April is a very colorful month at Giverny, thank to thousands and thousands of tulips, underplanted with pansies, wallflowers and forget-me-not.
Monet combined short flower beds and very long ones, inspired by the colorful stripes of the tulipfields that he had seen in Holland.
The sun has been shining on Giverny lately, awakening flowers and buds. Spring is back, and for the first time in three years the Monet gardens are due to open on their usual opening day: April 1st.
We all are super excited ! There is joy and relief in the air, after two long seasons impacted by the pandemic. As I am writing this post, no mask nor vaccination pass are required any more. You can either buy your ticket online or on site, though it is recommended to use e-tickets to avoid waiting in line.
The gardens will be as lovely and stunning as usual, and the Musee des Impressionnismes Giverny treats us with a Monet/Rothko exhibition that will please the many fans of both artists, I hope. The museum opened last week.
Coffee-shops and little restaurants are preparing their open air terrasses, and birds have started their spring concert. Guides, like me, read their notes once again to remember every single detail. In Monet’s gardens, the gardeners hurry to take advantage of the empty garden to finish their winter tasks. Everything will look pristine next Friday ! 🙂
While at Giverny, you shouldn’t miss the beautiful ‘Musee des Impressionnismes’, a few steps away only from Monet’s place. Because it has great exhibitions organized with the help of Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the very specialist of this art movement in France. And because of its stunning garden. This is a corner of the white garden at the tulips time, mid or late April, with the backdrop of blossoming cherry trees.
This year the season will start on March 18, 2022 with an exhibition I am already eager to see: Monet / Rothko. It should be an uplifting feast of colors. (up to July 3, 2022). It will be followed on July 14 by The Collection’s Summer, up to October 2, 2022.
In the vicinity of Giverny, the little town of Vernon has a museum that is well worth a visit, at least for its impressionist rooms that include two beautiful Monets. The museum Alphonse-Georges-Poulain also owns 8 works by Blanche Hoschedé-Monet (1865 – 1947). At the same time step daughter and daughter in law of the master, Blanche was his only pupil. She often painted next to him, until she stopped when Monet lost his wife – her mother – to take care of him.
Blanche resumed painting after Monet died. Then only she dared choosing his garden as a motiv. The Pond at Giverny is not dated but we can guess it was painted between 1927 and 1947.
The corner Blanche picked up doesn’t appear on Monet’s works. The angle encompasses the dock on the far left, a cherry blossom, two tall trees that could be the ashes at the entrance to the water garden, the still young copper beech and probably the start of the Japanese bridge on the far right. The edges of the pond are still like in Monet’s times, with clumps of irises, peonies and rosebushes on lawns, a contrast with the present day lush flower beds all around the pond.
If you intend to visit Giverny in the next weeks, here is what awaits you at the entrance: you will be asked for your ‘pass sanitaire’ (Covid health pass) or vaccination card (more info on the French government website here), you will need to show your admission ticket (if you don’t have it yet, you can buy it on site) then you will have to open your bag for a visual check, and you will get some gel on your hands. That’s it! 🙂
When inside, you can walk as you like on the grounds, provided that you wear your mask all time. The good side of these measures is that fewer people visit Giverny. Monet’s little paradise almost for yourself? It is worth the effort, ins’t it ?
In the deep shade of trees, it is hard to grow a wonderful lawn. In Monet’s gardens at Giverny, the spot under the tall copper beech had to be sawn anew every year.
This is why the head gardener came to the idea of planting a little moss garden under the old tree. “It is an attempt,” he says. “Let’s wait and see if it works.”
Monet didn’t have any moss garden, as far as we know, but surely he would love the idea: it looks so japanese. This makes it fit perfectly in this corner of the garden surrounded by bamboos, next to the famous footbridge called the Japanese bridge.
Are you missing Monet’s gardens at Giverny? So do I! The gates are still locked and will stay so for several more weeks. France is under lock down at least until mid-May. Not to speak about the borders…
I took advantage of the long hours at home last year to sort out pictures taken in the gardens through the seasons. They’ve been turned into a book:
There is not much to read in this book, the focus is on the pictures. The texts are bilingual in English and French, except for the title 🙂
I’ve found it on amazon.fr. I had to type the title plus the editor, OREP, to get it.
