Use these navigation links to move between the Year 2025 pages.  Specific pages can be accessed at the bottom of this page

May 2025 (Part 14)

France Trip: Day 6: Giverny

Our first port call found us in Giverny, where Claude Monet had his home.  Monet had found the spied the pink house from the train and was delighted to find it was for rent and included a large garden along with a barn which could act as a studio.  He and his family moved in 1883, providing a level of domestic stability he had not really enjoyed up to that time. His fortunes began to improve as he began to sell more paintings, allowing him to purchase the home in 1890 where he would stay for the next 40-years and used as a source of inspiration throughout that time.  During the 1890s, Monet built a greenhouse and a second studio, a spacious building well lit with skylights.  Monet wrote daily instructions to his gardener, precise designs and layouts for plantings, and invoices for his floral purchases and his collection of botany books.  As Monet's wealth grew, his garden evolved.  He remained its architect, even after he hired seven gardeners.  Monet purchased additional land with a water meadow.  White water lilies local to France were planted along with imported cultivars from South America and Egypt, resulting in a range of colors including yellow, blue and white lilies that turned pink with age.  In 1902, he increased the size of his water garden by nearly 4000 square meters; the pond was enlarged in 1901 and 1910 with easels installed all around to allow different perspectives to be captured.

This was a beautiful setting.  Collectively we took 978 pictures at Giverny, with Alexa accounting for just under half with 277 on her iPhone and a fair share of the 404 taken on the Canon EOS camera.

We met our guide, Frederick, once we got off the short bus ride.  They had us split into 4 or 5 groups, and Cathy headed off to one that promised a but less walking.  We enjoyed a short walk through Giverny to get to Monet's house, during which Alexa had already taken twenty pictures before we even reached the gardens.

We were there when the grounds opened, and headed inside and quickly took a path under the road to the gardens around the lily pond.

There was a line of people taking pictures on the Japanese Bridge, with the tour guide for the Japanese group rather aggressively defending their position.

We did manage to get some pictures from the other side of the bridge.

Once back on the other side of the road, Frederick moved us along a bit to get to the house, telling us to go through the garden after the house.  Glad we did, as we went through with almost no line and less people inside.  By the time we were leaving, the line was wrapped around and out the ropes.

You enter through the iconic study, where Monet displayed many of his personal favorite pictures for visitors.

A lot of color in every room, along with Japanese prints everywhere.

Back outside, we spent time in the garden, enjoying the stunning flowers and colors, and apparently looking for bees.

In addition to the images she took on her iPhone, Lexi got hold of Steve's camera and apparently just held down the shutter.  Here are a selection of the pictures of bees she (and Nancy) took.  Several of the bees had white bottoms, almost like they'd been marked, but which turned out to be a species of white-tailed bumblebee which are common in France.

Or to mix things up a bit, here is a snail, a small spider, and even a cricket or grasshopper she found.

OK, there were simply way too many pictures of flowers.  Here is a selection of them, not all, just some.  These are from the water garden.

These are from the house gardens.

Some more as we left the garden and walked along the main street back to the bus.