On our final day we visited Monet’s Garden or Le Jardin de Monet (See I learnt something) this is in the small town of Giverny and only about 15 miles from our Hotel so made a good morning stop, on arrival we joined a reasonable sized queue that although not very long took about 45 minutes to go through as it was simply not moving, some friends of my Parents had tried to go on three previous occasions and found a similar lack of queue entry and so abandoned entrance, on the way out however at just before 12 (11:55 to be exact) there was no queue whatsoever so I would suggest that this is the best time to go. Anyway after navigating the highly inefficient entrance and paying the 6€ fee (12€ to combine the ticket with the nearby Museum of the Impressionists – unfortunately we didn’t have the time) we fought our way through the gift shop and people looking to leave to get out into Monet’s Garden, if you are familiar with his work then you know the garden as the artist painted it extensively, it is actually two gardens, the first is the main garden and sits adjacent to his house, it is very colourful and relaxing with paths (only some are open to the public) through the lines of flowers. 
The Second garden is a Japanese water garden that is across the Railway line and Road from the main house, thankfully unlike Monet we could take a tunnel rather than running the risk of being run down. 
The Japanese Garden was by far my highlight of the visit especially seeing the Water Lilies which would be like stepping into a painting, if you had a bit to drink anyway, it was a very tranquil setting and if you could find a patch tourist free for long enough you got a real feel for what it must have been like to sit and paint. Back in the Main Garden we visited the house which was very interesting, it was a quite traditional farm house being very rectangular with each room following on from the last rather than our squarer housing design so the rooms felt like they went on forever, Like most things worth visiting the house was not designed with tourists in mind so it was quite cramp and hectic in there but was still a quite remarkable house, although the copies of His famous works were set out a bit like a gift shop. Talking of the gift shop, this was like a celebration of merchandising, as Monet’s greatest works were available on anything Prints, Canvasses, Key rings, Coasters, Mugs etc... even having frames where the pictures continued over the edges of the frames.
We were on a bit of a time budget so we could not really spend as long there as I would have liked but we still had 130 miles to Calais so had to get on.
The Second garden is a Japanese water garden that is across the Railway line and Road from the main house, thankfully unlike Monet we could take a tunnel rather than running the risk of being run down. 
The Japanese Garden was by far my highlight of the visit especially seeing the Water Lilies which would be like stepping into a painting, if you had a bit to drink anyway, it was a very tranquil setting and if you could find a patch tourist free for long enough you got a real feel for what it must have been like to sit and paint. Back in the Main Garden we visited the house which was very interesting, it was a quite traditional farm house being very rectangular with each room following on from the last rather than our squarer housing design so the rooms felt like they went on forever, Like most things worth visiting the house was not designed with tourists in mind so it was quite cramp and hectic in there but was still a quite remarkable house, although the copies of His famous works were set out a bit like a gift shop. Talking of the gift shop, this was like a celebration of merchandising, as Monet’s greatest works were available on anything Prints, Canvasses, Key rings, Coasters, Mugs etc... even having frames where the pictures continued over the edges of the frames.
We were on a bit of a time budget so we could not really spend as long there as I would have liked but we still had 130 miles to Calais so had to get on. 
this consists of two spiral staircases that were intertwined so that as you walked down through the staircase you can see people on the other staircase and yet you never meet them. 
As well as the various rooms which have been preserved to give you an idea of the “relative” luxury that the French Kings lived in (And also how short they all were.) there was a very interesting exhibit on the Art in the Second World War, basically when invasion looked imminent the Department of Arts in Paris set up plans to move the most important works of Art into hiding, including the Mona Lisa, Chambord was one of the sites chosen. Personally I would have buried them under a small shack rather than place them into a 90 roomed palace as I would have thought that a giant palace would be the first place you would look for valuable art, but that’s just me.
Anyway it was interesting the role that this French Civil Service took in protecting these works of art, even having double agents working for the Germans keeping track of where they were taken, credit also has to be given to Chambord for not trying to hide the fact that after surrendering to the Germans the French Government handed over the works of arts created or owned by Jewish, or deemed unsuitable, in return for being left with the rest in their control. I have been to several exhibitions in France about the Second World War and think this is the first that in anyway acknowledged that there was a collaboration with Nazi Germany, I should point out that I do not necessarily blame the Vichy Government for collaboration with the Germans as they had very little alternative with France falling and continuing the war from North Africa likely to incur massive retribution on their citizens, however it is important that the decisions made in history are not hidden from scrutiny where they may then be made again. Anyway after looking around we entered the massive gift shop where we bought a sample of the Chambord Liquor before heading off to our Hotel in Normandy. 
