If you're an admirer of Monet's works of art, you'll fall in love with his gardens at Giverny in France, writes CONOR POWER
‘I SUPPOSE if you’ve fallen in love with Monet and his art, then you’ll love the gardens.” So says the head gardener at the Monet gardens at Giverny, James Priest. That, he says, is the big point of attraction for most people who visit the gardens.
For my wife, a visit to the famous gardens in Normandy is something of a pilgrimage. With a smile that can only be likened to that of a child walking through the gates of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, she floated past the ticket office into a world that inspired one of the most famous artists of any generation.
Unlike me, Claude Monet wasn’t afraid to go for the big gardening project and he seemingly cultivated every square centimetre of his sizeable two-acre site just outside the village of Giverny. He moved here in 1883 with his second wife and their extended family when he was 53.
In contrast to many of his contemporary impressionists, he managed to achieve financial stability during his lifetime and he ploughed much of the fruits of his work into creating a large and beautiful garden to match his large and beautiful house.
“It’s not an English garden and it’s not a French garden,” says the English-born Priest, who has lived in France for a quarter of a century. “It’s a unique kind: it’s based on straight lines, which is something the French like . . . and yet the way it’s treated within the structure is very relaxed and very natural.
“This is why many people think it’s an English garden, but it breaks all the rules. Monet’s the one who invented the ‘rules’ in this case and he approached the planting of his garden in much the same way that he approached painting a picture.”
Gardening has evolved somewhat in the last 100 years. There are many plant varieties around now that simply weren’t available during the great painter’s time, according to Priest. Furthermore, Monet’s paintings of the garden tend to focus on particular parts of it, without giving an overall impression.
“There were times during the year when the garden wasn’t in full flower, but now that the garden is open to the public (since 1980), we have to ensure that it’s more interesting throughout the year for visitors.”
The first curator of the gardens, Gerald Van der Kamp, made the decision, for example, to plant annuals there, noting that it was necessary because if the garden was planted exactly as it was in Monet’s time, then people wouldn’t come to visit.
Thus, the flowering calendar is a full one, heaving with blooms almost from one end of the year to the other, whether you come to see the cherry trees and the laburnum in April or the autumn crocus, the lavender and the dahlias in October.
MONET’S HOUSE is itself part of the tour at Giverny. Wooden steps lead up to the raised front door and a surprisingly spacious interior. Everything here has been faithfully restored and/or reproduced to appear just as it did in his day.
It’s a house without corridors, with one large room leading to another and a walk through it does bring you to a level of intimacy with the man and his work that you don’t get from strolling through the garden.
As you step through the épicerie (spice room) that leads into the main salon/studio, for example, you can see the Japanese prints that inspired so much of the oriental flavour evident in the water garden.
During Monet’s era, Japonisme was at the height of its popularity in French society and today the Japanese connection is manifest in the large proportion of fans from Japan that make a regular pilgrimage to Giverny.
His large study/studio with its split level, high ceiling and large windows is just as it was, complete with superb life-size reproductions of many paintings by him and his wife.
Upstairs, you can walk through his bedroom. For such an apparently big man, his double bed is of modest enough proportions and it’s worth spending a moment pausing at the window to get a fine view of the gardens spread out below and to see his favourite rose on the veranda outside – the one that he loved to see when he woke up in the morning.
When he first came here, he could already feel a sea change in his fortunes: “I am in raptures, Giverny is a splendid region for me!” he wrote shortly after arriving.
Although he would continue to travel and paint in Brittany, Normandy, London and Venice, he spent more and more time painting scenes from his garden as the years progressed. More particularly, his efforts were concentrated on painting the waterlilies in the garden.
Apart from presenting the opportunity to buy all manner of Monet paraphernalia, from heftily-priced reproductions of some of his most famous work to waterlily-themed T-shirts and key chains, a visit to the gift shop gives you some idea of the project involved in the production of his “outsized” series of waterlilies.
