Tulips spread their colors these weeks at Giverny. It is one of the times of year when the monet garden is at its brightest. The big colorful heads stand side by side, being planted tight, undisturbed by any leaves, that are much lower.

Tulips have the ability of looking thick and massive in direct or mute light, and totally different as soon as the sun shines through their petals. Then, in late afternoon for instance, they become delicate and light, they seem to loose any weight and dance in the breeze.

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I have eventually gathered my favorite pictures of Giverny into a photo gallery.
Season after season, Monet’s water garden and flower garden change a lot.
I like early morning atmospheres as well as rainy days, bright sunshine or sunset. I like the snow white garden. I like roses and nympheas. I like the colors of autumn, the stunning reflections on the pond.
I hope you will like them too.

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One of the charms of Monet’s flower garden is its countryside look. This secluded garden is surrounded by high stone walls typical for the backyards in the region of Giverny. While the houses open on to the streets, the walls are pierced by little wooden doors leading to narrow paths between the estates.  In Monet’s flower garden, this one was the way to the cottage of the head gardener in Monet’s times.
Against the walls, espaliered pear and apple trees recall the former use of the garden as an orchard, before Monet turned it into a magnificent impressionist garden. The straight alleys look like those of the kitchen garden it used to be.

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This is what you can expect if you are visiting Giverny in Early April. The white and pink magnolias are in blossom. Very soon, their flowers will fall on the lawns, creating a white circle at the foot of the trees.
The pimples of weeping willows have burst, long branches of fresh green leaves hang over the pond, reflecting in endless verticals.
Patches of yellow or white daffodils illuminate the spring grass and diffuse a fabulous scent.
Monet’s pond, where only a few water lily pads announce the future splendour of Summer, is stiller than ever, and the atmosphere very peaceful.
All the benches and bridges have been repainted a bright green. They look inviting.
And birds sing like mads, offering the perfect voice track for a quiet and serene visit of Giverny.

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Monet’s House and Garden at Giverny will open in exactly one month, on April 1st. You can already buy your admission tickets on-line, by following this link.
It is wise to buy your ticket in advance, because lines can be long sometimes, especially on sunny days.
In 2012, the admission fare at the till is 9 euros for an adult, 5 euros for young people between 7 and 25 (free for kids up to 6 years old). For an e-ticket you will pay an extra cost, but it is not expensive.
You can book your admission for any day from 1st April to 1st November, 2012. Fondation Monet is open 7/7. The best day to come is generally Wednesday. The best time: late afternoon, after 4.00pm, on week-days, because most visitors leave early to get back to Paris.
Or, on week-end, a good tip is to come early in the morning. With your e-ticket you can get in as early as 9.15am.
When in Giverny, make your way to the Group Entrance with your advance ticket, (not the individual entrance, because it is for people who don’t have their ticket). The Group Entrance is located at the bottom of the garden in a small lane called ruelle Leroy. It is next to the road D5 coming from Vernon.
You will show your e-ticket to a security member, and in you are! It is only a few steps to the water garden.
I really recommend purchasing e-tickets, because many people are very surprised to see how busy Giverny is. 611 000 visitors came in 2011, all of them within 7 months only!
To make most of your time and enjoy the very special atmosphere of Monet’s gardens, choose carefully the day of your visit. Unless it rains, you can expect crowds on long week-ends in Spring like Easter, 1st and 8th of May, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday. Your vacation time is short, it is not fun to waste it queuing.

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March at Giverny is time for the last tasks before the gates open to visitors on April 1st. The last pruning, clipping, mowing, raking… before D-Day. 

While the gardeners take advantage of the empty garden to put their ladders and wheel barrows in the middle of the alleys, the earliest flowers bloom for their own sake. Big bouquets of daffodils shine in the middle of the fresh green lawns.

The first flowers of Spring are mostly yellow. They are paired with blue pansies to obtain this color combination that Monet liked so much, and that looks very attractive.

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It is many painters’ dream to be able to stay in Monet’s garden to paint.
If your medium is watercolor, pencils, ink… no problem. Just sit down on a bench (preferably) and paint. But if you use acrylic, for instance, and need an easel therefore, you must ask for allowance. Please get in touch with Fondation Monet. If there aren’t too many requests for the day you wish, you will be granted the privilege of staying in the gardens after closing time. This is the best way to feel just like Monet, almost alone on the grounds. Same vibrations, same inspiration. Have a great time!

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Are you curious to have a look inside of Monet’s greenhouse, that is not open to the public?
I was! With the allowance of the gardener, I took this picture last July.
Even in Summer many plants need to be kept inside. Some of them will decorate the house, others will be used to adornate the meeting rooms when VIPs come to Giverny, others are waiting for being planted, others are mother plants…
Monet was such a keen gardener that he built a greenhouse on the location of this one, on the left side of the flower garden. It was heated, and the painter cultivated orchids and exotic ferns. He also grew his seedlings in the greenhouse.

