A picture is worth a thousand words......a garden is priceless!

We all know the old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words' but when that picture is of a garden, and painted by one of the most famous Impressionist painters that lived, then that picture is almost priceless.

This is true of the incredible paintings of Claude Monet (Nov 14, 1840 - Dec 5, 1926). Claude Monet was the founder of the French Impressionist movement. He also happened to be the most prolific painters of the genre. The Impressionist philosophy was of expressing one's perceptions of the natural environment with particular emphasis placed on the depiction of landscapes painted 'en plein air' or outdoors!

Monsieur Monet was born in Paris in 1840 but it is for the paintings created in his garden in Giverny that he is most famous. Initially Monet and his Impressionist contemporaries were met with rejection from the Académie des Beaux-Artes. However in 1873, Monet along with Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley joined forces to exhibit their art independently. At their first exhibition in 1874 Monet exhibited the work that was to give the movement it's name. Impression, soleil levant or 'Impression, sunrise' was painted in1872 and depicted the sunrise over the port of Le Harve, France. The art critic Luis Leroy in his review of the painting coined the term 'impressionist' as a disparaging review of the painting, however, the artists took on the term, appropriating it for themselves and their style and movement were born!

Impression, soleil levant.   Claude Monet: 1872

During my recent visit to France I was lucky enough to take a day trip to Giverny and visit the home and the garden of Monsieur Monet. The small village of Giverny is approximately and hour from Paris' Gare St Lazare. Rather than doing an organised tour I'd highly recommend you buy tickets in advance for the house and  garden online at www.digitick.com. I was able to do this and taking the printed tickets with us got us to the head of a cue of about 100 visitors waiting to buy tickets at the door. You can also buy your train tickets in advice online. You actually catch the train to the village of Vernon and from there you can get a bus or taxi, or the 'kitsch' road-train which we did. It's a small open-air 6 carriage motorised 'train' that winds it's way through the medieval streets of Vernon and on to Giverny. It was very reasonable (about 6 Euro per person return). A great website to check out before your visit is www.giverny.org which has lots of useful information about getting to Giverny and visiting the house of Monet and the famous gardens.

The house of Claude Monet is now a museum and has been restored and painted as it was when Monet lived there. Painted in a 'salmon' pink with bottle-green shutters, the rendered house looks like spring itself!

 It's quite wonderful to be able to wander through the house; up and down the steep steps, through the bedrooms and ante-rooms. Of course it's the studio of the painter that is captivating. It has been recreated with original pieces and some reproductions to be the same as it was while he lived here. Claude Monet lived in the house for 43 years, from 1883 to 1926. The house is over 40m long but only 5m and one room deep. Monet chose the colours of the house and shutters, and designed the fabulous blue tiled kitchen that could cater for the family of 10 that lived there.

The studio must have been an inspirational place to work and contemplate life. The large windows allowing the sun to illuminate the space and inspire the artist.

 The kitchen was kept warm by the huge coal and wood fired cast-iron stove and the warm glow of the polished copper pans reflected the sunlight. The walls were covered in a traditional blue and white patterned 'tile of Rouen'. Next to the kitchen was a dining room that was en explosion of yellow. Monet didn't follow the fashions of the time which called for dark wood and the sombre interiors of the Victorian age, instead infusing his home with the passion for colour that he saw in nature and which translated into his art.

The house was our first stop but then it was on to the garden. Anyone with a passion for gardening will be overwhelmed by the colours, shapes scent and abundance of flowers in this garden. Even if you don't love gardening, you will fall in love with this garden. It's so inspiring that you literally want to take a photo of every plant; every flower, and every bumble bee on every flower!

These are only a few of the hundreds of pictures I took and if you can imagine each of these flowers multiplied by 1000 then you get some idea of the colour and vibrancy of this garden!

For me, however, the most beautiful and inspirational part of the garden is the lily pond. The lily pond was the inspiration of some 250 oil paintings which were painted in the last 30 years of Monet's life; many of the painting created at a time he suffered from cataracts.

Throughout his career Monet made a point of exhibiting a series of paintings related by subject. Painting from the series Watery Lily or 'Les Nymphéas' are exhibited in galleries around the world. The photos below are my interpretation in film of what Monet was able to create with a brush and oil paint.

As you can see below, no camera can capture the beauty and tranquility of the lily ponds in such as was as Monet was able to do on his canvases.

On 24th June 2008, one of Monet's water lily paintings 'Les basins aux nymphéas' sold at Christies in London for £41 million.....almost double the estimate!!!!

That may be a lot of money and someone is now the owner of an incredibly beautiful painting. For me, it's knowing that I have experienced the garden in person and seen the house, the flowers, the lily pond.....it is an experience and a memory that is priceless.