Monet moved to Giverny in 1883 and spent the next forty-three years there. He did not find the garden, he built it, the water lily pond, the Japanese bridge, the flower beds arranged by colour and season. The garden was a work of art before it was a painting, and the paintings were its record.
The Water Lilies series, now displayed in the Orangerie in Paris, was painted here. Standing at the edge of the pond, you understand things about those paintings that standing in front of them does not tell you.
The visit takes in Monet's house, the garden, and the village of Giverny, which has its own history as a place that drew American Impressionist painters in the late nineteenth century, following Monet there and settling around him.
What you will see
The gardens. The Water Garden, with its pond, its Japanese bridge and its weeping willows, is the source of the Water Lilies. Beside it the Clos Normand, the flower garden, laid out by a painter with very firm views about colour and arranged to bloom in sequence through the season.
The house and the village. Monet's home, with the studio where the large Water Lily panels were painted and the famous yellow dining room, and the Norman village around it, which drew a colony of American Impressionists who followed Monet and settled at his door.
The water garden · the Clos Normand · Monet's house
Pépin's advice
Come in late spring if you can. The garden is at its most spectacular in May and June, when the irises, poppies and roses are all out, though the water garden holds its beauty across the whole season. We can advise on timing around your dates.
Make a full day of it. Giverny is about eighty kilometres from Paris, a little over an hour each way, and the day is built to give the garden the unhurried time it deserves. Pairing it with the Orangerie in Paris, where the large Water Lilies hang, completes the picture.
Open season only
Monet's garden at Giverny is open from April to November only, and the tour cannot run outside these dates. Please confirm your visit dates when booking.
