Monet's Garden

This is the last of the posts relating to my recent trip to France.

On my last full day in France I visited the garden at Claude Monet's house in Giverny, Eure.  I have tried in my images to capture the flavour of the Impressionist style in which the garden was designed and is still lovingly maintained.  I took the photographs as I strolled around the garden, looking to right and left, and sometimes over my shoulder – sometimes stopping to get down to a bloom.  The sequence, in consequence, is as much the product of my wanderings as it is of anything else!

The weather forecast that day was for rain in the afternoon, so I was there early and waiting on the step for the house and garden to open.  When the staff opened up, there were already about 30 people waiting.  In I went.  You can see in the earlier images that things are still relatively quiet, but that didn't last long and a great many visitors seem to prefer to crowd into the Lily Pond garden.

Conversations are struck up when you are close to the same people for some time.  I enjoyed two such encounters.  One was with a couple from Arizona.  She was a keen amateur photographer and was wishing she had brought along a longer lens for some of the subjects.  She was taking some photographs of the gardener in the punt (see later) and said that, although she knew it wasn't M. Monet, the "folks back home ... ..."  The other was with a French couple who were passionately interested in the aesthetics of the garden.  They later joined me on a bench as I waited for a chance to capture the bridge over the Lily Pond sans personnes.  They understood totally what I was about.

The house

The original front path – gate to door

The open windows of Monet's bedroom

The 'new' studio

THE pond

THE bridge

Very noisy residents of the Lily Pond

Not THE bridge

THE bridge – nearly empty!

Empty!!! (I waited 20 minutes for this shot)

Taken from one of those bedroom windows

... and then for an enjoyable lunch in the village.  It was possible to eat outside on the terrace of the restaurant, sheltered from the light breeze.

It didn't rain until evening.