by Ariane ~ August 18, 2017
Many visitors of Giverny feel inspired by Monet’s flower garden. Here is how to capture its spirit:
- choose a main color to create an almost monochromatic flower bed
- combine as many different flowers in this range of color as possible
- mix up flower sizes and shapes, trying not to have two same flowers side by side
- look for petals having different textures, from velvet to feather
- blur the lines of the borders
Your border should resemble a living impressionist painting, where petals are used like brushstrokes. Happy gardening!
Flowers used in the bed on the picture: ageratum, petunia, browallia, carnation, verbena, gaura, salvia, nicotiana, agrostemma, cleome, anthemis, canterbury bell, malva, papaver somniferum, ammi visnaga, iris, gladiola…
by Ariane ~ July 24, 2017
A cash dispenser has been recently installed at Giverny. It is located just after the museum of impressionisms in the direction to the church. On the left side of the picture you can see the school of Giverny in the background.
The banking machine is user friendly. The instructions are available in many different languages. I tested it, it works!
The cashpoint replaces a phone box that is of no use anymore since everybody has a mobile phone.
Edit 2022: the ATM is now at the bakery, farther away in the direction to the church.
by Ariane ~ June 23, 2017
Monet’s garden at Giverny mid-June. Click to enlarge.
In June, roses blossom in every gardens, and especially in Monet’s flower garden at Giverny. The painter loved to trim them along trellises of all kinds, tripods, arches, or these big mushrooms that are so iconic for Giverny.
June is also the time for poppies and alliums, the big round shaped garlic flowers. Not to mention the huge pigamon, aka thalictrum aquilegifolia, that looks like mauve powder. The garden is full of pinks, reds and purples.
Summer will turn it yellow. Can you see the big leaves in the foreground of the pic? Sunflowers are growing now, to surprise visitors with their dinner plate golden flowers in a month.
by Ariane ~ June 7, 2017
Is there fish in Monet’s pond at Giverny? This is a question visitors ask frequently.
The water lily pond houses a few big carps, maybe eight according to the gardeners.
There are also smaller fish like ruds, that have orange fins, and at least a perch and a pike.
All of them are wild fish that can be found in streams nearby.
They contribute to the ecosystem of the pond and are invaluable to keep this little microcosm balanced.
The Giverny fish are greyish, silvery, but not colorful. No koi carps here, although they would add to the oriental look of the garden.
As mute as they may be, they are visible enough for the heron that visits the pond at dawn. The water is too deep for him to stand in it, but he stays on the side and keeps a close eye on the fish, hoping one will come near enough to be turned into his breakfast.
by Ariane ~ May 14, 2017
The bamboos reflection on Claude Monet’s water lily pond at Giverny adds a lot of interest to the scene, thanks to their moving lines. Their slow motion is quite hypnotic for the viewer, and their geometric aspect contrasts with the other plants all around.
by Ariane ~ April 28, 2017
Spring makes us all want to walk in beautiful gardens. At Giverny, azaleas and tulips gradually give way to irises, peonies and wisterias. The first water lilies should open within two weeks, recreating once more Monet’s beautiful setting and endless source of inspiration. 
In the flower garden, visitors meander inside of a living painting where flowers recreate the illusion of brushstrokes. Monet had good reasons to claim that his garden was his most beautiful masterpiece.
Just like you can see the brushwork when you tour an exhibition and have a close look at paintings, at Giverny each single flower is a little universe in itself, offering its beauties to our admiration.
by Ariane ~ April 5, 2017
Today at Giverny, at the entrance to Monet’s house, two forsythias grown in planters glow for the show.
by Ariane ~ March 31, 2017
It is this time of year again. Already! At last! The beginning of spring. The time of primroses.
They flower in big cushions along the paths, so pretty that they look cultivated. What! Nature offers these lovely bunches of pinks and yellows for free, to please our eyes and feed the bees! A present of springtime, that has so many to give away.
We may cherish the flowers of summer, but the first ones are the dearest. Monet also must have been moved by the beauty of the primroses, because he didn’t want them to be pulled out for the sheer reason that they are wild and common. Instead, he asked his gardeners to plant around them.
This is still done at Giverny. Lovely wild flowers enhance borders of spring bulbs and biennials. They are one of the tips and tricks used by Monet, an accomplished gardener, to make his garden look more natural.
by Ariane ~ March 8, 2017
What is so different and appealing with Monet’s flower garden is its very natural look. The gardeners apply themselves to avoid that flowers seem regimented.