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In front of his second studio, a pink house he built in 1899 on the corner of his estate, Monet designed a colorful area of parallel flower beds.
In October, the tall flowers of late season mix their pinks, blues, yellows, oranges and reds and their different textures ans shapes, creating a living painting that moves in the breeze.
Sages, dahlias, asters, cosmos, roses, black eyed Susan, tithonias are all enchanting September and October.

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The beauty of September in Monet’s garden at Giverny lies in the bright colors displayed by giant flowers.

Pink or red huge dahlias, tall yellow helianthus, enormous purple asters, supersized yellow or brown sunflowers have now reached their final height.

In the main alley, nasturtiums flow like a river on the sloping ground, pretending to fill the pond of the water garden.

Their petals shimmer in the sunshine, just like paint on an impressionist canvas.

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Summer is a gorgeous time in the gardens, especially at Giverny. While water lilies are at their best, the flower garden offers an explosion of colors.

Dahlias in every shapes and shades show their heads among the light butterfly like gauras, phlox and lavenders spread their scents, gladiolis bent graciously over the alleys, surrounded by sages and verbenas. The list of blooming flowers is endless.

Instead of carpeting the ground like in spring, summer flowers stand, tall, imposing and delicate at the same time, offering another experience of the garden.

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This is one of the most impressive flower beds at Giverny: a vibrant combination of pink and red pelargoniums displayed on oval patterns, just in front of Claude Monet’s house. They look very much like carpets of flowers at the foot of the facade.
Pelargoniums, known until recently as geraniums, are the most popular Summer flowers in France. They were my grand mother’s favorite on her windows. No wonder, they are so resistant, easy to grow, long flowering and colorful!
Pelargoniums are commonly used in pots, it is a nice change to plant them in the garden where their rich tones flame in sunny spots.
In Monet’s gardens, they make their come back every year in May just after the last tulips. According to the mood of the gardener, they are planted either by color – an entirely red border and a fully pink one side by side – or mixed like this year. I prefer the latter option. It looks less formal, and more ‘painted’.
A border of pelargoniums in Monet’s garden? It doesn’t sound very exciting. Actually, it is daring. This red and pink carpet surprises many visitors, astonished to encounter such a low and formal flower bed at last, after so many unusual, overgrown mixed borders.
The explanation is the need of contrast. In late Summer, when huge flowers overwhelm visitors meandering along, it is nice to have a corner where you can breath, see in the distance. After the wood, the clearance.
Contrast, one of Monet’s favorite painting trick.

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Standard roses are one of the beauties of Giverny.

As tall as trees, they measure over 2 meters and they offer their pink blossom like enormous bouquets.

Rose trees are generally not strong enough to resist wind, so they are grown on metallic structures that look like umbrellas or mushrooms, according to your imagination. Some people call them weeping roses, that’s really too sad.

In Monet’s flower garden, they tower over big bunches of peonies and large flower beds of pink and red poppies.

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In the 19th Century, trees used to be white in Spring. There were white blossoms of cherry trees, white plum trees, white pear trees… Apple trees were slightly tinted with pink when budding, but became white when in bloom. Only southern trees like peach or apricot trees could be pink, however they were rarely to be seen in Normandy.

So we can imagine the novelty of introducing exotic varieties like crab apples, Japanese cherry or plum trees in a little village on the countryside like Giverny. Their pink blossom must have looked unique to Monet, and to his neighbours.

The pink exotic trees are widely spread by now, but in April their short beauty still enchants Spring in Claude Monet’s gardens.

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If you are planning a visit to Monet’s garden in Giverny, you may wonder what is the best time of year to come. There are many! The scenery, the flower show change with the seasons. One of my favorite time is the tulip’s.
Tulips flower mostly during the second half of April. Their blooming is spectacular, gorgeous, breathtaking. They offer colors, colors, colors, always bright ones, they can have soft and tender or very warm flaming tones. They exist in an infinite variety of forms and aspects. And they provide amazing mass effects.
This border, for instance, was designed by Monet after visiting and painting the tulip fields in Holland. He was impressed by the large colorful stripes of these cultures.
When he came back to Giverny, Monet decided he wanted a very long border in his garden, from top to bottom, planted according to a monochromatic scheme.
This oversized flower bed records to his visual experience in Holland, as far as color and size are concerned. But Monet could not be satisfied with one sort of tulips only. His ‘tulip field’ is a very refined mixed border composed of many different sorts of tulips. They harmonize, their pink is slightly different, producing the subtle variation of tones that one can observe on an impressionist painting. A beautiful example of the way Monet used flowers like brushstrokes.

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