Monets home, garden and village, in Giverny France.
Exploring a picturesque village in the North of France, I visited a place that has been on my ‘must visit’ list for a while. The beautiful gardens of the famous and inspirational artists Claude Monet. An artist wo inspired a whole artistic movement in his quest for a little peace and quiet whilst capturing light in the moment from his surroundings.
Knowing Giverny would be another tourist hotspot we did our best to arrive early. Which I would highly recommend if you plan to visit here also, the village of Giverny is one of the most visited sites in Normandy France and coachloads of people arrive here daily. But even with our plan of arriving around 8am the popularity of the gardens meant we still had a little bit of time in a queue, the numbers into the gardens are limited daily I think to avoid over crowding and damage. If you don’t pre-register to enter you have to wait in line for people to leave the gardens for more to enter. We had to wait our turn which was about an hour. Luckily we did get entry and it was definitely worth the wait to wander around the acres of beautifully planted gardens full of native and exotic flowers that have been maintained exactly as Monet would have wanted them to be.
As well as the gardens you can walk through Claude Monet’s home which has been preserved in time and also see many of his artworks on display, which is equally worth the time in the queue as you get a glimpse into his style, what inspired him and a little of his home life, It appears although he achieve some fame he was quite a private person preferring his tranquil gardens and quiet village life over anything else. His country cottage was decorated in brightly coloured styles and patterns and adorned with art from Asia which he found inspirational, he collected many pieces from other artists especially influenced by Japanese art and prints.
The first part of the gardens we got to wander around was the Clos Normand which is full of beautiful flowers both native and exotic, with so much colour and vibrancy packed into the space, there didn’t seem to be anywhere which didn’t fill the senses with colour or fragrance. it was like walking into a 3d art installation you could see why Monet himself called his gardens the biggest masterpiece.
I took lots of videos and pictures as due to numbers standing and painting en plein-air is not allowed, but I did want to try my best to capture something as a reference which I could then create art from when back at my studio. the garden was full of the most magnificent roses, alliums, iris’s and tulips.
From this cottage style garden full of flowers and grasses with its pretty archways you pass under a small subway section to the next area, this is patch of land Monet purchased later on with a vision to create one of his most recognised features, the huge Japanese inspired waterlily ponds. The same ponds in his famous works of art with the green bridges and impressionism style waterlillies and water.
being an artists and studying art history I knew Monet as being famous for painting views from these ponds but I don’t think I ever really appreciated that he was creating art from his own garden or from a landscape he had shaped and manipulated to provide the perfect refence for his masterpieces. So once being in this location and seeing the scenes and standing in places knowing he would have had to have stood with his easel to capture the view was slightly surreal. The green Japanese inspired bridges with the beautifully scented wisteria draping over the tops was like walking through an immersive art piece.
We spent a good few hours exploring all the areas of the gardens and even filled with tourist it didn’t take away from the beauty of the place.
after a wander around the gardens we headed through the shop and back into the village itself. there are a few other local galleries, art studios and also cafes, gardens and museums to look around. the streets of Giverny itself are equally as beautiful as Monets garden filled also with roses and flowers that line the streets and paths.
This is definitely a day any art or botanical enthusiast could fill, with just a full day wandering around the village admiring the views and botanical beauty.
I found myself a few flower references before we headed back to our camping spot along the equally beautiful river seine.
