I?ve seen a lot of botanical gardens in my life but none quite so enchanting as Claude Monet?s home and garden in Giverny. On my last visit to Paris in September, I set aside an afternoon to take the train to visit Monet?s home and it was worth the journey.
These gardens served as a living canvas for Monet and  inspired some of his most celebrated works. Giverny is a small commune in the Normandy region of France, 50 miles outside of Paris. It is the location where Claude Monet chose to spend the last 43 years of his life and to artistically cultivate the gardens that inspired so many of his paintings. It is here that art enthusiasts can witness the scenery that captivated the master painter.
 
 
A ticket to enter gives visitors entrance to Monet?s home and freedom to roam his cultivated gardens, divided into two main parts: the Clos Normand and the Water Garden. The flower gardens in front of Monet’s house are vibrant flowerbeds arranged in a symmetrical pattern, which create a visual feast for the visitors. The gardens are cultivated by rows and the flowers grow wild. One can meander slowly to admire the botanicals in bloom that dance in the sunlight.

 
The gardens are extremely well tended, I noticed the landscapers discreetly dead heading each perennial so that every plant presented new buds and full blooms. One can’t resist pausing to take countless pictures of individual flowers in their fullest most perfect bloom.

 
 

 
Across ...