Yesterday, I spontaneously decided to take a trip to Giverny, which is about an hour away, to go see Claude Monet’s house and famous garden. I was an IB Art student in high school and part of the requirements included doing hours of contextual research on various artists,  movements and periods in Art history. The impressionist movement interested me immensely, especially Claude Monet’s work, which played a big role in inspiring one of my projects for school. Therefore, I was really excited to go see one of the houses where he lived and the garden he painstakingly cultivated, which inspired some of his great masterpieces.

My friends and I took a train to Vernon, after which, we got on a bus that took us to Giverny. The bus looped through a scenic backdrop for about twenty minutes, escalating my excitement with every turn it took. Once in Giverny, we visited the Impressionist Garden. It was a huge garden that was split into several sections of flowers that were colour coordinated and matched to perfection. We walked through patches of yellow flowers, purple flowers, reds/magentas, pinks, oranges and whites. It was one of the most artistically planned gardens I have seen so far. After the garden, we skipped the Impressionist museum that was connected to the garden, and walked straight to Monet’s house (we were really eager to see it). We were lucky because the sun was out for the first time in a few days and it was the perfect weather to walk around (and take pictures) in!

When we got to Monet’s house, the line to get in was HUGE! We must have waited for over twenty minutes to finally make it through, but let me tell you, it was definitely worth the wait. We entered through a gate that led us straight to his garden. A little ahead, we could see his house to the right. I have absolutely no words to describe how breathtaking the garden was. Everywhere I looked, I was surrounded by gorgeous flowers and trees in every arrangement, colour and size possible! It was like a palette with splashes of colour everywhere. The fragrance that hung in the air was a sweet, tantalising mix of the numerous scents. It was a complete visual and olfactory delight. We walked around different patches, till we came across some of the actual scenes that Monet painted. Seeing Monet’s famous Lilly pond in real life was such a mind-blowing experience! It was exactly like his painting, complete with the little green bridges and the overhanging trees. The garden seemed to have no horizon, much like Monet’s paintings- it surrounded you in every direction, and wherever you looked, all you could see were flowers.

After the garden, we visited his house, which was made of wood and had several small rooms. Monet’s interest in Japanese artwork was apparent in his choice of decor and the paintings that lined most of the walls throughout his house. Each room was painted a different pastel shade, making it seem like we were in a magnified dollhouse. At the same time, it was fitting to Monet’s love for colours and his celebration of them. His house exuded his personality, something that is a bit of a rarity in today’s world.

Here are some pictures from my trip…they do no justice to the actual garden but they will give you a sense of how amazing an experience it was to be there.

   At the grand allee, that leads to Monet’s house (you can see a tiny bit in the background)

 Monet’s water lilly pond

Location: Monet's House and Garden, Giverny, France