Monet’s Garden - Where Even I Wanted to Become a Painter.

- November 04, 2017

Maison et Jardins Claude Monet.

Monet’s gardens are marvelously eye-catching and utterly amazing. This was the set of some of the most beautiful paintings of the late 18’s century. This beautiful setting took me completely by surprise, even though I had seen pictures and the paintings by Monet at Gare d’Orsay. Still, this place had such a striking beauty that I wanted to go straight to the nearest souvenir shop and buy my very own painting set, pallet and all.

Japanese Water Garden

Claude Monet was, of course, the founder of Impressionism and this place became his main source of inspiration for the 43 years he lived here. His home is now converted into a quaint and charming little museum. When you stroll around the small village of Giverny, it is easy to notice the romantic setting for the paintings that came to life here. Glance upon the romantic home of the Monet family, surrounded by trees and flowers and brick walls covered in vines, all beautifully preserved.

There are two types of gardens here, Clos Normand, a divine flower garden starting right when you exit the house, and the picturesque Japanese water garden, that we know from some of Monets’ most famous paintings, it is on the other side of the road, under the viaduct.

Clos Normand

The magnificent water garden takes your breath away with its vitality and it overflows with thousands of different flowers. The idyllic pound that is the setting of many paintings complements the weeping willows, roses, and azalea to perfection and makes it a natural masterpiece by Monet. The water lilies, the trademark of Monet and the Japanese bridge, covered with wisterias, makes you want to immediately start painting because no photography can do justice to the fragile beauty of this place. The water garden feels like stepping into a land of magic where fairies could emerge from every flower, possibly living in the nympheas blooming all over the pond, strikingly different from the surrounding countryside.

Japanese Water Garden

The Clos Normand is a symmetric jumble of sensational colors and shapes divided into flowerbeds. It has no resemblance to the Versailles gardens’ neatness. Rather the flowers cluster together in different heights and colors mixing beautiful roses with the simplest flowers to create astonishing unique beauty. Monet planted his flowers tenderly in small flower beds. But after that Monet allowed the flowers to live their own lives. This culminated in a colorful wealth rarely seen in other gardens. For years, his friends came bringing him new and exotic flowers from all corners of the world. He found a place for every single one of them and thus creating a very personal beauty. I’ve always loved Monets’ paintings with the poppies and how the red simple flower can stand out in its fragile simplicity.

Clos Normand

The two parts of Monet's garden contrast and complement one another creating a heaven for people who love aesthetics and easy-on-the-eye magnificent landscape. In Clos Normand you are encountering a paradise of flowers. In the Japanese water garden, you are experiencing a dream of them. In Clos Normand you are looking at flowers, in the Japanese water garden you are watching floating water lilies, their reflection in the pond and the clouds flying high above them

How to get here:
If you are in Paris, having visited Gare d’Orsay and becoming inspired to go see the real deal and whether the paintings do the real nature any justification the easiest way is to switch one Gare with another. Go to Gare Saint-Lazare and buy a train ticket to Vernon. From here just follow the signs and jump on a bus to Giverny-Village and let the thrilling adventure begin.