The House and Gardens of Claude Monet is the beautifully restored home of the painter Claude Monet, the founder of French Impressionist Painting. Claude Monet lived in this house from 1883 until his death in 1926. Many of his paintings were painted in Giverny, the village in Northern France an hour outside of Paris, where his home is located, especially in his own gardens.   Visiting his house and gardens today, now the Foundation Claude Monet Museum, you can see the Japanese bridge, waterlilies, and weeping willows that were the subjects of some of his iconic paintings

Claude Monet supervised the renovation of the house himself. He made sure that the colors of the house and its interior were matching the colors of his palette which went against the dark, Victorian style, of the times. He chose a bright pink for the outside of the house and had the windows, doors, and shutters painted in a bright green. The dining room was painted bright yellow shades and the main color in the kitchen is blue. On the walls are many of the Japanese prints that Monet was fascinated with and collected. Many of the rooms are open to visitors, including the salon, the dining room, the bedroom, and the studio. 

Monet was also passionate about gardening. When he created the Clos Normand in 1883, the garden in front of the house, he transferred all his knowledge about color, light, and perspective from his paintings to his garden. The main path of Clos Normand is covered with metallic arches on which roses grow. Straight lines and groups of colors dominate the whole garden.  In 1893 he purchased another piece of land, back then behind the train tracks that run at the edge of the property. Here he created a water garden, the "Jardin d'Eau," with the famous water lily pond.  The best time to visit the Gardens is in Spring when the flowers are in bloom.