Water-Lily Pond, Giverny

The étang de nymphéas made legendary by Claude Monet. Monet moved to Giverny (some 100 km west of Paris) in 1883, and lived there until his death in 1926. He painted the waterlilies in his garden dozens of times, mostly toward the end of his life.

This was my first visit to Giverny (my wife had been there several times previously, before we met in 1994). This was literally the first of about 100 shots I took around the pond--it was early morning, still cloudy, with not as many people as later. I took sunnier shots of more or less the same view, but greater contrast didn't help (though the waterliles opened up markedly with the warmth). Marylee remembered the vegetation generally as less grown out.

We also visited Monet's house and the gardens. The whole experience was wonderful, above all the pond--exceeding my expectations, if anything. Ever since we planned the trip, many weeks ago, I looked forward to doing a blip that might serve as a very modest homage to Monet (and in that vein, I did not sharpen this!).