Claude Monet's Estate At Giverny

Now that I've made a few posts on things west of the Atlantic, it's time to return to my Normandy travelogue, with which I am almost done.

We spent most of the last full day of the tour in Giverny, at the estate of French impressionist painter Claude Monet.  Because Giverny was the farthest east, and thus farthest inland, place we visited, it was also the least rainy.  Monet's estate comprises a Japanese-inspired water garden, a flower garden, his house and a gift shop.  We first toured the water garden, which includes a grove of bamboo.

This pink-flowered bush was also in the water garden.

This bridge, called the Japanese bridge, spans a pond in the water garden.

Here's a closer shot of the bridge.

There was a woman on the tour who was originally from Japan, so I asked her if any of the water garden was authentically Japanese, to which she answered in the negative.  Although Monet had a soft spot for Japanese art, and collected Japanese woodblock prints, he never visited Japan, and thus never had a chance to see a real Japanese garden.

After walking around the water garden, we proceeded to the flower garden.  Here's a walkway, surrounded by flowers, trees and neighboring houses.

Of these two walkways, the one under the green archways was closed off.

Here are some more green frames, holding up flowers.

They had some penned-up chickens.

The tourists file into Monet's house, in which photography was forbidden.

Behind a wall were two neighboring houses.

After leaving Monet's estate, we took a short walk over to the Giverny Museum of Impressionism, which included an exhibit on American impressionists, including some who had traveled to France to learn from Monet himself.