by Ariane ~ March 26, 2009
It was a years’ long dream, yet a frightening one. Finally I took a deep breath, asked the mayor and the priest for permission. To my own surprise I was given the keys.
I felt like Alice in Wonderland. The keys didn’t look odd nor old. They were absolutely normal. But they opened a very special realm.
In Vernon’s church, a narrow door opens onto a spiral staircase that leads to the pipe organ. I knew that if you go on climbing you will reach the turrets and have an amazing view over the town.
I shut the medieval door behind me and started walking up the stairs. There was hardly enough space for one person, but there wasn’t any chance I would meet somebody else coming down.
It was a very strange feeling to be there alone. These backstage parts of the big church seldom have visitors. They look like their makers have just left them. You can almost feel the presence of the stone carvers and masons of the 15th century in the perfectly arranged steps and wall stones. Was I welcome with my cameras?
My heart was beating, but no time to hesitate. I had reached a narrow door. One of the keys opened it, and I was on the northern terrace in front of the House of Good Old Times, the tourist office.
The church and the half-timbered house were so close that they seemed to be speaking. I was afraid to slip on the smooth stones. I carefully closed the door and went on, higher and higher.
Finally I reached the top of the turret and had access to a small balcony. It is like being at the top of the big Wheel. You know you are safe, but you don’t feel you are. The view over Vernon was stunning. Town hall, houses, hills on the background, and over this a very norman sky full of lovely clouds. The pigeons looked at me with astonishment.
The strangest up there is to notice that so many stones are carved, adornated, although nobody can see them. The stone carvers of the Middle ages worked for the sight of God.
It was easier though slightly giddy to go down the spinning staircase. I felt relieved to reach the ground floor, but also sad to close the narrow door of the pipe-organ behind me, and even sader to have to turn back the magic keys.
by Ariane ~ March 6, 2009
Monet and Manet were good friends, as apparent by Edouard Manet’s painting of Claude Monet and his family in their garden at Argenteuil.
The woman in white is Camille, who often posed for Monet and his fellow painters, especially Manet and Renoir.
The relaxed boy leaning against her is Jean, their eldest son. A second one, Michel, was born shortly before Camille died.
Both sons married, but neither of them had children. Monet had no grand-children. However, he lived surrounded by young people because his second wife Alice brought six children in the wedding. And she had many decendents, today about one hundred!
by Ariane ~ March 2, 2009
This is how the garden of the Museum of Impressionisms Giverny looks like in April.
Small chambers of monochromatic beds are hidden behind tall hedges. Each one has a different atmosphere, creating a surprising effect for visitors who stroll along the central alley.
Tulips are a must in spring, of course. But they need to be planted together with smaller flowers at their feet for a greater impact.
Several varieties are suitable to cover the bare ground. Pansies exist in so many colors that it is possible to create infinite harmonies.
Daisies are also a simple solution. Their pink gives a fresh look to the flower bed.
But if you are as lazy as I am, you will certainly prefer forget-me-nots. They reseed on their own and offer a very tender and poetic cloud of tiny flowers for weeks.
They are generally blue, but can also be found in pink or white. In Monet’s garden they are widely used: blue forget-me-nots with pink tulips, white ones with white tulips or pink with pink tulips for a ton sur ton harmony.
Here in the Museum’s garden they are planted in a wave towered by a bunch of tulips: this way they give rhythm to the border.
by Ariane ~ February 17, 2009
Aren’t you tired of winter? We all look forward to spring. In Monet’s garden sprouts of flowers are coming out, while the gardeners are busy planting the pansies.
This is the way they will look in early April. Hyacinths will be already in full bloom and full scent, their delicate perfume recognizable steps away. At Giverny they greet the visitors right at the entrance to the garden.
Their pink combines perfectly with the mauve pansies flowering at the same time. All together they make a bunch of spring.
by Ariane ~ February 4, 2009
After a few milder days it snowed again on Giverny and Vernon.
Unlike Paris where snow melts soon and turns into an unpleasant mud, here it remains white and crispy under the soles for a longer time. It powders the roofs but those with southern exposure won’t stay icy for a long time. Birds know it when they come and sunbath on the Old Mill of Vernon along the Seine.
