Because we will visit the private garden of Piet Oudolf in a few days i remembered our visits of the Gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny ( France ). The first time was a few weeks after they opened and we almost had the garden to ourselves. It was impressive to walk through the house , see the japanese prints, furniture and the extremely large studio which was used by Monet to paint his almost abstract scenes of his gardens. Mainly this studio felt like you stepped back in time and could envision how it must have been at the time Monet was working there. These super large paintings now are in the Orangerie in Paris and it was a “must see” for me and my son when we visited Paris a few years ago. We only stayed a 2o minutes in the Orangerie……Lucas did not like it… but…….now several years later he still remembers these impressive paintings. So a fine reason to visit the gardens in Giverny for as second time again some 2 years ago.
What was there to be seen in Giverny… busses, long rows of waiting people to get entrance, too many people on a limited space. Studio no longer open to the public and a disappointing visit because of the very large crowds that came to visit from all over the world. Better avoid these gardens now and go straight to Paris and visit the Orangerie instead….even better….travel 500 miles and visit the Beyeler Museum in Basel and visit one of the most beautiful museums and collections in the world. Building by Renzo Piano and collection by Beyeler, the one time art dealer who collected an extraordinary collection of contemporary art including one of the large Monet garden paintings from his Giverny series.
So looking forward to the garden architecture of Piet Oudolf in a few days i had to share this and of course there are still extremely nice books on these Monet gardens to be found. see also www.ftn-books.com
