Water lilies and more at Giverny

I went through the underground tunnel that now connects Monet's walled garden to the water lily garden.

 One of the rare moments when the tunnel is empty.....oh wait, that's right, it wasn't empty,... I was in it!!  And on the way back I had to wait for a busload of tourists to come through the tunnel in the opposite direction.  Darned tourists!!! (oh wait, that's right.....)

 This is along the pathway that one walks along before coming out at the water lily garden.

This is a map of the garden.  Sorry about the poor quality but it is a shot of a map on one of the signposts in the garden.

 At last, the water garden!!!  So lovely.

 The rowboat.  In front of a small bamboo forest.  Divine!

 The Japanese bridge...

 and again....

 When I came back to the main garden I decided to go through the house.  There are no pictures allowed in the house itself.  There was quite a line up to get into the house and were I to do it again, since I got into the site just as it opened at 9:30, I would have gone to the house right away and avoided the long lineup.  But in all fairness, it did move along quite quickly but had there been less people I might have lingered longer in certain areas in the house.  As it was, the crowds....I am so unhappy in large crowds!!! (Same thing happened in the souvenir shop....empty the first time I went through but several hundred people as I exited.  Probably saved me a lot of money, though!!! and I have lots of books about Monet and about his garden in my library at home....)

 A solitary bucket that spoke so eloquently about working in a garden....so satisfying, so NEVER finished!!!

As I was leaving the garden, and after my visit to the Musee des Impressionismes (no pictures, please) I walked around the garden at the Musee and was enchanted by this field of poppies and bachelor's buttons and daisies. My kind of crowd!!!
I confess I took several hundred photos of the gardens at Giverny.  And so I will be able to 're-visit' the garden again and again, which is, after all, the very best souvenir.
Back soon.....