Monet’s Gardens

The highlight of my trip to France was visiting Monet’s house in Giverny. Claude Monet is my favorite artist. I have loved his work since I was in high school. In particular the Water Lilies series. So when I decide I was going to Paris, I knew I was going to take a trip to his house in Giverny where he painted the Water Lilies.  Giverny is a short train ride from Paris, so you can make it a day trip. My recommendation would to be to stay at least one night so you can be at the gate to Monet’s house at 9:30AM when they open.

I highly recommend buying your ticket in advance to avoid the lines at the main gate. If you purchase your ticket in advance, you can go down a narrow alley way and enter with the group tours and not through the main gate. This is also a more pleasant visual experience than the main entrance. The main entrance leads you through the gift shop, which used to be Monet’s studio. Then you enter the garden down some steps. However, you enter through the back part of the garden and get a full view of the garden upon entering. The only downside is that you might be entering with large tour groups. I still felt it was worth it. I walked around the garden admiring the variety of flowers and all the bees! If you are afraid of bees, the summer time might not be the best time to visit. They were everywhere. They were not bothering anyone and I have never seen such a variety of bees! The bees seemed very happy to be there. To get to the water-lily pond, you have to take an underground tunnel that traverses the road. As far as I could tell there was no elevator so bear that in mind if you have walking issues. You might have to ask the staff how to get over there. Both the garden and the water-lily pond are stunning! You can see Monet’s paintings in reality in front of you. I was a surreal feeling. The caretakers seem to have left everything as he had planned. It is still hard for me to imagine Monet creating all this for himself to paint. It was such an undertaking. There was an army of people working in the garden and the water-lily pond, so I imagine Monet had is work cut out for himself.  Although, I am sure he had help as he did have to paint!

You can visit the house. While I did go through, the house is small and it was hard to see anything with so many people inside. You couldn’t really stop to look at anything. I would say avoid it unless you really have to see where Monet slept. Although you do get to see his original studio in the house.

To get to Giverny from Paris, take the train from the Gare de Saint-Lazare to Vernon. You can then either take the shuttle bus to Giverny, which will drop you near Monet’s house or you can take a taxi. Since I was staying the night and had luggage, I took at taxi. As I said before, I recommend staying the night so you can relax. Giverny is a lovely town with lots of French country charm and gardens. I am planning on going back during a different season to beat the crowds and relax a little. My next post will give you some recommendations of a place to stay and what else to see in Giverny.

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