Giverny: Monet Gardens

Overview

This year Expat Club visits the incredible art destination Giverny for the fourth time. This beautiful little town lies about 70km West from Paris and is all about Claude Monet (1840 – 1926), one of the world’s most beloved artists. Two official guides from the Fondation Claude Monet will guide our group through his beautiful gardens, including those with the famous ponds and the Japanese bridge. You can visit his house, which still looks like it was over one hundred years ago. We will also enjoy a guided tour through the Musée des Impressionismes. And finally you can explore the many galleries, shops, bars and restaurants in town, as well as the countless beautiful spots inside and outside the village. This is truly a day to remember, and a must for every art lover.

Program

As with all Expat Club trips, this day has been carefully planned so we can fully enjoy Giverny. The below schedule is tentative because of traffic conditions, but our schedules are realistic and rather precise. This is obviously a long day, but trust us that it’s totally worth it. This is the best way to fully experience Giverny, to see the gardens and house, to see the museum and to enjoy the village and surroundings itself.

06h30 Final meeting time at Place Schuman
06h40 Final meeting time at Louise
06h50 Final meeting time at Gare du Midi
09h00 Highway stop
11h45 Arrival in Giverny
12h00 Lunch
13h45 Group entry & guided tour Monet gardens
16h00 Impressionismes Museum guided tour
18h00 Free time & dinner
20h45 Estimated departure to Brussels (9 hours after arrival)
01h00 Estimated arrival Brussels

Monet & Giverny

“Oscar-Claude Monet 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter, a founder of French Impressionist painting and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement’s philosophy of expressing one’s perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein air landscape painting. The term “Impressionism” is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.” (source: Wikipedia)

After our lunch we will be welcomed by two official guides that can take groups around the Monet estate (included in the trip fee!). During a guided tour of up to 1,5 hours they will tell us all about Monet’s live and work.

Walking around these garden, you will see why these places inspired the master of Impressionism. You will cross the famous Japanese bridge and stroll around the waterlily pond to observe the ever changing reflections on the water surface. Then we will get back to the Clos Normand, the gorgeous flower garden blooming from spring to fall. You will learn how Monet himself designed it by applying his skills for painting to gardening.

We will walk through the gardens where the Master painted so often, including the waterlilies pond with the green bridge that inspired him for so many paintings. This is literally the closest you can be to his phenomenal works of art. Right on the spot where the Master painted himself.

After the tour ends you will be invited to check out Monet’s house to see how he lived and worked. It’s a very nice house with colourful decorations as you can see on the pictures above. “Claude Monet lived in his home at Giverny for forty-three years, from 1883 to 1926. During this very long time, he layed out the house to his own tastes, adapting it to the needs of his family and professional life.“

The house looks exactly as it did on Monet’s times, with the studio-sitting-room, Monet’s and Alice’s bedrooms, the yellow dining-room with its surprising collection of Japanese woodblocks and the kitchen decorated with blue tiles. Our guide will tell you about the way Monet transformed it to his own style. Thanks to many details about Monet’s family life in this very place you will take a leap backwards to the 19th Century. (source: https://giverny.org/monet/home/)

Museum

Giverny has much more to offer than Monet’s house and gardens. There is namely also a superb impressionism museum. A visit to this village is not complete without also seeing this art institution. Your trip ticket already includes the entrance fees for the museum and its gardens. Due to the very positive feedback we received last years about the guided tour there, we also offer the tour this year (included in the ticket).

To mark its tenth anniversary, the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny “has decided to celebrate the work of Claude Monet by comparing it with that of his contemporary, the Symbolist painter Jean Francis Auburtin (1866–1930). After discovering Monet’s work on display in Paris, Auburtin chose to follow in the master’s footsteps. From Belle-Île and Étretat to Pourville, Varengeville and Provence, he began indefatigably painting the magnificent beauty of these sites. The exhibition brings together a large selection of Auburtin’s paintings and drawings, together with several of Monet’s most remarkable works with the aim of presenting two different visions of the same landscapes.” (source Musée des Impressionisms).

Lunch

Upon arrival we will first have lunch in the restaurant Les Nymphéas right next to the Monet estate. Due to the extremely high number of people visiting the gardens, and the absolute need to reserve tables, the restaurant can only offer 1 set group menu.

On the menu is a main dish (Poulet Vallée d’Auge), a dessert (Tarte aux Pommes with Crème Anglaise), a 1/4 of wine, mineral water and a coffee. If you are vegetarian or have other special dietary needs, you can indicate so during checkout. They will do their best to provide an alternative. Joining us costs €26,50 and you must register beforehand (no last-minute changes possible).

Transportation

We will travel with a 4* luxury bus with reclining comfort seats and extra leg space and feet rests. There is an on-board toilet, a DVD-system with three flatscreens, and air conditioning. Btw, don’t you like our “impressionismanised” bus picture/ 😉