeathed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. After extensive restoration, the property was opened as the Claude Monet Museum in 1980. It is open all year round and you can reach it by taking a train to Vernon and catching a local bus. However, the easiest way is to take a bus tour from Paris. Here are two companies that run tours in English:

Paris Vision, 215, rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris

Metro: Tuileries

Tel: 01 42 60 30 01

Cityrama, Place des Pyramides, 75001 Paris

Metro: Palais-Royal

Tel: 01 42 60 30 14

Check with your chosen company for details. A typical tour operates from the beginning of April to the end of October, excluding Sundays and Mondays, and starts around 1:30 p.m. The 5 hour tour gives you up to 3 hours in Giverny itself.

For beautiful photos of Giverny, check the European Photo Gallery section of James Martin's About.com site goeurope.about.com/library/bl_monet_6

Visit the Freebooters Choice gallery

If you can't go there, why not think about buying some posters or a calendar - for yourself, or as a Christmas present. 

Allposters.com has over 800 Monet posters and two calendars. I have selected 25 favorites and put them together as the Freebooter's Choice gallery. (This will take quite a while to load if you are not one of those elite users with a broadband link, but I think you'll find it worth the wait.) 

Click on any one to see an enlarged version - and if you decide you like it, click the link to take you to Allposters.com to order it.

I tend to stick posters straight onto walls and replace them when they get tatty, but Allposters.com can frame them. The print quality is good enough to justify doing this.

Since I have no need to watch to see that you don't remove or damage anything, nor to hang around waiting to lock up after you've gone, I can cheerfully say: "Enjoy the display. Don't feel obliged to buy now, and take as long as you like!"

Send a free e-card

When you view an enlarged version of a poster, you'll also have the opportunity to send it as a free e-card with your own message. You can't do that in a live gallery.

P.S. If you send a card, please mention that you found it at Freebooters. That's the way this site finds new friends. Much more personal than Yahoo and Google.

Have fun.

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