Visit Giverny, France

“Monet's estate and gardens are much bigger than I expected. You actually have to take an underground tunnel from the entrance / house area to the gardens. After you exit the tunnel and begin the walk of the gardens (traffic flos is one way), it's a feast for the senses. It literally felt like I had walked into one of Monet's paintings.”

“Anyway, I've always really loved his work so it was surreal looking at the lilies in the water, listening to the frogs croak and thinking "this is where he sat and painted." It looked just like the picture.”

“I was taken with the beauty of Monet's garden and focused on getting some good photos. So focused, that I made the entire garden loop three times. There's not much signage and if you aren't watching closely, it's pretty easy to miss the exit. By the third time around (and no staff or English speaking people in sight) I was convinced that I would still be in the garden at closing and some staffer would find me.”