It is not as simple as it sounds. We as humans have a tendency to organize. Spontaneously, unconsciously, what we do and make turns out to be regular.
One of the gardeners’ trick for planting bulbs randomly is to throw them on the ground, the bare ground of late Autumn. Where the bulb fell, there it is planted.
This tip works for camassias or tulips. Biennals are planted by color patches that combine different varieties, wallflowers, pansies, violas… Sizes, shapes and hues of the same color help creating the impressionist brushstrokes feeling.
by Ariane ~ February 19, 2017
Violas and pansies are among the cutest flowers that accept to bloom during winter time at Giverny. They belong to the same family, pansies being bigger than violas. But the latter compensate by having loads of adorable little flowers, often marked by black lines that resemble ink drawings.
Here is viola ‘Tiger Eyes’. With some imagination you may want to compare this black and yellow design with the stripes of a tiger, and the black maculas with his eyes. A very proud name indeed for such a tiny and harmless flower!
Violas and pansies need some warmth to flower. Depending of the winter weather they start early or wait until spring. More trustful are snow drops, that grow in many places in Monet’s garden at Giverny. Their favorite time is February, snow or shine.
They bloom for the pleasure of the gardeners and of the first butterflies, like this Small Tortoiseshell. No visitors yet: the Monet garden is closed up to March 23, 2017 included.
by Ariane ~ February 6, 2017
The beautiful water garden created by the impressionist master Claude Monet at Giverny still inspires painters.
Monet’s house and gardens will re-open on March 24, 2017. I’m looking forward to it. It is such a joy to work daily in this beauty giving guided tours to wonderful people. I miss flowers so much. What about you?
by Ariane ~ January 6, 2017
I wish you a joyful and peaceful, lovely and happy, awesome and handsome year 2017.
Hoping to see you in Giverny this year.
Monet’s gardens are still closed, but the sky does its great show. I can’t get enough of it. Do you like sunrises and sunsets too?
The old year has set, the new one is rising, full of hope. Bonne année !
by Ariane ~ December 30, 2016
If you live in another corner of the world it may be hard for you to imagine what Giverny looks like in the winter. Monet’s gardens and house, as well as the museum of Impressionisms Giverny, are closed from November to the end of March (March 24, 2017 is the re-opening day).
The reason therefore: there isn’t much to see. Monet’s garden is a painter’s garden full of flowers and colors, and right now, it is too cold for flowers. On a nice sunny day, it may be lovely to walk around the pond looking for interesting reflections. But on an overcast or foggy day the experience lacks of charm.
The flower beds are being replanted for the next spring. A few green leaves indicate where stunning fox gloves or colorful wallflowers will stand in a few months. Even with a lot of gardener’s imagination it is impossible to figure out the magical feeling of their full bloom in springtime.
Monet himself didn’t paint his garden during the winter. He preferred the seaside, snow effects in Norway, or cityscapes in London or Venice.
If you still intend to tour Giverny while the garden is closed, be prepared to stay out of Monet’s Foundation. The village itself is peaceful, just like any village in the countryside. You will see a few places that Monet painted, poplars along the Epte, the banks of the river Seine, the old mill and the church of Vernon. Don’t forget to pay him a visit on his grave next to the church of Giverny. The cemetery is open year round.
by Ariane ~ November 21, 2016
Claude Monet, Meule (Grainstack) 1891, private collection
This very colorful sunset at Giverny behind a grainstack has just sold at auction for 81.4 million dollars, setting a new record for a work by Claude Monet.
For this sale Christie’s has published a very interesting booklet that you can read on line here. It details the making of the work and its significance in art history. You will also read why it is not a haystack!
by Ariane ~ November 10, 2016
Thanksgiving is a typically North American feast that we don’t have in Europe, but I wish to borrow it for a moment to say a big end-of-the-year Thank You.
Thank you to all the people who visited France this year, and to those who traveled to Giverny.
Thank you to the staff of Giverny, especially to the gardeners, for making it such a lovely place to enjoy.
Thank you to the sun that was so present last summer and autumn.
And thank you to mother Nature for creating all the heart shaped leaves that I like so much and love discovering in the gardens.
