Self-Reflection at Giverny

My recent trip to France with my parents was something special! Not only was this the first I saw my parents since the pandemic, but it was also the first foreign trip we had taken as a family since we immigrated to the United States in 2001. While I would like to think every place we visited on this trip was a hit, I was conscious of the fact that this was a family trip, not just to indulge my wanderlust. One of my dad’s favorite interests are gardening and horticulture. I could see how much he enjoyed our visit to Château de Villandry, so I made the point to visit Monet’s Garden in Giverny on the last day of our trip.

Our morning at Giverny may be the happiest I have seen my dad.

Located 45 miles northwest of downtown Paris, Giverny is a quiet village on the right bank of the river Seine. Besides the Palace of Versailles, Giverny is perhaps the most popular day trip from Paris. With a towering reputation, Monet’s Garden attracts wide-ranging visitors, from garden enthusiasts to art lovers. As a self-professed art lover, I always had a soft spot for Impressionism. One of my favorite television programs is Fake or Fortune on BBC One, and their first pilot episode was an investigation of a suspected work of Monet.

Claude Monet first took notice of Giverny as he looked out of his train window. He bought a house and surrounding land in 1890 and spent his next 43 years here with his wife and their eight children. He transformed this one-hectare plot into a splendid garden with thousands of flowering plants and vibrant colors. By the time he built Giverny, he was already famous and enjoyed spending time away from the publicity. The pastoral tranquility is an ideal refuge from the fast-changing world outside. Eventually, he retreated from the outside world and immersed himself in a paradise of his own making.

Many of his most notable works were painted here, but Giverny was the subject of many of his paintings. As big of a Monet fan as I am, I find his urbanscape paintings, like the Rouen Cathedral series, the most compelling. For whatever reason, I was never too excited about his paintings of garden scenes from Giverny. With that, I can’t say I was not that enthusiastic about Giverny. Judging from the photos I saw online, the gardens seem like an overgrown mess that needs a few gardeners.

Giverny looked a little overgrown, right?

Knowing the popularity of the garden, I made an advanced reservation for 9:30 am. The entrance was through a conspicuous narrow alley to the side. Even before we entered the garden, I could sense how many people were streaming into the garden. Upon entry, my worst fear was confirmed. The gardens were swarmed with hundreds of visitors teeming among the narrow passageway. With such overgrown vegetation, it was hardly a pleasant experience. To make matters worse, everyone wants a selfie every few yards. We could hardly walk a few steps without bumping into others.

I had a hard time enjoying myself for the first hour. While plenty of exotic flowers are everywhere, it feels like we are at a nursery rather than a world-renowned garden. My dad, on the other hand, was in absolute heaven. Even with his encyclopedic plant knowledge, he could only recognize about half of the species at Giverny. I have never seen him taking so many pictures and videos in one spot. My parents have always been intellectually curious, but seeing my father geeking out at unfamiliar flowers was still cute.

Half an hour after our arrival, the morning fog began to dissipate. As beautiful as these flowers were, I could not quite understand what was so special about Giverny that drew in busloads of tourists. One thing that jumped out to me was how many Korean visitors there were. There were also plenty of big group tours, which explained why it was so congested and noisy. But like many popular sites, there was an ebb and flow with crowds. We finally found a slice of tranquility after an hour.

Monet’s Gardens are divided into two sections: Clos Normand and the Water Garden. Clos Normand directly adjoined Monet’s house and was the oldest part of the gardens. The garden is laid on a grid with carefully arranged flower beds divided by gravel paths. During Monet’s time, six full-time staff tended to the garden. Monet later purchased a separate garden not too far away to move all vegetables there to accommodate his life-long obsession with flowers. He also built a giant greenhouse as a nursery. The gardeners would swap out plants as the season progressed to keep the gardens looking fresh at all times.

Over the years, Monet began diversifying the gardens with more exotic flowers. Because we visited in October, the end of the season, Giverny was more lush than it would be in spring. Personally, it was perhaps too overgrown for my taste. Coming from Villandry just a few days ago, I missed the geometric symmetry and visual clarity. If we were the only visitors, the naturalistic appearance of Giverny would have been more enjoyable. To me, the greatest joy of my visit was to see how everybody was so mesmerized. I can’t help wondering whether visitors loved it only because they were told they were supposed to be impressed.

The infamous lily pond was… underwhelming.

To me, the intriguing part of Giverny was the water garden. Bizarrely, a public road separates the two gardens. The only way to access the water garden was through an underground passageway. Inspired by his impressive collection of Japanese prints, Monet set up this second garden to create a water pond by diverting water from River Epte. The trickling sounds of water immediately put visitors at ease. From bamboo groves to willow trees, the Eastern aesthetic is unmissable. For most visitors, the Lilly Pond of Water Garden is the highlight of Giverny as it is the inspiration for Monet’s famous Water Lilies series.

In total, Monet painted over 250 canvases of Giverny’s water lilies. It was the focus subject for his three decades of career. The Impressionists were obsessed with the ephemeral nature of light and shadows. It was only natural that Monet found the shimmering light of the lily pond to be endlessly fascinating. Since early in his career, Monet often painted a series of the same scene. So it was only natural that Monet would paint the lilies pond repeatedly. Another popular subject of his was the green Japanese bridge, which was not particularly special in person. Still, the number of selfies people took was ridiculous. Good luck getting a photo of you being alone on the bridge. It bothered me that people are obsessed with Giverny just because of fame.

