Full On Monet

(Tai spots Elton dancing with Amber.)
Tai:  Oh, my God, Cher, look.  He's going with Amber?!
Cher:  No, he's probably just dancing with her.
Tai:  Do you think she's pretty?
Cher:  No, she's a full on Monet.
Tai:  What's a monet?
Cher:  It's like a painting, see?  From far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big old mess.  Let's ask a guy.  Christian, what do you think of Amber?
Christian:  Hagsville.

Okay, so this post isn't exactly about Monet's paintings, which, by the way, are lovely up close.  Instead, this post is about Monet's home and gardens in Giverny, where he lived from 1883 until his death in 1926.  The gardens are simply incredible.  You can see part of the walled garden, called the Clos Normand, from his bedroom window in the first picture.

I saw some really interesting flowers in these gardens.  In the following pictures, I'll show some of my favorites.  I'm not sure what types of flowers they are, but if you know, feel free to drop me a comment on Facebook.  Maybe this first one is some sort of poppy.

These gardens inspired over 500 of Monet's works.

After Monet's son died in 1966, a foundation was formed and money was raised, mostly by Americans, to restore the gardens and open them to the public.

Monet wasn't a big fan of organized or confined gardens.  He preferred to group flowers by color and let them grow free.

He admitted that he put all of his money into his gardens.

I read that the flowers commonly in bloom in April and May are tulips, pansies, forget-me-nots, narcissi, aubrietas, cherry blossoms, crab-apples, fritillaries,  daffodils, irises, rhododendrons, poppies, geraniums, wisterias, azaleas, wallflowers, golden chains, daisies, and delphiniums.

Ten years after moving to Giverny, Monet bought the land just across the railroad from his backyard.  A small brook called the Ru, which is a diversion of a tributary of the Seine runs through the property.  Over time, Monet dug ponds and installed bridges creating his famous water garden.  A view of the underside of this Japanese maple shows how different this garden is from the Clos Normand.

The water gardens were the inspiration for Monet's "Water Lilies" murals, which he painted as he was losing his eyesight.

Two full rooms of "Water Lilies" can be found at the Orangerie Museum in Paris.  (See my earlier post "Art" for more on this.)

In order to reach Monet's house, I had to take a train to the neighboring town of Vernon, where I rented a bicycle for the four-mile trip to Giverny.  Along the way, I spotted some more animal friends, like these cows,

these chickens,

this horse,

and this snail!