Château de Chenonceau – Part 3

June 20, 2016December 13, 20162 Comments

I’ve previously published two other posts about Château de Chenonceau – one post with photographs of the outside of the chateau and a second post with photographs of the inside of the chateau. This post features photographs from the grounds surrounding the chateau. In addition to the chateau, there were several other buildings and gardens on the grounds that we spent some time looking at. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about the grounds, so this post will be somewhat lacking in terms of information. I do, however, hope that you enjoy the photographs despite the lack of information.

I have no idea what this building was, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen something oozing with so much whimsical charm. It was also a picture well-suited for Instagram’s signature square format.

Unidentified Incredibly Charming Building

Much of the area surrounding the chateau is devoted to maintaining the many gardens. They were in the process of digging up the spring flowers and replanting the gardens with summer flowers while we were there. These crates contained the summer-time plants for the gardens.

Crates Full of Fresh Flowers

Firewood

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Jardin des Plantes

January 16, 2016January 19, 20164 Comments

After leaving Luxembourg Gardens, we walked 1.4 miles to the Jardin des Plantes. The Jardin des Plantes is a large botanical garden located just to the east of the Seine in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. It covers 69.2 acres and was the first botanical garden to be created in Paris. Though it was founded in 1626, it did not open to the public until 1640. It was originally planted by Louis XIII’s physician, Doctor Guy de la Brosse as a medicinal herb garden.

I am currently reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, and I’ve enjoyed the many references to the Jardin des Plantes. I can picture Marie-Laure and her father traipsing through the gardens on their way to the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of locks. If you, too, are reading this wonderful book, I hope that my photographs will help bring the Jardin des Plantes to life for you.

There were many plants that I had never seen before, and I didn’t do a very good job of taking photographs of all of the name placards (shame on me), so there won’t be much information to share in the post — only pictures of pretty flowers.

Here’s a link to the Imgur photo album containing the photographs in this post.

Russell Hybrid Lupines

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Jardin du Luxembourg

January 10, 2016January 19, 20161 Comment

Bryan and I had traveled to Europe twice before our trip to France, and both trips were during December. I thoroughly enjoyed our December trips to Germany; however, it seemed to me that Paris would be perfect during spring, so we chose to visit France during May.

Prior to the trip, I researched parks and gardens in Paris and knew that I wanted to make time to visit Luxembourg Garden. We went to Luxembourg Garden on our second day in Paris — the same day that we visited Musee d’Orsay and St. Chapelle. Luxembourg Garden did not disappoint! It was full of people, statues, flowers, and life! We even got to watch a few rounds of pétanque (which I regret not taking any photos of), a game we read about before our trip.

Marie de’ Medici, a native of Florence and the wife of King Louis XIII, began creating Luxembourg Garden in 1612. She wanted something to remind her of Florence. Today the park is owned by the French Senate and occupies 60 acres. It is home to 106 statues, of which I photographed a mere 17. We spent a couple of hours at the park and didn’t even come close to seeing everything.

Statue of Marie de’ Medici

Here’s a link to the Imgur photo album containing the photos in this post. Continue reading →

Les Jardins de Claude Monet

July 24, 2015January 17, 20161 Comment

During May 2015 we took a trip to France. After spending three full days in Paris, we rented a car to head out to Normandy and then on to the Loire valley. We stopped at Claude Monet’s gardens in Giverny on our way from Paris to Bayeux. I’m not sure if the gardens of today are still true to how Monet planned them, but they were lovely nonetheless. I was particularly excited to get to see the ponds and water lilies and a slightly-modernized version of his Japanese bridge — both made famous by his impressionist paintings. I was truly amazed at the huge variety of plants and colors that were present in Monet’s gardens. I like to think that Monet put a lot of thought into designing the gardens and that maybe what is there today still looks like what he envisioned in his head…like a living work of art. We got a little bit turned around after we left the parking lot. There weren’t really any signs indicating where the entrance to Monet’s Gardens was, so we walked the wrong direction for a bit. We eventually gave up and turned around, and I took this photograph on our way to the entrance, not knowing that it was actually the back of Monet’s house. I thought that the shutters, vines, and colors were charming.