By: Blonde Two
If you go to Monet’s garden at Giverny, you can pay some euros to wander past his water lilies and imagine yourself as an impressionist (the painting type not the comic).
Now that is as far as my Monet art knowledge goes; apart from the fact that Monet water lily posters adorned many a young couple’s flat walls in the 1980’s.
If you have a strong yen for water lilies in the next few days, you could brave wild seas, smugglers’ tunnels and pirates, and adventure your way to France; but that would be silly (and maybe a bit Blonde) when all you need to do is venture up to Haytor on Dartmoor and find your way into Haytor Quarry. There before you, you will see arrayed a beautiful collection of water lilies, shimmering in the sun and casting beautiful reflections.
When I was there, there was a man lying on the bank looking very intensely at them. I think it may have been the man himself!
I admire the lilies and it is worth clicking to enlarge, but I prefer the header picture with the rusty relic in the foreground. I hope you don’t mind but I’ve pinched a copy for my Relics folder. There is something about the colour of rust that gets to me. See my Photoshop painting, Rusty Barn:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ppj1547rh6i4ny/rusty%20barn%20copy.jpg?dl=0
We don’t mind at all Conrad. Clever stuff with the Photoshop painting! I definitely think that the bits of quarry equipment they have left there enhance the place rather than spoil it.
I don’t think you can be right. He is rather dead, isn’t he? Monet I mean, but probably also the original user of the rusty relic.
The most persuasive reason for visiting Haytor rather than Giverny are crowds at the latter. Frequently composed of Anglos. Tourist’s tip: visit Giverny in the winter; doing without the water lilies is a small price to pay.