Giverny

Visiting Monet’s House & Gardens was a real thrill. I’m so glad after all these years of adoring Impressionist paintings and of teaching a unit on Impressionism to have finally visited Giverny. We arrived early, which was a good thing, because as we left, this was the most crowded site we’d been to yet. The gardens were fabulous, spring was in full bloom, the flowers magnificent. The wisteria, so emblematic to me of Monet, was not yet in bloom here, although we’d seen lots of it in the Dordogne and southern France. The visitor center is in his studio and full of black & white pictures of Monet: at work and at ease. The house was lovely, with many of the japanese prints that so inspired him. We even got to stand on the Japanese bridge and had the area pretty much to ourselves. It was very peaceful and I could fully appreciate how it inspired Monet, and the many other impressionists who came here to paint.