Giverny Reflections

Claude Monet was the first impressionistic painter. He developed his new art form in Paris and perfected it in the misty beaches of Normandie. Already famous and with a small collection of other artists exploring this new field of art, he moved from Paris to a small town on the edge of Veron, France, called Giverny where he purchased a house and began building his famous gardens.

Here he perfected a new field of art by building a three-dimensional impressionistic series of gardens and intimate landscapes.

Today, Monet's home is visited by artists from across the world, as well as botanists and landscape architects to revel in this incredible landscape. Of course, the great majority of visitors to his old home are simply tourists.

We visited his place in early May, 2009, arriving from Paris about 1100 on a dark day. The que to enter took over one hour, and we entered as a breeze picked up and raindrops began to fall. However, no rain took place, and the sun came out in a milky whiteish day creating extremely difficult photography. We toured the entire area, all the gardens including the large Japanese garden and Monet's structures. The gardens were extremely crowded with people.

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