2026-03-19 France: April 20 – Monet’s Garden

We got out very first thing this morning to drive back to Giverny. We got there about 20 minutes prior to their opening and easily found parking but did note that there were a lot of tour buses. Fortunately, the tour buses enter at a separate entrance so we weren’t too worried. Turned out we should have been.

When we arrived, there was a long line to get tickets (we didn’t think…could have booked them online for a separate and shorter line). It was about a third of the length of the previous day’s line so we stood in line. The line was very slow. Turns out they were very inefficient at the entrance. We would pay at the ticket office (with it’s very tight space) and then have to stand there while the security lady checked our bags and scanned the ticket we had just bought. No way could we get out of the way for the next ticket purchaser. So, each group took twice as long as it should have. Maybe that was their way of slowing entrance to the gardens.

But the gardens were worth the wait. They were glorious. We have visited twice before in the summer. But today it is spring and wow! We headed first to the garden across the street where the waterlily pond is. The waterlilies are summer bloomers so there were no waterlily blossoms, only the lily pads. The walk around it was glorious with azaleas and rhododendrons reflecting off the pond water.

And everyone trying to get their photo taken on the iconic Japanese bridge at one end of the pond.

And the wisteria was blooming, just past peak.

The flower beds were bursting with blooms.

A small boat on the banks of the water lily pond was positioned just like the one in one of Monet’s paintings.

From the waterlily garden we moved back to the flower garden, the Clos Normand, by the house. It’s a huge garden of about two and a half acres. The daffodils were pretty much gone but a gazillion tulips were in bloom. And the wide variety of tulips was amazing, both in color and shape and number of petals.

Some looked almost like peonies,

and some had very pointed petals.

Actual peonies were blooming. These were probably tree peonies. Herbaceous peonies back home always bloomed in the summer. And the azaleas and rhododendrons were blooming.

The flower beds were stuffed with flowers and were ablaze with color.

The roses were not yet in bloom but the rose bushes climbing the arches over the main path in the garden were covered with foliage. In a few weeks it will be covered with roses.

Other gorgeous colors and flowers.

We spent about two hours in the gardens. Afterwards we wandered through the very extensive gift shop. It would have been easy to walk out with lots of stuff but Mary refrained herself. We left only with photos and memories.

*************************************
More Monets Garden
*************************************

We walked around the little town of Giverny for a bit and then found lunch at the restaurant we had seen the day before with its own lovely garden.