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 so 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.
Small trees are scattered among the flower beds.
The two halves of the Clos Normand are linked by several iron arches, covered in climbing roses.
Just a Follow Up To MisterMix’s Earlier Post: The US Conference of Catholic Bishops Have Advanced Their Communion Plan
Lapassionara
Beautiful! Thanks for posting.
Tenar Arha
Wow. Gorgeous flowers, and thanks!
Benw
Nothing against Monet, but I’d be a world renowned expressionist painter too if my yard looked like THAT
Thanks for the lovely pics :)
Jay
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxm7Hu-IHJs
Fun
susanna
@Jay: This is good! Thanks for posting.
susanna
I’d hook up a hammock and live outdoors with a garden like this. The pictures alone promote welcomed delight, thank you.
Yutsano
@Jay:
That reminds me of something…
Origuy
I was in Las Vegas once when the Bellagio had re-created Monet’s garden in their conservatory. In miniature, of course. It was still quite impressive.
randy khan
Flowers everywhere. What a delight!
CaseyL
@Benw: I know, right? All that beauty and color and glory; you’d be just itching to get it onto the canvas!
@Jay: That was wonderful; thanks for finding and sharing it!
sdhays
@Benw: You’re not wrong. The garden bursts with amazing colors. Even a middling talent would produce paintings that you’d want to just stand and look at.
Mary G
Those gardeners have some sick skills. I would love to go there. Just a place of magic.
Falling Diphthong
As an unapologetic fan of Monet’s work, I have really appreciated these photos. Thank you.
Gvg
It is not correct that Monet did not like organized gardens. You may mean he didn’t use many formal clipped boxwood type arrangements, but the plants and colors were very organized and planned. The gardener speakers there spoke of some of it and there are books on the garden. I think there is one by one of the head gardeners going into what they plant or start when to get those effects. Monet knew what he was doing. There is a very organized plan. He also knew what grows when and how the seasons changed.
His nasturtium plantings are amazing. I have been experimenting with them here. In Florida, I have to grow them in winter through spring. Also moder breeders have produced small mounding ones and I need long trailing ones. This fall I will order some different varieties.