Monet's Giverny: A Deep Dive
Claude Monet's house and garden at Giverny in Normandy was the painter's home from 1883 until his death in 1926. The garden — a flower garden in front of the house, a Japanese-inspired water garden across the road — became both Monet's subject and his greatest material achievement, inseparable from the late great series of Water Lilies paintings.
Origins
Monet rented the house at Giverny in 1883 and bought it in 1890 from Indochine money sent home by his stepson Jean-Pierre Hoschedé. The pink stuccoed building remains essentially as he left it.
The Clos Normand
The flower garden in front of the house is laid out in formal grid pattern, but each rectangular bed is filled with the dense, colour-graded planting of cottage garden style. The Grande Allée running from the front door to the iron gates is lined with iron arches for climbing roses.
The Water Garden
Created from 1893 after Monet diverted water from the Ru, a tributary of the Epte. The Japanese-inspired bridge (1895, repainted green from the original Japanese vermilion to suit Monet's eye) crosses the central pond, fringed with weeping willows.
The water lilies
Monet's water lilies are not just decoration: they were systematically planted, manipulated and observed for over thirty years as the subject of around 250 paintings. He cultivated unusual coloured forms developed by Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac.
Restoration
Monet's heirs allowed the garden to decline; it was restored by Gilbert Vahé from 1977 to 1980 under the direction of Gerald van der Kemp. Today's planting is based on Monet's own letters, photographs and seed orders.
Visiting
Open April to November. About 600,000 visitors a year — Giverny is one of the most-visited gardens in France. Avoid peak hours (10:30am to 3:30pm); early morning and late afternoon are the best times to photograph.
Explore on the map
All of the gardens mentioned in this article are pinned on the interactive map. Use it to plan a route, group nearby sites into a single trip, or compare gardens by style and season.