Giverny and Monet's Garden
Claude Monet's gardens at Giverny are like his paintings — brightly colored patches that are messy but balanced. Flowers were his brushstrokes, a bit untamed and slapdash, but part of a carefully composed design. Monet spent his last (and most creative) years cultivating his garden and his art at Giverny (zhee-vayr-nee), the Camp David of Impressionism (1883–1926).
Visiting Giverny, there's much to admire. All kinds of people flock to Giverny. Gardeners admire the earth-moving landscaping and layout, botanists find interesting new plants, and art lovers can see paintings they've long admired come to life. Fans enjoy wandering around the house where Monet spent half his life and seeing the boat he puttered around in, as well as the henhouse where his family got the eggs for their morning omelets. It's a busy place, so come early or late.
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| Who isn't inspired to paint when you live here? |
Claude Monet was the leading light of the Impressionist movement. He revolutionized painting in the 1870s. Fiercely independent and dedicated to his craft, Monet gave courage to fellow artists in the face of harsh criticism.
The son of a grocer, Monet defied his family, insisted he was an artist, and sketched the world around him: beaches, boats, and small-town life. A fellow artist, Eugene Boudin, encouraged him to don a scarf, set up his easel outdoors, and paint the scene exactly as he saw it. Today, we say, " Well, duh!" But "open-air" painting was unorthodox at that time for artists trained to study their subjects thoroughly in the perfect lighting of a controlled studio setting.
Monet loved to lead open-air painting safaris in the countryside, in order to paint everyday things — landscapes, seascapes, ladies with parasols, family picnics — in bright, basic colors.
It's fitting that Giverny, located 50 miles outside the hustle and bustle of Paris, would become a colorful, flowering monument to Monet. In 1883, middle-aged Claude Monet, his wife Alice, and their eight children from two families settled into a farmhouse here, 50 miles west of Paris. Monet, at that point a famous artist and happiest at home, would spend 40 years in Giverny, traveling less with each passing year. He built a pastoral paradise complete with a Japanese garden and a pond full of floating lilies.
In 1890, Monet started renovating his garden, inspired by tranquil scenes from the Japanese prints he collected. He diverted a river to form a pond, planted willows and bamboo on the shores, filled the pond with water lilies, then crossed it with a wooden footbridge. As years passed, the bridge became overgrown with wisteria. He painted it at different times of day and year, exploring different color schemes.
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| Later in life, Monet's muse became the changing reflections of nature in a pond. |
In the last half of his life, Monet's world shrank to encompass only Giverny. But his artistic vision expanded as he painted smaller details on bigger canvases and helped invent modern abstract art.
In the last half of his life (beginning in 1912), Monet — the greatest visionary, literally, of his generation — began to go blind with cataracts. He used larger canvases and painted fewer details. The true subject is not really the famous water lilies, but the changing reflections on the pond's surface — the blue sky, white clouds, and green trees that line the shore.
Cost and Hours
€5.50, €4 for gardens only, April–Oct Tue–Sun 9:30–18:00, last entry 17:30, closed Mon and Nov–March, open some Mon holidays — check website, www.fondation-monet.com.
Getting to Giverny
By tour: Big tour companies do a Giverny day trip from Paris for around €60; ask at your hotel.
By car: From Paris's Périphérique ring road, follow the A-13 toward Rouen, get off at Vernon, follow Centre Ville signs, then signs to Giverny.
By train: Take the Rouen-bound train from Paris' Gare St. Lazare station to Vernon (6/day, more on Sat, about €22 round-trip, 45 min one-way, 4 miles from Giverny, no baggage check).
From the Vernon train station to Monet's garden (4 miles one-way), you have four good options: by bus, taxi, bike, or on foot. The Vernon–Giverny bus meets every train for the 15-minute run to Giverny (no buses on Mon) and takes you back to every return train to Paris. If you miss the bus, find others to share a taxi (allow €12 for up to 3 people, €13 for 4, taxis wait in front of the train station). You can also rent a bike at Café du Chemin de Fer opposite the train station (€13), and follow a paved bike path (piste cyclable) that runs from near Vernon along an abandoned railroad right-of-way (figure about 30 min to Giverny). Finally, you can walk to Giverny, following the bike path, and take a bus or taxi back.
Nearby Sight
The Museum of American Art (Musée d'Art Américain, turn left when leaving Monet's place and walk 100 yards) is devoted to American artists who followed Claude to Giverny (same price and hours as Monet's home). Monet and his garden had a great influence on American artists of his day. This bright, modern gallery — with a good but small Mary Cassatt section — is well explained in English, though its most appealing feature might be its garden café (good salads and quiches).
Monet in Paris
For more Monet, be sure to visit the Orangerie Museum, Orsay Museum, and Marmottan Museum in Paris (self-guided tours of both can be found in Rick Steves' Paris).
Updated for 2008. For lots more information, check out our best-selling Rick Steves' France and Rick Steves' Paris guidebooks — or join us on one of our free-spirited tours!