Winter is a good time to sort out pictures. I spent a rainy day browsing through last years photographs of Monet’s garden and came to the idea of making a Giverny Calendar out of my favorite shots.

Here is the result, a wall calendar to accompany every Monet fans and garden lovers all year round.

I hope you will like it. I did my best to choose for each month the corresponding flowers in bloom at this time of year, but of course this was not really possible for winter months.

The Giverny Calendar is for sale on line for 27.99 US dollars. You can see all the pictures by clicking on the months.

I would be glad to have your feedback, in order to improve next time.

Joyeux Noël! Merry Christmas!

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The colors tend to disappear under the soft veil of the fog.

Mist likes to stick in the Seine valley, especially on chilly autumn and winter’s days. This magician creates strange effects, unreal silvery lights that linger over Claude Monet’s pond at Giverny.

The usually precise lines of the reflections on the surface become less defined.

Like a parenthesis of hapiness on a dull day, the pink nympheas prove that colors are not swollen by the grey shades as they are by the night, but only softened. A careful look reveals them. The surrounding greys make them even more vivid.

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Now that all the wild roses are spent, their lovely berries shine in the morning mist.

The dog roses grow everywhere in the area of Giverny, on road sides, on the bushy hills, turning the countryside into a giant garden when they are in bloom in springtime.

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Fondation Claude Monet at Giverny generally closes for the Winter on October 31st, but this year Claude Monet’s home will remain open two more days on Saturday November 1 and Sunday November 2, 2008.

It is a unique opportunity to appreciate as late as possible in season, the changing colors of the trees around the lily pond and the warm tones of the vine on the house Monet inhabited for 43 years.

Original also, visitors will be able to stroll in the gardens at sunset. It is a fantastic experience to see Monet’s garden invaded by the shades, just before it fells asleep for a five-month-winter.

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Next year, there will be a museum of Impressionism at Giverny.

The Museum of American Art Giverny located next Monet’s home at Giverny is living its last weeks.

Founded in 1992 by wealthy American collector Daniel Terra, the museum has exhibited American Art till now. Its visitors are mainly French individuals. They discover the Art History of the US, which is not well known in France.

But Foundation Terra will stop ruling the museum next year. The local county administration, the Departement de l’Eure, will deal with the new museum.

To what one can figure out as the public delight, the museum will be devoted to Impressionism. It makes sense on the very spot where Monet, the impressionist leader, painted so many masterpieces, and where hundreds of impressionist painters gathered to create Giverny artists colony.

The Musée de l’Impressionnisme of Giverny will have a famous partner: musée d’Orsay of Paris, a museum that owns the french state collections of paintings from the 19th century – dozens of works by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot…

Next year some of its best canvases will take a short trip to Giverny, 80km west of Paris.

The exhibition opening on 1 April 2009 will be dedicated to the most popular theme one could expect in Giverny: Monet’s gardens. It will certainly be a fantastic exhibition.

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Giverny lies in the Seine Valley. In geological times the river dug its valley in the tender limestone.

Now there are cliffs or steep hills on both sides of the river. When the hill faces north, it is covered by woods. When it is well oriented it used to be cultivated when Monet lived in Giverny, 100 years ago.

There were vineyards on the hills. Normandy is not a good place where to grow grapes, but our ancestors tried and made a wine which ranged between ‘almost not drinkable’ generally to ‘not too bad’ the best years.

It is not possible to judge, for it is not possible to taste it anymore. Even the eldest inhabitants of Giverny won’t tell, the vineyards disappeared before World War One. I don’t think anybody really regrets them.

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A bust of Claude Monet by the sculptor Daniel Goupil can be admired in Giverny.

Surprisingly enough, the tribute to the master of Impressionism is not exhibited on a well exposed location, in front of his home for instance. On the contrary you have to look for it to find it.

The artist wanted Monet to face the landscape he loved, the meadows and the poplars of the Seine valley.

 The bust is situated on the very spot where Monet painted several canvases.

 It is to be found on the back of the main parking lot ‘La Prairie’, slightly hidden by a big weping willow.

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Welcome to Giverny.
This is my first post. I work as a guide in Claude Monet’s gardens and home at Giverny, Normandy, France.

It is a unique place created by the painter himself, an avid gardener.

 Monet landscaped his garden, using all what he knew about colors and composition to compose the flower beds or design the alleys.

He considered it his most beautiful artwork because it was a living one, changing with the seasons. 

Then he painted it, over and over again. He wanted to render the changing light, the impression of the moment.

I would like to try and render my everyday impressions too and share with you the beauty of this garden, and generally my passion for Monet and his works.

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