I would be happy to know if Giverny en photos is available where you live. If you can find it on a website, would you please let me know? Merci beaucoup !
Claude Monet paid attention to organise a cosy sitting and reading nook in his three studios at his Giverny home. This comfy flowered settee is located in a room called salon-atelier, that’s to say living-room-studio.
After moving his works in process to a larger studio in the corner of the estate, Monet turned the first studio connected with the main house into a place for entertainment.
Monet liked reading aloud for his family, or playing games. This first studio was also a place where he withdrew after lunch or dinner for a little glas of brandy and a pipe or a cigarette. On special occasions, the latter would be upgraded to a cigar. Happy New Year!
While trees are changing colors from green to shades of brown and yellow, flowers offer in October fire works of bright and beautiful tones. In Monet’s gardens at Giverny, asters of all kinds steal the show, enhanced by tall yellow helianthus and amazing dahlias. Sages are at their best.
Anyway, after closing day, in November, the gardeners won’t spare any of these beauties. They will rush to clean up the flower beds and plant spring bulbs before it gets cold.
The pandemic is clearly a disaster for tourism, but it has some positive effects. At Giverny, the few visitors of 2020 can enjoy Monet’s gardens in a way that had long been forgotten.
Last year had been a new record year with 715 000 visitors coming from all over the world. During the last decade, the painter’s little paradise had won a reputation of being over crowded. If not every day, it was often the case.
This was in the past, up to 2019. The corona changed it all, reducing the number of visitors drastically to a mere 15% of the previous years visits.
Visitors must wear a mask, sure. They must also buy advance tickets on line. A very limited amount of tickets are for sale. And not a single group over 5 people is accepted.
As a result, touring Monet’s gardens and house has never been that comfortable, with nobody to shrub shoulders with. It is all one way to ensure physical distancing. On the way back after walking around the pond, staff help people over the road to the flower garden. Visitors enter the house by the studio, which is great.
When, by any chance, I give a guided tour in the gardens, this year it is always a private tour. It is easy to find a spot where to stay and talk. We take our time. No rush. The gardens are gorgeous.
I’ve been there a dozen of times this year. Instead of around 200 the previous ones, when the gardens opened in March and admitted all the visitors willing to enter.
Each time was a feast. And at the same time it broke my heart, because I can’t live anymore from this job I love.
At last the date is known: Fondation Monet will open again to visitors within ten days, on Monday June 8 at 9.30 am. Previous purchase of tickets online will be mandatory, and possible from May 29 on. Access will be denied to people without tickets or not wearing a face mask.
Entry will be through the former ‘group entrance’ in Ruelle Leroy. Visitors will have to follow a one way path and keep off from other people (at least 1 meter away). All this sounds only natural and logical due to the pandemic. Good news, guided tours are allowed! Hope to see you soon at Giverny!
The gardeners are the only ones to enjoy the beauty of the tulips.
The weather has been exceptional this month. Since the first self-isolation day on March 17, it has rained only once at Giverny. At night.
The gardeners must water, for flowers wouldn’t stand it that long in the drought. They work as usual, standing apart. A strange mood floats in the air, made of quietness, disappointment and worries. They miss the visitors, they feel concerned by health issues and by the future.
The Foundation Monet won’t accept groups in 2020. When reopening will be allowed, it will be for individuals only. If we look to the bright side of life, we can forecast there won’t be any crowds in Monet’s gardens and house this year, which will make the tour even nicer.
The season’s opening is traditionally April 1st at Giverny, but this year the gardens created by Monet will stay closed, at least until May 1st. Is it necessary to explain why?
There are very few cases of coronavirus in the area, but the rule is the same everywhere in France : we must stay at home.
If the pandemic peak is over by May 1st, it will be in time to see the beauty of the wisteria covered footbridge designed by Monet.
Stay safe and take good care!