Photoessay: Le Clos Normand.

Claude Monet’s second garden, Le Clos Normand, is the flower garden (see my post on the first garden, the water garden, here). From the one hector of land, Monet made a garden full of perspectives, symmetries and colours. The central alley is covered over by iron arches on which climbing roses grow. Other rose trees cover the balustrade along the house. Claude Monet did not like organized nor constrained gardens. He married flowers according to their colours and left them to grow rather freely – you can definitely see this when you walk down the balustrades in the garden. It is truly an incredible place, so peaceful, so beautiful.

It’s maybe because of flowers that I’ve become a painter.  - Claude Monet

For more information about the garden, visit the Fondation Claude Monet website.

le jardin d’eau (giverny)

With a passion for gardening as well as an interest in colors, Claude Monet, founder of Impressionism, constructed both his water garden and flower garden (see post here) as true works of art. Walking through his gardens, over Japanese bridges and through rows of flowers, you can marvel at the floral compositions and at the infamous nymphéas, his greatest sources of inspiration. A cycle of Monet’s water-lily paintings, known as the Nympheas, was arranged on the ground floor of the Musee d’Orangerie in 1927 – these enormous paintings can be still seen today (see previous post here).

It took me some time to understand my nymphéas…..I grew them without thinking of painting them . You cannot become immersed in a landscape in a single day…And then, all of a sudden, I had the revelation of theenchantments of my pond….I took my palette. Since then, I have had almost no other model. - Claude Monet

Visit the Fondation Claude Monet in Giverny at 84, rue Claude Monet, 27620 Giverny, France. The foundation is open everyday from the April 1st to November 1st from 9.30 to 18.30. For more information, visit the website. For more information about the village of Giverny, visit the tourist website.

PS. I love Nichole Robertson’s post of Giverny, see it here on her blog, littlebrownpen!

city trip: giverny

On Sunday, before heading back home, we drove to Giverny. Giverny sits on the “right Bank” of the River Seine, 80 km from Paris, on the border between the province of Normandy and Ile-de-France. Why visit this small village? Claude Monet’s house and gardens, of course!

Claude Monet lived in Giverny for 43 years. His house and gardens, the village of Giverny and its surroundings, were his subject matter and they still attract half a million visitors each year from all over the world. There are two parts in Monet’s garden: a flower garden called Clos Normand in front of the house and a Japanese inspired water garden on the other side of the road. The two parts of Monet’s garden contrast and complement one another. I am dedicating separate posts to the two gardens, as the two are so incredibly different (see the post on the first garden here, and the second garden here).

After our visit, we had a picnic on a vast field right outside of Giverny. I couldn’t help but take a few photographs of our surroundings…

Photoessay: Musee de l’Orangerie.

The description of the museum on the website reads…

Six great intellectuals recently described the museum chosen and arranged by Claude Monet to showcase his “testamentary” masterpieces as “Unique in its genre”. Next to the Nymphéas, “the haven of peaceful meditation,” a gift to modern man with his “overworked nerves”, the Orangerie offers a fabulous concentration of masterpieces from the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection, a highly original insight into modern art featuring Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Rousseau, Matisse, Derain, Modigliani, Soutine, Utrillo and Laurencin.

Closed for renovation work since January 2000, completely reviewed and restructured, the museum was reopened to the public in May 2006.

Musée de l’Orangerie is located in the Jardin des Tuileries (75001 Paris, France). The museum is open everyday, except on Tuesdays, May 1st and December 25th, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Please see the website for more information.