In the summer of 2009, we had the pleasure to host Odrey, a friend's cousin from France.  We delighted in her company for a month and visited her family after leaving Spoleto in 2011.  She is spending four months, in Los Angeles, doing an internship in Communications and this was the only time I would be in her proximity.  So I headed north...

When planning our day, I knew what I wanted to do.  I had never been to the Getty Villa.  The Getty Villa in Malibu is an educational center and museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria.

After a delightful lunch on the terrace, we went on a guided tour of the gardens.  Gardens are integral to the setting of the Getty Villa, as they were in the ancient Roman home. Open spaces around the site feature bronze sculptures, fountains, and lush plantings of trees, herbs, and flowers used by the Romans. We learned so much history is such a gorgeous setting.

The Museum's south doors open onto the Outer Peristyle, the largest garden at the Getty Villa and the one we could have stayed at all day. It is adorned with hedge-lined pathways and circular stone benches. Plants favored by the ancient Romans, such as bay laurel, boxwood, myrtle, ivy, and oleander, are planted around a spectacular 220-foot-long reflecting pool. Bronze sculptures, replicas of statues found at the Villa dei Papiri, are placed in their ancient findspots. A peristyle, or covered walkway, surrounds the formal garden and leads visitors past illusionistic wall paintings to spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.

The Getty Villa houses the J. Paul Getty Museum's collection of approximately 44,000 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. Over 1,200 works are on view in 23 galleries devoted to the permanent collection, with five additional galleries for changing exhibitions.  We spent hours here and still left more to see on repeat visits.

After filling our heads with history and culture we headed to see the "show" that is Venice Beach.  Odrey has an incredible laugh and I got to hear it often here!

She said, "Even their dogs look high".

After exploring and observing, we went to visit Odrey's work place.  We stopped for tea and conversation and then hit the grocery store before returning her safely to her life in LA.  It was a very great visit.  Je vais m'ennuyer de ma fille française!