Monet's Garden

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Official Site (giverny.org)

The notion that the British have the monopoly on eye-catching gardens was called spectacularly into question by the French impressionist painter Claude Monet, whose small house and its naturally colourful surroundings in Giverny near Vernon, 70km from Paris, continue to attract thousands of visitors every summer some 80 years after his death. Monet bought the property in 1883 and 10 years later built the famous Japanese bridge which – together with the trademark wisterias and weeping willows around it – forms the basis of the most recognisable of his many paintings of the gardens. Open each year from April 1 to November 1 (but closed on Mondays) the gardens are stunning in their own right, as well as being fascinating for students of art history. His cottage, painted pink and green, has been open to the public since 1980, but it is his love of free-growing, asymmetrical plants and flowers and his penchant for bright colours that have found eternal expression in his paintings. The gardens are at their most vibrant in May and June, but at no stage of the summer and autumn will a visit to Giverny leave you feeling anything other than alive and refreshed.

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