On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
MollyS
On April 12, 2017, my daughter, son-in-law, and I went with his parents to see the gardens of Giverny, home of French impressionist painter Claude Monet, about 50 miles northwest of Paris. Giverny has two gardens — the Clos Normand, the flower garden in front of the house, and the Japanese-style water garden, which inspired his Water Lilies series. From 1883, when he moved to Giverny, until his death in 1926, Monet oversaw the planting of millions of seeds and young plants.
The Clos Normand has flowerbeds of differing heights and arrangements. Monet mixed the simplest flowers with the rarest varieties. He did not like organized gardens, preferring to plant flowers according to their colors, then leaving them to grow freely.
In 1893, Monet bought the land that would become the water garden with its famous Japanese bridge and pond. This garden includes weeping willows, a bamboo wood, flowering trees and shrubs, and the water lilies which bloom all summer long.
Monet died in 1926. His son Michel inherited the property, later passing it to the Academie des Beaux-Arts. In 1977, a 10-year reconstruction of the house and gardens began. The house and greenhouse had been badly damaged during World War II but the gardens were restored with the same flowers Monet had planted.
Giverny is scheduled to reopen April 19 — the flowers will be waiting!
Much more information at http://giverny.org/gardens/fcm/fleurs/listflor.htm
I am not a gardener and will not attempt to accurately identify the flowers and trees in the gardens! The Clos Normand was Monet’s “front yard,” covering about 2.5 acres. Clos Normand means “closed garden Normandy” (Giverny is in the Normandy region). My daughter has lived in Paris for six years but this was the first time she had been to Giverny in the spring.
The view of one half of the garden from the house’s front porch.
Rose-covered iron arches cross the central pathway.
More to come!
Steve in the ATL
Ooh la la que je l’aime!
Benw
Sick. Gloriously sick!
frosty
Very nice!
Mary G
Wow. Wish I was there right now. The tulips are so beautiful. I especially love the hot pink ones with the blue/purple lobelia below.
randy khan
We missed the tulips when we were there – it was much too late in the season – and they’re spectacular.
I would really like to go back.
Gvg
The water lilies part are across the road, between the paved 2 way road and a canal or river. The guide told us, Monet did some negotiation with the town to dig and divert some of the canal water through to his built ponds. The tour busses had an over flow from the parking lot and parked alongside the road while waiting to get in. We walked out of the bus, along the road to get into the gardens, and crossed back to see the lily part. The parking lot was mostly busses, and busy. The road is a normal road, not one to Girverny, but one that connects towns and goes through.
Monet put a lot of work into that garden, a lot of planning and timing to creat a view that he then could paint. He was a brilliant garden designer as well as painter and could have made a living from that too. I plant nasturtiums because of seeing that garden.
Laura Too
Beautiful, thanks!