A trip to France would not be complete without a trip to Giverny to see Monet's beautiful gardens.

Claude Monet was born in Paris in 1840. His painting entitled Impression, soleil levant is considered to be the start of the impressionist period of painting.

In 1883, Monet moved to the village of Giverny. It was at his home in Giverny that he painted the "Haystacks" paintings between 1888 and 1891 and other series of paintings that made him famous throughout the world.

In 1895 he created the famous lily pond and built the Japanese bridge that are a large part of his later paintings. He said, "It took me time to understand my water lilies...I had planted them for my pleasure; I cultivated them without ever thinking of painting them...A landscape doesn't permeate one's being in one day...And then, suddenly, the magical world of my pond was reveled to me. I took up my palette. Since that time, I have scarcely had any other model."

The entrance to his lovely home is covered with vines. The windows have wonderful views of his magnificent flower garden.

From the road, you can see the arbors covered with clematis that are in front of the house.

The iris give the garden beautiful colors during the spring.

He certainly had a wealth of subjects for his paintings. He said that he was good at only gardening and painting.

                              Another of his subjects.

As you can see, we enjoyed the garden very much.

The garden is maintained as faithfully to his plans as possible.

The famous pond. Monet had the pond dug to his specifications.

The foliage around the pond is beautiful.

The famous Japanese bridge in Monet paintings.

The source of water for the pond.