Date and Time of Visit: September 26, 2017, approximately 11:00 a.m.
A trip before my new job 2 years ago. The end of the trip. In the first half of the trip, I went from Charles de Gaulle to Switzerland, then around central France and came back to the suburbs of Paris. I’ve visited so-called Ile de France and Normandy many times in the course of my « Tour of the Most Beautiful Villages in France » which I started around 2010, but this was my first visit to Ghiburny.
Monet’s House
Ghiberny is very famous as Monet moved there in 1893 and his famous water lilies were painted from the garden of the house. Today, the house is open to the public and visitors can see the facilities of the house including the water lilies garden. On this day, tourists from all over the world were flocking to the house.
There are many tourist attractions, which means there is a good parking lot. I am grateful for this.
But still, it’s too crowded. Well, it can’t be helped. In addition, there is a fee to enter Monet’s house. You can buy a ticket at this place, probably the main gate of the house, but actually you can buy a ticket at the Giverny Impressionist Museum near the house. I recommend you to go to the museum because it is much more empty.
There are also several entrances to Monet’s house. The main gate side is very crowded as is the ticket purchase.
However, if you enter from the place shown in the next picture, it was relatively empty. I recommend it.
This is the entrance for groups, but it was okay for people who already had a ticket.
The garden is certainly well-maintained and well worth seeing. But there were so many people…. I couldn’t do sightseeing calmly.
By the way, it was so crowded that we saw the inside of the house, but we didn’t take any pictures of it. So, it didn’t leave any impression at all.
Giverny Museum of Impressionism
Personally, I liked this one much better than Monet’s house. At that time, a special exhibition of « Henri Mangin » was being held.
Mangin was born in 1874 and died in 1949. He lived in the period when the late Impressionists and the modern Avant-garde were active. He lived in the era of late impressionism and modern avant-garde. His work and the work of the painter who lived in the same age were exhibited. It was a special exhibition with very good quality and enough to see.
Mangin’s works were certainly in the impressionist style, but they were also very vivid. I imagined that this was because he lived in the late Impressionist period, stayed and worked in Saint-Tropez on the Côte d’Azur in the south of France, and interacted with Matisse, Braque, and other representative painters of the early 20th century who followed him.
In contrast to Monet’s house, this one was quieter and less crowded, so we were able to view it very comfortably.
By the way, this museum was the venue of « Impressionism Festival » held in Normandy a few years ago. But I couldn’t visit it because of my schedule. It is quite cozy and spacious, so there must have been some good exhibitions. I believe that special exhibitions are held regularly, so there will be plenty of opportunities to visit in the future.
