• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

We will not go back.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

No one could have predicted…

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

This chaos was totally avoidable.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Petty moves from a petty man.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road – MollyS – Monet’s gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand

On The Road – MollyS – Monet’s gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand

by WaterGirl|  June 17, 202110:00 pm| 7 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, On The Road After Dark, Paris After Dark, Photo Blogging

FacebookTweetEmail

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.

Submit Your Photos

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

On The Road - MollyS - Monet's gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand 6
Giverny FranceApril 12, 2017

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.

On The Road - MollyS - Monet's gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand 5
Giverny FranceApril 12, 2017

The view of one half of the garden from the house’s front porch.

On The Road - MollyS - Monet's gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand 4
Giverny FranceApril 12, 2017

Rose-covered iron arches cross the central pathway.

On The Road - MollyS - Monet's gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand 3
Giverny FranceApril 12, 2017
On The Road - MollyS - Monet's gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand 2
Giverny FranceApril 12, 2017
On The Road - MollyS - Monet's gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand 1
Giverny FranceApril 12, 2017
On The Road - MollyS - Monet's gardens at Giverny, the Clos Normand
Giverny FranceApril 12, 2017

More to come!

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Zoom with Voces de la Frontera?
Next Post: Late Night Open Thread: What’s the Opposite of ‘Schadenfreude’? »

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve in the ATL

    June 17, 2021 at 10:32 pm

    Ooh la la que je l’aime!

  2. 2.

    Benw

    June 17, 2021 at 10:35 pm

    Sick. Gloriously sick!

  3. 3.

    frosty

    June 17, 2021 at 11:48 pm

    Very nice!

  4. 4.

    Mary G

    June 18, 2021 at 12:11 am

    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.

  5. 5.

    randy khan

    June 18, 2021 at 12:26 am

    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.

  6. 6.

    Gvg

    June 18, 2021 at 6:15 am

    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.

  7. 7.

    Laura Too

    June 18, 2021 at 7:26 am

    Beautiful, thanks!

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - BarcaChicago  - Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters 8
Image by BarcaChicago (7/11/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • dimmsdale on War for Ukraine Day 1,233: Another Day, More Russian War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity (Jul 11, 2025 @ 11:26pm)
  • Wombat Probability Cloud on Friday Night Open Thread (Jul 11, 2025 @ 11:23pm)
  • Elizabelle on Friday Night Open Thread (Jul 11, 2025 @ 11:17pm)
  • pieceofpeace on Friday Night Open Thread (Jul 11, 2025 @ 11:16pm)
  • Parfigliano on War for Ukraine Day 1,233: Another Day, More Russian War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity (Jul 11, 2025 @ 11:15pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!