Giverny is a famously idyllic town that is today best-known as the location of Monet’s beautiful and immortalised home and gardens. In addition to this main attraction, the pretty town itself, the surrounding landscapes, and several other museums and destinations associated with various other Impressionist artists who came and worked in Giverny, make it a pretty magical place to spend a day. Many who find a vacation rental in Paris take a day train out to the town and return in the evening but also if you have found a holiday rental in Normandy, the region in which Giverny is located, it is well worth setting aside time to plan a day-trip to this impossibly picturesque corner of the world.
Even in Monet’s lifetime, he had transformed the town from a sleepy little place into a site of artistic pilgrimmage with his presence. In the years since, Giverny has become utterly synonymous with unimaginable beauty and artistic inspiration. The Monet Foundation is, of course, the highlight and star attraction, though it is not all that there is to the town. Home to Monet, his partner Alice Hoschedé, and their respective children, until his death in 1926, the house and gardens are just as much one of his great creations as the famous and beloved paintings that were inspired by these spaces. The most ambitious of these gardens, the iconic water garden with its lily ponds, required rerouting a stream and incurring the ire of inhabitants. Still, Monet persisted and made something incredibly special. However, despite this, we could have just as easily lost this remarkable space as the property began to fall into decline after Monet’s death. Thankfully, donations lead to the restoration of the house and gardens and it has been preserved beautifully. Opened to the public in 1980, the house, studios, and stunning gardens are an incredibly popular attraction as they go into full bloom each summer.
Aside from this remarkable attraction, Giverny also boasts a Museum of Impressionism that pays tribute to the artistic colony that developed in the town before WWI, various little galleries and shops, tearooms, restaurants, the Hôtel Baudy that was once a centre of artistic life in the town and is now opened as a pretty and historic café and restaurant, the charming old mill and the Collégiale Notre-Dame church (both painted at various points by Monet), the 13th century Château des Tourelles, and a delightful array of different walking paths through the gorgeous countryside around the town. Particularly if you have no problem stretching your legs and walking about quite a bit, you’ll have plenty to enjoy as simply wandering around and enjoying the truly idylllic scenery of the town and surrounding landscape of Giverny is endlessly rewarding! If you are stuck for time, of course, many will only take the time to visit Monet’s house and gardens but if you are in no hurry, it is really worth your while to take come and really take in and appreciate this lovely place in its entirety!
So, get browsing our our vacation rentals in Normandy and then, during your time in either of those endlessly gorgeous and entertaining destinations, set aside a day to plan a trip to Giverny to stroll, admire, and quite literally sit back and smell the roses! One of the most astoundingly beautiful places to visit while on vacation in France and one of the most magic spots in the world, Giverny really does seem like something plucked right from the pages of a fairytale rather than something from the real world – a true, true must-see gem if ever there were one!