Monet's Giverny

The second guest garden featured in my blog is the stunning Giverny, belonging to and immortalised by the great impressionist painter, Claude Monet.


The little town of Giverny is a stone's throw away from the Seine, roughly half way between Paris and its Atlantic coast mouth. Monet's house with the formally divided courtyard, as well as the stunningly informal water garden, are open to visitors every day of the week. We were there on a Sunday, and it was almost too busy; I would recommend a workday if you don't like crowds. However, the plants are so colourful and fragrant that I soon stopped noticing other people and got completely immersed in the beauty of nature.

There are a couple of round beds in between the house and the courtyard garden, with a formal planting of pink tulips through a sea of forget-me-nots.

Next to the house, which has quite a Provencal country cottage vibe, the planting was more random in form and colour.

The courtyard was divided into narrow rectangular beds separated by gravel paths, some of which were inaccessible. The beds were of different lengths, some running through the whole of the garden, and others only a metre or two long. Some were dedicated to a unifying colour scheme, like this one with blue iris, cornflowers and pansies.

Others were full of clashing colours, like these pink parrot tulips with yellow and purple pansies.

To be continued...