A VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF CLAUDE MONET IN GIVERNY FRANCE( 5th July, 2025)
We are in Giverny, a beautiful village in West France and about one and half hour's train ride from Gare de Lyon train junction of Paris city . Claude Monet, the pioneer of Impressionism in art settled in this village and built his house cum studio buying some acres of agricultural land. He bought the land in 1890 and it took him about three years to build a water pond by diverting part of village canal to his land. The canal comes from River Seine that flows near the village. We saw beautiful cottages and a watermill in this village inhabited by about 25000 residents. Bamboo trees have been planted in the village and also inside Monet's estate . Huge and tall French maple trees look like Chinar trees of Kashmir. The design of the leaf that accidentally falls down confirms it. He also built a Japanese style wooden bridge near the water pon pond . The bridge and the pond became the subject matter of many if his paintings later.Water Lily Pond was among the 18 similar versions of the motif that he made in 1899–1900; their common theme was the mingling of the lilies with reflections of other vegetation on the pool’s surface.The village road that leads to Monet's house is known Rue Claude Monet.There is very old restaurant known as "Ancien Hotel Baudy" where Monet would occasionally visit with his guests or family. Many restaurants have come up in Giverny to cater to the ever I creasing demand of many thousand visitors who. Is it the place daily right from 9 AM.The Trust has also a huge gift store inside the complex where one can get prints of Monet's work apart from refrigerator magnets, mugs, T shirts, pens, pencils, slip pads, books notebooks, hats and other artifacts with Monet's paintings printed on them .Apart from Monet's house and gardens. there a Museum of Impressionists worth visiting in Giverny. A busy of Monet lies installed in a park in the village. also lies near the village Church Monet's Tomb .
Monet also laid exotic flower gardens on the land and built a rectangular two storeyed building that was used as his residence cum studio .We saw his bedroom, dining room , and living room. We also saw his piano, exquisite furniture ,carpets,sofas and wall mirrors. Monet's kitchen is full of copper utensils used by him . We saw some family photographs , some letters and crockery used by Monet .Everything has been well preserved by the Trust that employs security guards and other staff to manage this complex visited by many thousand tourists everyday.
Giverny is a cool and beautiful place with hills, greenery, water canals , birds , 24>< 7 road connectivity by long distance TGV/ SNCF trains. The Monet House is about 5 km from the train station. The too and fro fare for the bus ride per person is 10 euros . One can board any bus and return by any bus .
Inside the house, we saw some master creations of Monet on display. We also saw paintings of Renoir Pissarro, Degas, and Cezanne on display in his house. Three rooms of the house are full of some master-pieces of well-known Japanese artists . Monet appears to have been a great collector of Japnese art.
The French painter was born in 1840 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France and died at the age of 86 in 1926.
( Avtar Mota )
PS
The entire Giverny tour was organised, planned, and executed by our children Shailesh and Jeanne .

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.