As you
wander through French Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s restored garden at
Giverny, the artist’s presence seems hauntingly palpable, although he’s been gone
for 75 years. He is there, in the poppy blossoms dancing in the Clos Normand,
in the roses arched languidly across the wide gravel path, in the water lilies
floating serenely in the pond. Despite the thousands of tourists who visit
daily, stopping to sniff the wisteria on the famous bridge or pose for pictures
in the green-shuttered windows of his pretty, pink stucco house, Monet the
gardener shines through.
In 1883,
when the Impressionist painter and his family moved to their new home in the sleepy
countryside of southern Norman
dy,
just 80 kilometres west of Paris, the property was merely an orchard with stone
walls. To the initial consternation of his neighbours, Monet soon set about
diverting a small tributary from the nearby River Epte to fill the new
Japanese-inspired pond that would hold his famous water lilies. And in the Clos
Normand, the sunny expanse stretching out in front of his green-shuttered, pink
house, he planted the tumble of cottage-garden flowers and arched roses that
would inspire many of his most colourful paintings.
Monet lived
at Giverny until his death in 1926. In the ensuing years, his house, studios
and gardens gradually fell into disrepair. Five decades later, they were
restored and, in 1980, the Claude Monet Foundation was 
opened
to the public.
There is much to see in the gardens of Giverny. In May, lush fruit trees, tulips, forget-me-nots, wallflowers, violas and primroses burst into bloom, followed by the famous purple irises, peonies, rhododendrons and wisteria climbing over the bridge on the pond. June brings an abundance of blossoms and foliage; scented mock orange, roses, clematis, blue cornflowers, brilliant pink and red poppies, orange geraniums, those entrancing water lilies and, arching serenely over the path to the pond, a grove of bamboo. (Monet was a collector of Japanese art, and bamboo figures prominently in the gardens.) Summer arrives in a brilliance of lilies and phlox and departs with the tawny September hues of dahlias and nasturtiums.
Giverny is open every day except Monday, from April through October. It attracts about half a million people each year. In July and August, the paths are clogged with traffic as shutterbugs vie for a spot around the pond or in the house’s second-floor windows. The best time to visit is in the off-peak season.
Adapted from an article that appeared originally at Chapters Online