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Alice Alley Autumn Azaleas Church entrance Exhibition Fall Flower flowers Garden Giverny Giverny Garden home house Impressionism Japanese Japanese bridge Kitchen Monet Monet's flower garden Monet's garden Monet's home Monet's House Museum Museum of Impressionisms Giverny Nymphea painting pink Pond Poppy rose Snow spring spring flowers studio Summer Tree Tulip Vernon Water-Garden Water Lily weeping willow Winter Wisteria
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The church of Giverny looks beautiful! The works are almost finished by now, they have lasted three years.
Everything was scanned, repaired or replaced, from the roaster on the top of the spire to the murals inside of the choir. The result is stunning.
The church of Giverny deserves this attention. The oldest part dates back to the 11th Century.
Claude Monet and his family celebrated their religious events in this sanctuary.
Monet is buried in the nearby cemetery.
The beauty of late season at Giverny relies on the reflections on Monet’s pond.
The surrounding trees turn red, orange, yellow and dip their image into the water.
Their warm colors split in dots of changing shapes form a stunning contrast with the cold blue and perfectly defined leaves of the remaining water lilies.
This picture was taken one month ago. Now the leaves have been blown away, and Fondation Claude Monet is closed until next 1st April.
In his water garden at Giverny, Claude Monet planted tall trees like weeping willows, ash trees, chestnut trees, poplars, copper beeches…
They were underplanted by shrubs that offered their interesting foliages, flowers, berries, and scents: roses, tree peonies, azaleas, rhododendrons, viburnums, Japanese maples, ferns…
These shrubs were underplanted by flowers, for example flag irises, to provide a touch of vibrant color.
Thus, Monet created a little world that resembled a clearance in the woods.
He liked to feel blended with nature. Staring at the reflections of the sky into the pond, he could loose any notion of himself and merge into the waterscape.
Today was the last day of the season at Giverny.
At 6.00pm, the flags at the entrance gate were taken in for the last time of the year and the last visitor left.
The shutters of Monet’s home will stay closed tomorrow, while the gardeners will start their rush before frost.
They have to store fragile plants in the greenhouses, and pull out all the flowers to clean the beds and start thinking of next spring. Fall and winter are a busy time for the gardeners!
Giverny lies west of Paris, 80 km away from the city, in the Seine valley.
The river flows at the bottom of the hill on the background of the picture. It has carved deeply the tender chalk of the plateau, creating steep hills.
The bottom of the valley is floodable, this is why the village was built at the foot of the hill. It stretches over three kilometers along a single street, now named after Claude Monet.
Only a small portion of Giverny can be seen on the photo. (click to enlarge)
Right in the middle, you can see the big studio of Monet, recognizable thanks to the window panes on the roof. On its right, the long pink house with a slated roof is Monet’s home. And on the right of the house, the next building was Monet’s second studio (see the windows on the roof there too).
Behind these three buildings one can notice the garden. The trees on the pond side blend into the nature around, hardly noticeable by their more vibrant colors. And behind Monet’s gardens, fields show that there are good alluvial grounds here.
Nesting in its natural surroundings, Giverny is a rural village in the countryside, living on a slower pace than the big city of Paris. Being a nice day out is one of the assets of an excursion to the home of Claude Monet.
American visitors to Giverny often ask to which agricultural zone Giverny belongs. A puzzling question indeed, as these zones aren’t commonly used in France!
Asking about the coldest temperature in Winter doesn’t help a lot, because the Frenchs count in Celsius, not in Farenheit.
I finally found the answer: Giverny is in zone 8.
During the coldest night of the last Winter, temperatures reached -13°C, that is to say 8°F. This is OK for many plants, trees and bushes, except the most fragile.
Some flowers even need frost to understand that it is Winter, and then Spring. If tulips, for instance, don’t get all the cold they need, they will sulk and refuse to bloom the next Spring!
Early in the morning, long before the first visitor arrives in Monet’s garden at Giverny, rays of orange sunshine stroke the Japanese bridge of the water garden, while a light mist raises from the pond.
Monet, who was an early bird, loved to get up before sunrise, in order not to miss a second of the dramatic show of light and water.
Spring at Giverny is like fireworks renewed every two weeks.
Daffodils and hyacinths burst out first, followed by tulips and alliums.
