Impressions of Monet’s Home and Garden |

By lesperdus

One early morning, we embarked on an adventure to Giverny to visit Monet’s house and garden. Ive longed to visit the home of Claude Monet since my semester of art history. I wanted to see the place that inspired the founder of French Impressionism. The very term Impressionism was coined from the title of Monet’s Impression, Sunrise in 1874 where he displayed the art of expressing one’s perception before natures.

Since there are no direct trains to Giverny we bought tickets for an 11am train to Vernon, a village 4 miles out. Once we arrived in Vernon, we cross the street to Cafe du Chemin de Fer to rent a couple of bikes for the journey to the garden. The path was an easy one. One with incredible views of Eure Department in Normandy. Waiting in line, I bought an overpriced but satisfying strawberry ice cream cone. The wait wasn’t long and the weather was just right.

We opted to skip the house and head to the gardens first. Before sight, the intoxicating scent of the wildflowers welcomed us and it was a sweet sweet welcoming. We walked first through the Clos Normand, which covers one acre of the two part garden. Daisies and poppies were intertwined with roses as well as the rarest breeds of flowers. Monet envisioned a garden where flowers grew freely and not constrained. They were planted simply according to color.

After taking too many pictures and stoping to smell every rose, we took the underground passage over to the Japanese inspired water garden filled with weeping willows, bamboo forest, and water lilies. Lets not forget the famous wisteria covered Japanese water bridge seen in many of his paintings. It is here that Monet was inspired to dedicate the last thirty years of his life painting Les Nympheas. Monet focused his observation on the changing patterns of light on the surface of the water lending the paintings to be more abstract. As I watched the weeping willow sway and dip in the water, a light sprinkle of rain began to fall creating dimples and ripples in the water and shifting the light. I then understood why Monet was so completely enthralled here.

We then made way to Monet’s house. Monet was a collector of Japanese art which was on full display in his home. From painting to woodblock prints, almost every room in the house showcased his love for Japanese art. The kitchen and dining room were exceptionally cheery painted in a happy yellow. In his office, many of his paintings were displayed simply stacked on the walls. No pictures were allowed but I managed to sneak a few on my phone.

With a bit of spare time, we biked around the cute village of Giverny and stubbled upon its many charms.

The next day I was eager to see Monet’s painting of Les Nympheas in person so Lance and I visited their permanent home at the Musee de L’orangerie located in the Tuileries garden. The museum also host many paintings from the likes of Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Marie Laurencin, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, and Maurice Utrillo, and many others.

No photos were allowed but since I tend to rarely follow the rules, I managed to sneak a few.