This is how the wisterias over the Japanese footbridge in Monet’s garden look today. The earliest is in full bloom, but not yet the ones with long flowers on the far left. The beautiful white wisteria will flower last, when the first one will be over, in about 10-15 days. As always in a garden, you cannot have it all at the same time. But no matter when in the next days, the wisterias will steal the show, before the first water lilies open on the surface of the Giverny pond.
The Easter week-end is over, flowers are blooming, the first water lily pads float on Claude Monet’s pond, the little green bridge reflects on the water. It’s tulip time.
Claude Monet’s house and gardens, aka Fondation Claude Monet, will reopen to the public after the winter break on March 29, 2024. It will be the Easter week-end, so it may be quite busy on the first days. To save time, make sure you buy your admission tickets ahead of time. Here is the link: http://giverny.org/gardens/fcm/ticket/
This January there were a few days cold enough in Giverny to freeze the surface of Monet’s water lily pond. The dormant rhizoms of the flowers, still alive at the bottom of the pond, don’t mind.
Freezing temperatures didn’t last. We could soon put gloves and scarves aside. And the boat is floating again on the water, ready for the gardeners to use it. The planting of spring flowers is still in progress in Claude Monet’s gardens. It will be completed soon. The venue reopens to the public on 29th March 2024.
Claude Monet, Charing Cross Bridge, 1900 or 1901, pastel, Triton Foundation Collection
The Wildenstein Plattner Institute just announced that Claude Monet’s 110 pastels are now catalogued on line. Less known than the oil paintings, they are of stunning beauty. The website offers also insights, informations and commentary by Geraldine Lefebvre, that can easily be translated to any language. Enjoy !
Monet’s bedroom overlooks his garden, offering views on the Norman Enclosure and the landscape of the Seine Valley. This picture was taken in October, the time of asters and helianthus blooming. 2023 was a record year with 750 000 visitors in Monet’s house and gardens. The estate is now closed for the winter. Reopening on 29th March 2024, for the easter week-end.
The fine arts museum ‘Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny’ has a new exhibition that will last through January 2024. It is dedicated to flowers in art and encompasses so many styles, times, forms of art, subjects and purposes that everybody will find something to feel moved, impressed and amazed. No Monets, though he painted many flowers, but canvases by his friends Bazille, Boudin, Cézanne, an extraordiany Fantin-Latour… Up to present day flowered dresses and Warhol series of flowers… Let it bloom!
The water lily pond in Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny
We are having a cool and rainy summer here in Normandy. Despite the temperature that would be more suitable for September, the water lilies look good on Monet’s pond. Their colors range from white to pale yellow and pinks of all hues. There is even a dark red one that looks almost black. Can you see it in the center of the pond ? It is the one with very few pads.
Roses are in full bloom in Monet’s gardens at Giverny. They climb on trees, on trellisses, they grow in bushes, they weep from big umbrellas and look like trees… Many are very fragrant.
Not only Monet’s garden, but the entire village is full of roses.
On the parking lot, huge ramblers hang down from trees in a striking effect.
And pink climbing roses ornate the old walls of the former farm ‘Ferme de la Cote’.
These last years, late frost killed invariably the tender buds of Claude Monet’s wisteria over the Japanese bridge. The following blooming was unimpressive.
But last winter, the Giverny gardeners installed a spray system that coats the buds with ice when the temperature drops. It worked outstandingly well! The wisteria planted by Monet is gorgeous again.
It will be followed by two more wisterias, one with long flowers and another one with white flowers. There are all very fragant. May is a nice time to visit Giverny! 🙂
In Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny, the bamboo grove is still the same as in the painter’s time. It shows how much the impressionist leader was influenced by the Far East, that he knew through Japanese woodblocks. Monet was a keen collector of Japanese prints and covered the walls of his home with these exotic pictures.
In early spring, a bouquet of forsythia is a must to match the yellow hues of Claude Monet’s dining room at Giverny. The gardeners help themselves in hidden corners of the garden to compose lovely bouquets that follow the seasons.
This winter, Fondation Monet took advantage of the break to redo the lightning in Monet’s house. New standing lamps and light inside the buffets give a new twist to the house. Monet’s home looks brighter and lively. Come and have a look by yourself! 😉
Monet’s gardens at Giverny, 2023, 1st April / Photo Ariane Cauderlier
Visitors are back in Monet’s gardens in Giverny, enjoying the first flowers of the season: daffodils, tulips, pansies, hyacinths, fritillaries… Trees blossom in pink and white. The first water lily pads are appearing on the pool.
Exhibition ‘The Children of Impressionism’ in Giverny, spring 2023
In the nearby Musee des Impressionnismes Giverny (MDIG) the current exhibition is called ‘The Children of Impressionism’. It is packed with works by Renoir, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Boudin… full of fatherly or motherly tenderness. The exhibition will last up to July 2, 2023. Enjoy!
Rue Claude-Monet, Giverny, 21 March 2023 – Photo Ariane Cauderlier
The main street of Giverny is still very peaceful and the shutters are still closed on Monet’s house, but strollers, if any, can notice that winter is over. A warmer air, a brighter sunshine, wind and short showers are giving a boost to nature. The large saucer magnolia next to Monet’ second studio couldn’t wait to open its buds. I hope it will still be beautiful on April 1st, when Monet’s house and gardens will open again after the winter break. Anyway there will be lots of colorful flowers to turn the gardens into a feast for the eyes. I can’t wait! Will you be back too?
