Entering Normandy, you will visit Claude Monet's
home, the "Father of Impressionism".
Discover the famous gardens created by the
impressionist painter, and the well known Japanese bridge
in the midst of its flowered paths and wather-lily ponds. This
tour ends with the visit of the "Musée d'art Américain
Giverny": Franco-American contributions to the history of
art.
Claude Monet's property at
Giverny, left by his son to the Académie des Beaux-arts in
1966, has, after completion of large scale restoration work,
become the Claude Monet Foundation, inaugurated in 1980.
The house, with its pink crushed brick façade,
where the leader of the Impressionist School lived from 1883
to 1926, once again has its colourful décor and intimate
charin of former times. The precious collection of Japanese
engravings is displayed in several rooms, hung in the manner
chosen by the master of Giverny himself.
The huge Nymphéas studio, a stone's throw from the house, has
also been restored. It contains the Foundation's Shop. The
gardens have been replanted as they once were and offer for
the admiration of visitors the "painting from nature" which
Claude Monet's contemporaries considered one of his
masterpieces.
The rectangular Clos Normand, with archways of climbing
plants entwined around brilliantly coloured shrubs, lies
before the house and studios, offering from Spring to Autumn
the palette of varying colours to the painter-gardner who was
"ecstatic about flowers".
Lastly, the Water Garden, formed by a tributary of the
Epte, lies further away, shaded by weeping willows. With its
famous Japanese Bridge, its wistarias, azaleas and its
pond, it has once more become that casket of sky and water
which inspired the pictorial universe of the water lilies.
The American Art
Museum
The
American Art Museum presents works of numerous American
Impressionist painters, such as Louis Paul Dessar,
Richard Emil Miller, Theodore Wendel, Robert Vonnoh, John
Leslie Breck and others. They were attracted by the
curriculum available as well as influenced by their French
academic experiences, notably Claude Monet.
Season: From
April 1st to October 31st
Scheduled days: Daily (excluding Mondays)
Departures: From 1:15 pm execpt on Sunday
from 8:15 am
Duration: Approximately 4 1/2 hours
Pick up point:
From your accommodation in Paris
Return point: To your accommodation in Paris
