Monet's house and Garden at Giverny

Our destination today is Giverny. The home of Monet. It's kinda scary visiting a place with such a huge reputation. If spring hasn't sprung yet the visit will be so disappointing. My heart rose as we entered the township of Vernon to see irises blooming on the roadside and roses frothing over a fence. Perfect!

Deep rose scented air after a rain shower wafting from cascades of white species roses and soft lavender irises was my first impression as I stepped from the car. Divine!

Poppies and blue cornflowers strewn across a meadow, spring green trees and hills rolling away behind was my next. Hedges, verdant potager's, rounded mounds of lavender, spent tulips piled in wooden crates, wisteria, roses and perennials too. This was just the entrance to the area. Not even at the house yet!

The garden and house of Monet are everything you imagine them to be. Cacophonous colour, low perennial beds with frothy standard roses marching down the centre, interspersed by long runs of pale gravel, bisecting the beds. The colour starts to make sense as you traverse the garden and glance down the paths where repetitive planting in waves of colour combinations wash over the garden like a rainbow. 

Unintentionally dressed to tone with the predominant colour!!

The house, familiar from books and doco's was quaint and musty. There is something in me that pines for people to live in houses and I always feel the heart of the house is gone when just left to nosey tourists.

Graham Ross of 'Australian Better Homes and Gardens' fame was filming in the garden. I spoke briefly to him in between takes.  It was interesting to see him wandering through the garden chatting away to his invisible microphone, the camera team filming from afar to get those long shots. Every now and then he'd whip out his personal camera and take a pic of a flower or vista!

 

Crossing the road to the water gardens you enter a world of the famous waterlily paintings.Crazy croaking, like the sound of a hundred angry crows, greeted us. Turned out to be a handful of mating little frogs. Eventually the noise died down completely. TG!!

Later we drank hot carrot soup and enjoyed being outdoors at the little cafe. Monet's hamlet is really quaint with charming houses all along the road, giving tantalising peeks of lives lived in this famous spot. For the garden lover or artist visting Giverny is a must do. I was tickled to be here in spring to see the roses and irises.