Welcome to Monet's World!

Claude Monet lived in Giverny, France, for 43 years (1883-1926).  According to our tour guide, Adile, Monet paid $6,000 for the house and the land.  A steal for sure!

Here is the walk into the fabulous land of Monet.

You have to go through a tunnel under a busy street to get to Monet's house and gardens.

Here is bamboo!  We have that in Houston County, Georgia!

See the green bridge below?

The Lily Pads!

What's up, bee?

I was in AWE.

See the bridge?  Someone told me it is impossible to get a picture without people on it.  I believe it.

My peeps on the bridge...

The guide said that they use the boat to ride around and trim plants.  I thought maybe Monet liked to fish.  Wrong!

What's up, bee?

Hey bee!

Monet's home is pink with green shutters.

Here is Monet's studio.

On the walls, reproductions of Monet's works evocate the atmosphere of the place at Monet's times. The painter liked to keep a record of each step of his career. Many of the originals that were kept in this room are now to be seen at Musée Marmottan-Monet in Paris.
Like everywhere in the house, the furniture and the objects are still exactly the same, what gives a great authenticity to Monet's home.
A bust of Claude Monet by Paul Paulin reminds that the leader of  impressionism became famous during his lifetime, although he had to wait until he was fifty before he was eventually recognized as a master. (http://giverny.org/monet/home/)

Here is Monet's bed.

A very steep staircase leads from the pantry to the upper floor.
One first enters Claude Monet's bedroom. Monet slept in this very simple bed, and died there the 5th December 1926.
The painter had gorgeous views on the garden out of the three windows.
The delicately adornated desk and the commode date back to the 18th Century.
Paintings by artists of the colony of Giverny hang on the walls. Monet exhibited in his room impressionist works by his friends: Cézanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot, Boudin, Manet, Signac...(http://giverny.org/monet/home/)

When Monet woke up, he looked out his window and saw this pretty view.

Here is Monet's wife's bed.  Check out the Japanese paintings.

Claude and his wife Alice didn't share the same bedroom, as was usual in the middle upper class, but there was a connection through the bathrooms.
The very simple bedroom of Alice is decorated with japanese woodblocks  featuring female characters.
It is one of the few rooms that have a window on the street side, that is to say to the north. One can see how narrow the house is. From her bedroom, Alice could keep an eye on the children on the other side of the landing.
At the top of the main staircase, a closet was used to store the linen.(http://giverny.org/monet/home/)

Here are some pretty sunflowers in a vase in the dining room. 

The main staircase leads to the dining room, the most dramatic room of the house.
Monet, who didn't care for fashion, which was very dark and heavy in Victorian times, had it painted in two tones of yellow. This vibrant color enhances the blues of the dishes on display in the buffets.
The walls are packed with japanese engravings that Monet chose with an expert eye. For fifty years, he collected the prints by the best japanese artists, especially Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro.(http://giverny.org/monet/home/)

Monet liked cats.

I guess Monet liked pottery, too.

The kitchen was very blue!

The dining room is connected to the kitchen to make service easier. Monet wanted a blue kitchen so that the guests would see the right color in harmony with the yellow dining room when the door to the kitchen was open.
The walls of the kitchen are covered with tiles of Rouen. The coolness of the blue contrasts with the warm glow of the extended collection of coppers. An enormous coal and wood stove kept the kitchen very warm year round.
The exit is by the kitchen stairs on to the garden.(http://giverny.org/monet/home/)

Do you see the long skinny tree?  They are all over France.  

Do you see the poplar trees in Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night?  He painted Starry Night in southern France.  The trees usually grow in groups.  

Anyway, back to Monet.  We drove a few miles to get to Monet's gravesite.

The next day, we went to Musée d'Orsay to see Monet's Lily Pads on a canvas.

Interested in more information on visiting Claude Monet's home in Giverny, click HERE and  HERE!

 Monet's home and gardens was such a pretty place.  I had to end with a pretty song.

1965