Dancing in the air.
Flying.
Landing on petals.
Smelling the heavy scents of flowers.
Rolling in stamens.
Living on nectar.
Buzzing.
To be or not to be a bee.
Being a Bee
June 5, 2009
Gardener at Giverny
May 14, 2009
How many gardeners are there at Giverny to tend Monet’s garden, is one of the questions visitors ask most often.
The five acre garden is maintained by eight gardeners.
Some visitors don’t believe me: eighty? they repeat, unsure they have heard well. No, eight only. They do a fantastic job.
In the garden, flowers are changed twice or thrice a year, according to the seasons. When spring flowers are spent they are replaced by summer flowers. This enormous task enables the garden to look very different through the seasons. Spring flowers are small, whereas summer flowers are giant, as tall as sunflowers.
In November all the flowers are pulled out again, the planting of the spring bulbs will take several weeks. The very skilled gardeners of Monet’s estate have a lot of work to do during the winter also, while the property is closed for five months.
In addition, most of the flowers are self produced in greenhouses located in the village of Giverny. This keeps several gardeners busy year round.
It is a hard job to be a gardener in heaven.
Tulips
May 2, 2009
What would be Spring without tulips? They illuminate April in Monet’s garden at Giverny.
According to the head gardener, the list of the varieties displayed in the garden is very long: several hundreds of types of tulips make the Clos Normand sort of a flower show.
It is unbelievable how different the tulips can be. Their colors range from pure white to almost black red, from light pink to deep purple, from pale yellow to bright orange. They can be ridiculously tiny, or incredibly tall. Some are classically round shaped, other ones look like stars, or are as twisted as a flame. The parrot tulips seem tightly shut jaws.
But all of them have this silky quality of petals that reminds of the shine of skin, enhanced by dew in the morning sunshine.
Espaliered Apple-Trees
April 22, 2009
Trees in blossom make Giverny especially beautiful in April, like many gardens.
Monet’s garden was originally an orchard. When the painter-gardener transformed his garden into a living painting, he kept few fruit trees: they looked too common for him, Monet preferred more exotic species. But he still had espaliered pear and apple-trees leaning against the high stone walls.
He also cultivated them around a square lawn pruned in a shape that is called cordon (rope, maybe?). It is quite common in Normandy and looks very pretty.
When the apple trees are very young, two or three years old only, they are severely pruned. The gardener keeps one branch only on each side of the trunk. In Monet’s garden there is an upper tree and a lower tree, and they cross. The purpose for this clipping is to make lovely hedges and to obtain bigger apples, as they get a lot of sunshine and water. It is not always very convincing that the trick works, but at least the apples are easy to pick up… and very tasty!
April Light
April 8, 2009
This is how Monet’s garden looked on April 1st, the very first morning it was open this year.
The morning sun enhances the pure lines of the Japanese bridge, whereas the air is full of scent from spring flowers like daffodils, pansies and hyacinths.
The light of this early hour has pink and blue notes and a very special vaporous quality.
Everything looks renewed and fresh, ready for a new start.
Monet, Bonnard and many more
March 28, 2009
A beautiful exhibition has just opened at Vernon’s museum. A must see if you come to Giverny!
It is entitled ”From Corot to Bonnard, masterpieces from the museums of Douai and Vernon” and features an impressive list of reknown artists such as Monet, Pissarro, Vuillard, Corot, Courbet, Bonnard and many more.
The visit leads you from the early stage of pre-impressionism to impressionism in its glory, followed by néo-impressionist works. a feast for the eyes!
The exhibition is to be seen at Vernon’s museum for three months until June 28.
Bird’s View of Vernon
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.
Monet’s Family
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!
Under the Tulips
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.
Scented Beauties
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.
Snow Again
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.
Monet in his studio
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!
Monet’s House
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.
The Snowy Garden
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.