In the sunshine, the landscape is enhanced by its luminous coating. As Monet would have done, it is an opportunity to experience the different colors of the snow: purple-blue in the shade, yellow and pink in the sunlight.
by Ariane ~ January 28, 2009
This is a view of Claude Monet standing in his first studio amidst his favorite canvases. The light of the afternoon is almost palpable.
This room located in his main house at Giverny was turned into his sitting-room after 1890.
When Monet became successful, he built a new house in the corner of his garden, where he moved his studio. He had now a well lit large room to work in and to store his paintings. The former studio became a place where he used to have a liquor after lunch, where he would sit to read a gardening book or a novel by Maupassant. Monet also used to write many letters.
The paintings for sale where displayed in the second studio whereas he kept the ones he cherished too much to sell them in the first studio.
The picture was made in springtime according to the tulips behind Monet. The photo reveals how much the painter loved flowers. There were at least six vases in his studio on this day!
by Ariane ~ January 17, 2009
Monet’s house at Giverny looks exceptionally long while it is shallow.
The reason for this disproportion? Monet bought a medium sized farm, but he needed more space because of his extended family. Therefore he added two wings to the original building.
On the right he converted a former barn into his first studio. Over the studio he had his own bedroom and bathroom. Monet had even his own stairs and a garden door at his disposal in order not to disturb the family life when he went out early to paint, or when he came in with art collectors.
On the other side of the house, Monet demolished the tiny farm kitchen and designed a big and modern one, more suitable for a bourgeois family with gourmet tastes.
Over this new kitchen there were rooms for Alice’s four daughters. The four boys had their rooms in the attic.
by Ariane ~ January 7, 2009
An unusual view of Giverny: Monet’s water garden is covered by snow.
Not much but enough to transfigure the usually colourfull garden. The pond is frozen, except for the place around the island and the borders.
In the background the roses arches at the dock are still there as a landmark to the dormant garden.
by Ariane ~ December 18, 2008
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!
by Ariane ~ December 12, 2008
I wanted to show you the red squirrels we have got in France. They are very different from the striped ones that are so common in other parts of the planet.
Red squirrels are generally shy, so you can’t promise to your child you will see one during your next walk in the wood.
But at Fall the squirrels come closer to the houses, looking for hazels. Once the leaves are fallen they can’t hide a lot, what makes them easier to photography.
It is absolutely lovely to observe a squirrel hopping on the ground and suddenly speeding up a tree. They are delightfully light and agile, which makes human beings feel clumpsy and heavy in comparison. Our bodies are so much bigger than theirs!
by Ariane ~ December 7, 2008
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.
by Ariane ~ November 30, 2008
Two big wisterias top the bridge in Monet’s water garden at Giverny. One is a pale lavender, it blooms first for two weeks, generally at the beginning of May.
It is followed by the white wisteria. So if you come in May you are pretty sure to see the canopy flowering. But according to the year the blooming period varies. if the Winter was mild and Spring early, the lavender wisteria starts earlier, at the end of April. On the contrary a late Winter can delay it up to three weeks.
But anyway, there is always something spectacularly beautiful to admire in Monet’s garden, from April through October.
by Ariane ~ November 14, 2008
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.
by Ariane ~ November 7, 2008
Nobody will sit on the benches in Monet’s garden anymore this year. Giverny is closed for five months.
Last Sunday evening, when the last tourist left the museum, the garden was still full of blooming geraniums, dahlias and of many annuals.
All of a sudden, everything changed dramatically. No visitors anymore in the alleys, but the very busy gardeners. One of their first task is to put all the benches in a safe place, where they will be cleaned, repainted and repaired this winter.
Another important job is to shelter the fragile flowers which are grown in pots. Within days all the flower beds will become empty and bare, ready to resist the first frost.
But for the moment the weather is mild. Cows are still outside in meadows as green as usual thanks to the almost daily rain. In Monet’s garden the leaves of the glowing liquidambars fall silently onto the pond, whilst their admirors have gone.
by Ariane ~ October 25, 2008
The fallen leaves of the three liquidambars look like stars picked on the surface of Monet’s pond at Giverny.
They twinkle against the dark blue reflection of the sky.
In 19th Century France it was a common pattern to paint murals of stars in the night on the ceilings of churches.
