It’s a joyous riot of color,
abundant and flowing,
a corner of nature just barely tamed,
a paradise made to order by an Impressionist to please the eye
and provide endless motifs to paint.
Giverny is a small French village 80 km to the west of the capital city Paris, within the valley of the river Seine and the northern region of Haute-Normandie. The village is best known as the rural retreat of the Impressionist painter Claude Monet. French impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926) developed his garden in the Parisian village of Giverny, covering his extensive grounds with brilliant flowers and profuse greenery.Photographer and expert gardener Elizabeth Murray helped to restore Monet’s gardens, which are now open to the public, during the 1980s; she returns each year to capture new radiance on film. Murray’s detailed descriptions accompany her verdant subjects. Included are views of the Grande Alle, the famous Japanese-style footbridge, and the inspirational water garden. Much of the drama in Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny in Normandy, France, comes from the contrasting horizontal and vertical elements. For smaller spaces, irises, bamboos and grasses can replace the weeping willows.

It is divided into two parts. The rectangular Clos Normand lies in front of the house, with archways of climbing plants wrapped around superbly coloured shrubs. The Water Garden lies further away, and provided inspiration for some of Monet’s greatest work. He came here often during his life, his imagination stimulated by the interplay of light and shadow and the dreamy, contemplative quality of this enchanting Japanese garden. It was here that he painted his Water Lilies series, exquisite canvases which seem to convey the essence of Impressionism and herald the abstract movement to come. The scene remains untouched by time and July is the best time to see the water lilies in their full glory.

When you look at Monet’s paintings of his lily pond at Giverny , you begin to realise how much variation there is in them. Some have a little strip of the ground at the end of the pond, others have none; in some the water looks really deep, and in others Monet’s focused on the surface of the water. You begin to realise how there’s the potential for a lifetime’s paintings in just one subject. He loved flowers and the magnificent gardens slope gently down to the River Epte. The gardens also comprise the walled garden, planted according to Monet’s own design, and the Water Garden, shaded by weeping willows, with its famous Japanese Bridge, its wisterias, azaleas and its pond with water-lilies.
While the garden today is thriving, it is permanently maintained much as it was in Monet’s lifetime. Would he be happy with the garden as it is now? Hesitates to answer directly, as if Monet’s watchful spirit might be hovering over the garden.