Naturally, most of us look at the Water Lilies series and see them as a natural evolution of Monet’s artistic vision. In reality, they are testaments to the artist’s physical failing. As Monet approached old age, he began to go blind with cataracts. As his eyesight deteriorated, he began working with larger canvases and painted fewer details. He eventually converted the greenhouse into a giant studio. It was there he painted his infamous oversized panorama of Water Lilies. With each successive painting, the subject matter shifted from the water lilies to the movement of light.

Personally, my favorite part of the entire complex was Monet’s house. Because I am not a garden enthusiast, I was eager to see something other than flowers. The first thing I noticed was the size of his house, definitely large enough to accommodate Monet’s eight children. The house was the only part of the complex with some crowd control. The first room was the double-height living room with giant windows letting in incredible natural light. Lining the walls are stacks of Monet’s famous paintings. Naturally, these are the replicas. Otherwise, this place may need to spend millions just on security.

Imagine if these were the authentic works of Monet.

In addition to his works, he also owned many paintings of his fellow Impressionist artists, such as Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Monet was considered a vanguard because of his artistic boldness and fearless personality. Before the outbreak of World War One, Giverny was a popular gathering place for many young American artists. Young artists were drawn to Giverny by the idyllic settings and the proximity of the great master. Collectively, they were called the “Giverny Group” and became a close-knit group. One American artist even married Monet’s stepdaughter. Many in the group developed a unique artistic school called Decorative Impressionism.

Besides the works of other Impressionist painters, Japanese block prints make up a majority of art on Monet’s walls. Japanese arts were highly prized in Europe at the turn of the century due to Japan’s distinctive exoticism and sophistication. Known as Japonism, the artistic influences on European art were wide-ranging. In particular, the use of saturated colors to the unique way of illustrating nature was particularly influential. Monet personally collected over 200 Japanese prints. Conversely, Monet and Impressionist arts remain hugely popular in Japan today.

The yellow dining room seems to be everyone’s favorites.

Although the color palette of Monet’s paintings is often pastel and muted, Monet was not shy with the colors in his own home. The windows and shutters were painted in bright emerald green. The bright colors are accented with spectacular views of the lush green garden and blue sky. Everyone’s favorite place seemed to be the dining room. Everything in the room is painted bright yellow, from the fireplace mantel to the furniture. Even for someone who is color-shy, the daring colors would be awe-inspiring. As we walked from room to room, the color schemes changed drastically. It was as if we were walking through a film set.

The blue kitchen is a great complement to the yellow dining room.

Monet’s Garden and Home was almost lost to history despite its popularity today. After Monet died in 1926, the estate was inherited by his son Michel, who did not spend much time in Giverny. With the help of a former head gardener, the estate was cared for by one of Alice’s daughters. When she passed away in 1947, the garden was abandoned for nearly two decades. When Michel died in 1966, the estate was bequeathed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1977, Gérald Van der Kemp, the curator at the Palace of Versailles, spearheaded the restoration effort.

By then, the estate was in such bad shape. Trees were growing through Monet’s studio, and the staircases at the house collapsed. To fund the restoration, Van der Kemp turned to American industrialists and philanthropists to raise the necessary funds. Among the benefactors were the likes of Walter Annenberg and Doris Duke. The American system of private charity giving breathed a breath of fresh air into the Giverny. In total, seven million dollars were raised, leading to the creation of Fondation Monet, the current custodian of Monet’s House and Garden.

As predicted, the visit terminated through the gift shop housed in the former greenhouse. The massive structure was later converted into a painting studio, where Monet painted the giant Water Lilies series. It made sense since this was the only space large enough to accommodate the size of the canvas. A handful of old photographs show Monet at work in this space. These paintings were now in the safety of half a dozen museums worldwide, including the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. However, a large replica of one of these massive paintings is now hung on the wall to remind visitors of the significance of this space.

Given Monet’s popularity, it is not surprising that the gift shop has a vast array of merchandise. This may be one of the largest gift shops for a house museum. Personally, I believe the magic of Monet’s paintings is rooted in the dimensionality of his brushstrokes, so it is awfully difficult to translate its magic onto an umbrella or t-shirt. Funny enough, my parents bought quite a few pieces of French artisan soaps here; the prices are a lot cheaper than a few places we visited earlier.

Although Monet’s House and Garden is the undisputed star attraction in Giverny, it is worth spending another hour or two exploring the quaint village. In addition to various restaurants and cafes, the nearby Giverny Museum of Impressionism is a solid survey of the development of the Impressionism movement. Initially a museum of American arts, the state-of-the-art museum focuses on the Impressionist master but the impacts of Impressionism on the development of Western art. In many ways, visiting this little-known museum might be more educational than Monet’s gardens and with a fraction of the crowd.

The space of the gift shop used to be the studio where Monet painted his giant *Water Lilies* series.

As we left Giverny, I must admit I felt ambivalent. I was neither impressed nor interested in the garden. However, I was most disappointed with the lack of critical examination of Monet’s artistic development and life story. What bothered me the most at the time was seeing how most visitors gushed over the place. Is this objectively among the most beautiful gardens in Europe? No, far from it. I felt this is one of those instances where people perform for social media and pretend to be “cultured.”

But after a few days, I realized I came to Giverny with a bad attitude. I convinced myself that this place was not my liking. Perhaps I secretly wished we were in Villa Savoy, a masterpiece of modern architecture, in another part of suburban Paris. I was not open-minded enough to embrace the garden for itself. More importantly, I did not appreciate there were many people, my dad included, who genuinely enjoyed the visit. I let my negativity get to me and inadvertently ruined the visit to others with my snark remarks. I guess this was an unorthodox lesson I learned from Giverny!

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