Giverny Hotels

Giverny is a small French village 80 km to the west of the capital city Paris, within the valley of the river Seine and the northern region of Haute-Normandie. The village is best known as the rural retreat of the Impressionist painter Claude Monet (lived 1840-1926). Monet moved to Giverny in 1883 with his family, including his second wife and 8 children, living and painting here until his death in 1926. The village surroundings and the gardens of his house formed a great part of the inspiration and subject matter for his paintings. It was after the move to Giverny that Monet began his famous Séries of paintings, repeatedly rendering haystacks, cathedrals and waterlilies from his garden pond in his own unique Impressionist style. Welcome to Monet's garden! Giverny is a small town halfway between Paris and Rouen and it's a treasure. The town itself is nice enough with a Roman church and small cobbled streets. But the claim to fame of Giverny is no doubt Monet's house and the gardens around it. There was a stream, the Epte, which came down from Gisors on the boundary of my property. I opened up a ditch so that I could fill the little pond that I had dug in my garden. I love water but I also love flowers. That's why, when the pond was filled, I wished to decorate it with plants. I took a catalogue and made a choice any old how. That's all." That's how Monet puts it. Walk through the garden and you see what he means. See all the paintings come to life.