"My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece".

"Everything I have earned has gone into these gardens".

"I am following Nature without being able to grasp her... I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

"I am only good at two things, and those are: gardening and painting".

"It took me time to understand my waterlilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them".

It took nearly 10 years to restore the lovely pink house along with the gardens to their former magnificence. Inside the house, the floors and ceiling beams had rotted away and the staircase had completely collapsed, but you wouldn't know it when you visit today.

The airy blue kitchen and bright yellow dining room where the family sat down for gourmet meals are just a few of the rooms that you can tour. Monet's bedroom is also open to the public, but the children's rooms are not. Photographs inside the house are prohibited, but postcards are available in the gift shop or you can buy a fantastic book which showcases the interior by Heidi Michels.

The great thing about Monet's garden design is that you can see most of the Clos Normand garden from the house, but even more impressive is how Monet framed the house with great views even from the Oriental water garden across the road.

Just in front of his large pink house, Monet laid out gardens that consisted of densely packed flower beds intersected with gravel paths. Instead of pursuing a formal look, Monet and his gardeners planted flowers that softened the hard edges of the paths. In fact, many of the flowers grow fully on to the paths by the end of the summer - especially the orange nasturtiums on the Grand Allee. Many trees were planted to cast shadows and create dappled sunlight across the garden as well. The Clos Normand Garden covers nearly 3 acres.

Monet carefully selected plants to create rich textures along with harmonizing or contrasting hues of color. In some areas, he planted monochromatic masses of colors like blue or pink. For blue color, Monet planted flax flowers, delphiniums, blue bells and foxgloves. For pink, he planted peonies, roses and hollyhocks. In other areas, he planted contrasting primary colors. The huge variety of flowers covered every color of the rainbow including hydrangeas, dahlias, poppies, irises, and hibiscus. Fortunately, the many photographs that were taken during Monet's life and Monet's own paintings helped gardeners to restore the original look of the Clos Normand Flower Garden. The gardens are ever-changing as the bulbs and perennials blooms fade and emerge. So in Spring and Summer and Autumn, the garden looks completely different as the floral kaleidoscope is constantly changing. The garden isn't particularly interesting in winter which is when Monet usually traveled to other locations such as Venice and the French Riviera.

Le jardin de l'artiste à Giverny, 1900(Musee d'Orsay)

Weg in Monets Garten in Giverny, 1902(Österreichische Galerie)

I visited in Spring when thousands of Dutch bulbs were blooming in all their magnificent glory. There were ribbons of color around every turn. In the Spring garden, the paths have not yet been taken over by wandering flowers so it seems more formal than later in the year.

The most stunning vistas in the Clos Normand Flower Garden are along the Grand Allee which is the wide gravel path that extends from the house to the gate. Monet achieved a tunnel effect along the 10 foot wide path by placing 13 foot tall iron arches every 22 feet down the path. Climbing roses cover the arches by the end of summer creating an umbrella of flora. If you are looking toward the house from the gate, the green door of the house is perfectly framed by the archway. In Spring, the allee appears quite wide because the wandering orange nasturtiums and climbing roses have not yet filled in.

In 1892, Claude Monet bought a piece of property adjacent to his home where he created the oriental water garden which has been the subject of numerous paintings. To create the large pond, Monet diverted part of the Ru creek and proceeded to plant the banks with willow trees, azaleas, bamboo, alders, irises, and of course, the infamous water lilies. The hardy and tropical water lilies were planted in tubs and placed in the pond. That way, Monet could harmonize the colors and get growth where he wanted it. The water lilies range in color from red to copper to yellow to white and pink.

The photo to the right shows Monet on the Japanese bridge in 1922 (from the New York Times photo archive).

In 1893, Monet also added the infamous curved Japanese bridge, but it was not until 1899 when the plants and flowers filled in that he began to paint the bridge and pond fervently. The bridge is the main architectural feature in the garden and it creates a fantastic elliptical reflection in the pond itself. In fact in 1899 alone, Monet painted 18 different paintings that included the Japanese bridge. Four years later (1903), Monet added a trellis over the bridge that he draped with Wisteria. I was fortunate enough to visit in early May when the Wisteria was in full bloom. It was a sight to behold and it softens the lines of the bridge just as Monet had intended.

Monet spent much of the early 1900's painting the motifs of his gardens - they had matured enough that Monet felt that he no longer had to travel for inspiration.

Water Lily Pond, 1900 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Le bassin aux nymphéas, harmonie rose, 1900 (Musee d'Orsay)

Le bassin aux nymphéas, harmonie verte, 1889 (Musee d'Orsay)

The Water Lily Pond, 1889 (National Gallery of London)

Water Lily Pond, Water Irises 1900 (Private Collection)

The water lilies and their reflections in the pond inspired Monet to create an entire series of Water Lily paintings. The last 25 years of his life, Monet spent considerable time painting the water lilies.

Nymphéas bleus, 1916-1919 (Musee d'Orsay)

Water Lilies, 1906 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Water Lilies, 1917 (Musée Marmottan)

Water Lilies, 1919 (Musée Marmottan)

In 1914, Monet began work on enormous water lily paintings - 6 foot tall panels with varied lengths up to 41 feet (each panel consisted of several canvases). While painting in his studio (which he had built just for the purpose of these enormous paintings), Monet had the canvases on casters so that they could be wheeled around easily. In 1918, Monet offered two of the large panels to the State in celebration of the Armistice Day holiday. His friend and France's Head of State, Georges Clemenceau, liked the idea so much that he and Monet negotiated to have these and even more enormous panels displayed in a building specifically designed for the masterpieces. Monet spent the last 10 years of his life on this collection. Eight of his water lily panels were installed in the oval rooms of the Orangerie in Paris in 1927, a year after Monet's death.

Seeing the oriental garden in person makes you realize how well Monet created the illusion of space in his paintings because the pond and oriental garden are relatively small and compact covering less than 2 acres. A labyrinth of gravel paths winds around the pond also making it appear much larger than it really is.