Bright colorful bulbs are everywhere, in the middle of the lawns, in squares, in rows, squattered in flowerbeds…
The gardens of Claude Monet opened two weeks ago, on April 1st. During the winter, benches and fences have been freshly repainted in green, and the spring garden looks repainted too, with the fresh greens of leaves and of grass.
Japanese cherries and crab apple offer their blossoms to the breeze, creating delicate flakes of pink snow.
The air is full of delicious scents and birds songs, and the sun is higher every day.
Forthysias are in bloom again at Giverny.
Their bright yellow enlightens not only Monet’s, but every gardens.
Today it is raining a little bit. The sky is overcast and grey, the Seine silvery, the landscape bathed in a mute grey light.
This is the weather forthysias like most for their very special magic. When all the colors have disappeared, their bunches burn like fires. Their straight twigs resemble rays of sunshine.
When the real sun comes back again, the magic vanishes. Forthysia bunches become yellow flowers again.
Few visitors explore this corner of Monet’s gardens at Giverny. It is hidden between his home and a row of linden trees. The pathway leads to nowhere: it used to be the way to Monet’s second studio, but the latter is not open to the public.
Monet had a small rose garden in this very protected area. A big wall shelters them from northern wind. Roses don’t get much sunshine either, but apparently they don’t mind. Many plants don’t dislike shadowed exposure as much as they dislike big changes in temperature.
The roses planted in this pocket rose garden are at their peak at the turn of May and June. The picture was taken on June 4. If you visit Giverny at another season, you might want to look for this little corner not for the roses, but for the rhododendrons, the dramatic Philadelphus, or just for the shadowed bench offering views on Monet’s first studio.
Monet’s pond is frozen.
A small coating of snow hides the surface like a new canvas.
Long blue shadows stretch on the shining whiteness.
Not a single flower.
Even the brave pansies are covered with a blanket of snow.
No colors, except for the green bridges.
Birds are hiding, but their prints are everywhere, like strange words written in the snow.
And the running water of the river reminds that life is awaiting under the appearant death of nature.
How could one get tired of this beauty?
The picture was taken this year on October 12.
There were still many flowers in full bloom, the gorgeous dahlias, contrasting with delicate asters and cosmos, and the bright yellow helianthus.
They provide a fabulous setting to the pale pink house.
September and the beginning of October are just breathtaking in Monet’s heaven at Giverny.
The beauty of early October at Giverny, when Monet’s flower garden radiates with bright colors, is breathtaking.
It is certainly one of the best times to see the painter’s garden, more impressionist than ever.
Huge bouquets of sunflowers, asters, dahlias, cosmos mix their colors to create an overwhelming effect.
The metallic arches and tripods vanish in this sea of flowers, as well as visitors.
The beginning of Autumn is a gorgeous season in Giverny.
Walking in the paths of Monet’s garden provides a unique experience of being merged in the flowers. Giant dahlias, cosmos, sunflowers have reached an incredible height.
All mixed together in enormous bunches of colors, they dance in the slightest breeze.
Overwhelming beauty.
The few visitors exclaim, astonished: It was worth coming! So many flowers! I wouldn’t have believed!
The air smells of sages, lavenders, and the acid fragrance of dying poplar leaves.
The waterlilies floating on the pond seem to be dreaming all day long. They hardly open for a few hours in the afternoon before closing again and returning to their sleep.
A detail strikes the visitors who enter Monet’s bedroom at Giverny: the bed is ridiculously small.
Claude Monet wasn’t very tall, and he didn’t share his bed with his wife. They had separate bedrooms. Not because they didn’t care, but rich families copied the aristocracy and had separate ‘appartements’, though they were connected.
Monet could get up very early without waking his wife. He loved to paint before sunrise, when the river is still covered with mist.
The bed and the armoire, which were not very expensive furniture, were painted according to Monet’s taste.
Monet had gorgeous views over his garden from his bedroom’s three windows. The painter designed his bedroom, he had it built just over the first studio. He wanted a lot of light in it.
The bedroom was the place where he hung his collection of impressionist paintings by his friends, an incredible collection of 35 canvases including 12 paintings by Cézanne, many Renoirs, Sysleys, Morisots, Manets and so on.
The desk is a beautiful antique from the 18th century.