I’ve loved Monet’s artwork for a very long time, so it was a dream come true to visit his home and garden where he spent half of his life and drew inspiration for some of his most iconic paintings.

Monet lived in Giverny, about an hour by train from Paris. Giverny itself is exceptionally charming.

Once we reached Monet’s house and gardens we walked to his Water Garden, which is home to his iconic nympheas.

I know it is a lot of photos, but it is simply impossible to capture the essence of Monet’s water lily pond in just one shot.  Even Monet himself painted more than 40 paintings of his water lilies, a few of which we saw at Musée de l’Orangerie…

Although his water garden is beautiful, the rest of Monet’s garden is equally gorgeous.  Since the donation of the property as a public museum, the gardens have been restored to nearly the exact same way they were when Monet lived there.

The gardens are filled with parallel paths leading to and from the house. The beds themselves are quite free and organic, reminding me very much of gardens back home in California.

Of course, being the flower-phile that I am, I couldn’t resist the impressive collection of flowers, especially dahlias that were blooming!

We were also able to take a tour of his home, which included a collection of Monet’s paintings featuring scenes you might recognize from earlier in this blog post 🙂

After this enchanting journey to the country, we are now ready to fully embrace our last few days in Paris!

A bientôt,

B&B