Giverny, France (gardens of Claude Monet)

Giverny is the name of the home and gardens of Jean-Claude Monet. The land is divided into flowerbeds where flower clumps of different heights create volume. Fruit trees or ornamental trees dominate the climbing roses, the long-stemmed hollyhocks and the colored banks of annuals. Monet did not like organized nor constrained gardens. He married flowers according to their colors and left them to grow rather freely. Ten years after first arriving at Giverny, Monet bought land on the otherside of the railroad opposite his house. It is crossed by a small brook, the Ru, which is a diversion of the Epte, a tributary of the Seine River. The garden is full of asymmetries and curves. It is inspired by the Japanese gardens that Monet knew from the prints he avidly collected. For those familiar with Monet's artwork, you would be greatly impressed with how familiar you are with the pond with the water lilies and Japanese bridge, simply from seeing his paintings.