He created them in this cavernous building that’s appropriately named the Atelier des Nymphéas (the Waterlily Workshop). The finished products – as enormous as they are priceless – are exclusively on display in the purpose-built space of the Orangerie in Paris.
IT’S WHEN YOU get to the water garden that you get the truest sense of being transported to a scene in another era altogether.
Today, the waterlily pond looks precisely as it looked when he painted multiple scenes from it 100 years ago. The effect of standing on the Japanese bridge at the edge of the pond and finding yourself literally in a picture is breathtaking.
It doesn’t happen by magic, of course. It’s all down to regular maintenance by the Académie des Beaux Arts (Academy of Fine Arts) and the Fondation Claude Monet, which is funded by visitors’ entrance fees.
Before they took it over, the house and gardens had fallen to rack and ruin and the challenge since has been to get it up to a standard both worthy of fee-paying visitors and of the memory and spirit of Monet.
Priest began his current role in June of this year, having worked extensively in private gardens in France. This job is, he freely admits, a “dream come true” to work in such a special garden.
As for the best time to come, he is suitably non-committal: “I don’t know – in the spring, it’s nice because you can see the structure of the garden, whereas it’s also nice when it’s full, like it is in autumn.”
That settles it, then . . . we’ll just have to come back.
- Giverny Gardens are open daily from April 1st to November 1st. Entry costs €8 for adults, €6 for students and children, under-7s go free. Combined tickets are available for the Musée des Impressionismes next door (mus eedesimpressionnismesgiverny.com), where a special exhibition of the Clark Collection is showing until the end of October.
- Fondation Claude Monet, 84 Rue Claude Monet, Giverny, 00-33-232-512821, fondation-monet.com.
In full bloomsome other great gardens to visit in France
Château de Versailles. Place d'Armes, Versailles, chateauversailles.fr. The geometric patterns of Louis XIV's commissioned masterpiece means that this garden is still the model for the French-style garden. Take the whole day out and pack a picnic.
Open:daily throughout the year. Entry from €13. Free entry to all under 18 and to all EU citizens under 26. Also free to those carrying a Paris Museum Pass.
Château de Villandry. Villandry, 00-33-247-500209. chateauvillandry.fr.With a scale and ambition to rival that of Versailles, the renovation works over the past five years have made the gardens of this Loire Valley chateau a must-see of any tour.
Open: daily all year round. Entry €6.50/€4.00, €9.50/€7.00 with audio guide or €9.50/€5.50 for combined castle/gardens ticket or €12.50/€8.50 for combined ticket with audio guide.
Jardins des Tuilleries. Paris, louvre.fr.When in Paris, do as Parisians do and sample the neat elegance of this green-and-gravel oasis in the middle of the bustling city - out the back door of the Louvre, above the underground and away from the madding crowd. Open: daily all year round. Entry free.
Jardins de Séricourt. 2 Rue du Bois, Séricourt, 00-33-321-036442, jardindesericourt.com. Located midway between the city of Amiens and the Belgian border, these gardens are worth a detour for some innovative ideas that manage to be attractive despite first impressions. Bomb craters and clay soldiers have never looked so green and so appealing as they are in this series of gardens that mixes the geometric with the unexpected.
Open:daily from May to October, with limited opening hours outside of the main season. Entry €9.50/€7.50.
Les Jardins Agapanthe. 1 impasse Agapanthe, Grigneuseville, 00-33-608-622458, jardins-agapanthe.fr.The brainchild of garden designer Alexandre Thomas, these gardens situated midway between Dieppe and Rouen are designed to enchant and delight and give the impression that, although they're around for only 20 years or so, they look like they've been there forever.
Open: daily from May to September inclusive, weekends only in April and October. Entry €10/€5.
Les Jardins du Manoir d'Eyrignac. Salignac, 00-33-553-289971, eyrignac.com.Open daily all year round. One of the great big house gardens in the sunny south-west of France, this formal French garden combines all the elements of the French formal garden in imaginative and startling shapes.
Open: daily all year round. Entry €10.50/€4.50, with reductions during winter months.