Overview
In 1883 Monet arrived in Giverny, a small village about 50 miles northwest of Paris. He had spent decades moving around, chasing light, landscapes and a reliable income. By the time he settled here, he had achieved enough success to shape his environment exactly as he wished — and Giverny became both his refuge and his masterpiece. What you see today is not simply a preserved artist’s home, but a physical expression of Monet’s vision: gardens designed as living canvases, colors arranged like brushstrokes, and water carefully engineered to reflect the moods of the sky.
Monet lived in Giverny for more than 40 years, until his death in 1926. It was here, increasingly withdrawn from public life, that he painted his great late works — especially the Water Lilies. The property consists of two main areas: the Clos Normand flower garden in front of the house, and the water garden with the Japanese bridge on the other side of the road. Neither garden existed in its present form when Monet arrived; both were designed, planted, replanted, and adjusted endlessly to meet the needs of his eye.
The Village and Setting
Giverny lies between the Seine and the chalk cliffs of the Vexin plateau. Before Monet, it was an ordinary rural village: orchards, pastures, and modest stone houses. The light in this part of Normandy is famously soft — a shimmering mix of river moisture and pale skies that appealed strongly to Impressionist painters. Monet saw the potential immediately and transformed the land, gradually expanding his property as his finances improved.
The area remains quiet today, though the number of visitors means the village has more cafés and galleries than it once did. The landscape around Giverny is gentle and harmonious, helping visitors understand why Monet spent decades studying the smallest shifts of season and light here.
Monet’s House
The house is long, low and painted in cheerful pink with green shutters. Monet enlarged it several times to accommodate his growing family and his growing need for studio space. Inside you’ll find bright, bold colors — yellows, blues, greens — which may surprise visitors who expect something more subdued. Monet believed color affected mood, and every room reflects a different palette.
The kitchen is tiled in blue and white; the dining room is a vivid lemon yellow. Monet also filled the walls with Japanese prints — Hiroshige, Hokusai, Utamaro — which fascinated him and strongly influenced the design of the water garden. The studio, now reconstructed, was where he composed many large-scale works before transferring them to the enormous studio he later built on the property.
The Clos Normand: Monet’s Flower Garden
The flower garden in front of the house is perhaps the best example of Monet’s vision of color as a living thing. He arranged the beds in long, flowing patterns instead of symmetrical designs. Monet once wrote that he planted “masses of color,” not individual flowers. The garden changes constantly with the seasons, from spring tulips and irises to summer roses, nasturtiums and dahlias.
It is important to remind groups that the garden they see is a re-creation — painstakingly restored in the 1970s and 1980s based on photographs, plant lists and Monet’s letters. The famous archways, tangled paths and overflowing flower beds all reflect his desire for “a chaos that was always controlled.”
The Water Garden
Monet purchased the land for the water garden in 1893. It lay across the road from his house, and he diverted a branch of the Epte River to create the pond. The water garden is unmistakably influenced by Japanese prints: the arched bridge, the hanging wisteria, the willows, the play of reflections.
The pond was not static. Monet constantly rearranged plants, expanded the banks, adjusted the flow of water and experimented with species of water lilies. The garden was not merely a setting — it was a laboratory for his art. He studied how light touched the surface at different hours, how ripples altered reflections, how mists softened the edges of foliage.
Visitors often describe the water garden as surprisingly small, given the monumental scale of the Water Lily paintings. Monet magnified the landscape in his canvases, focusing not on the literal size of the pond but on the way reflections created a vast, floating world of shifting color and space.
Monet’s Late Work
The gardens at Giverny became Monet’s primary subject for the last 30 years of his life. During this period he suffered from cataracts, which altered his perception of color — images became hazier, redder, and more diffuse. Instead of abandoning painting, he pushed further into a kind of abstraction, capturing the sensation of light and atmosphere rather than precise detail.
Many of his monumental Water Lily panels were destined for the Orangerie in Paris, where he collaborated closely on the installation before his death. These works are often considered the foundation of later abstract expressionism. Understanding the garden at Giverny helps students appreciate how deliberately constructed Monet’s vision was — nature filtered through imagination and engineering.
Visiting Tips for Groups
- Giverny can become very crowded from late morning onward. Early entry or late afternoon visits are ideal.
- The paths in the Clos Normand are narrow; groups should move slowly so as not to block foot traffic.
- Photography is allowed outdoors but restricted inside the house. Remind students to check signs.
- The water garden is across a tunnel under the road — do not let the group wander ahead without instructions.
- Explain to students that the gardens are artistic reconstructions, not untouched historical sites.
Despite the crowds, Giverny remains one of the most atmospheric and emotionally rich artistic sites in Europe. The combination of careful horticulture, natural beauty and artistic legacy leaves a deep impression — even on visitors who arrive knowing little about Impressionism. Encourage your group to slow down, notice the layers of color, and look closely at the reflections on the pond. This is exactly what Monet hoped people would do.