Issue No. 14

As I walked along the pretty little rue Claude
Monet in Giverny, the first thing that I noticed
was the scent of flowers. The closer I got to the
house where the great artist lived and gardened,
the stronger the intoxicating perfume became...
Monet's House and Gardens
Monet’s house and gardens are open to the
public from April to October each year and
lure more than 500,000 people to this tiny
little town in Normandy, northwest of Paris.
Visitors flock to admire the pretty pink
house where Monet lived until his death in
December 1926 and to fall in love with the
magnificent gardens that everyone will
recognise from his luminous paintings.
Whatever month you visit during that time,
the garden is an absolute feast for the eyes
and the scent is dazzling.
Monet signed the rental agreement for the
house on May 3, 1883. In those days a
railway track ran along the bottom of the
then garden and Monet spotted the house
from his train carriage as it trundled past.
He and his second wife Alice moved to
Giverny and in 1890 bought the house; by
then Money was hooked on gardening.
They lived there for the rest of their days
and Monet, who became one of the highest
paid artists of his lifetime, transformed the
gardens into the most enchanting, alluring
corner of Normandy.
70 years after Monet died, the garden is
looked after by Briton James Priest. He’s
only the third gardener since Monet to have
the pleasure and the huge responsibility to
keep the artist’s dream alive.