Giverny

Giverny
Water lilies in Claude Monet's garden in Giverny
Giverny
Administration
Country France
Region Upper Normandy
Department Eure
Arrondissement Les Andelys
Canton Écos
Intercommunality Portes de l'Eure
Mayor Claude Landais
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 10–139 m (33–456 ft)
(avg. 17 m/56 ft)
Land area1 6.46 km2 (2.49 sq mi)
Population2 502  (2008)
 - Density 78 /km2 (200 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 27285/ 27620
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Giverny (French pronunciation: [ʒi.vɛʁ.ni]) is a commune in the Eure department in north-western France. It is best known as the location of Claude Monet's garden and home.

Contents

Location

Giverny sits on the "right bank" of the River Seine where the river Epte meets the Seine. The village lies 80 km (50 mi) from Paris, west and slightly north, in the old province of Normandy (it is officially in the département of Eure, in the région of Haute-Normandie).

History

See also: Claude Monet, Alice Hoschedé, Blanche Hoschedé Monet, and Suzanne Hoschedé

A settlement has existed in Giverny since neolithic times and a monument uncovered attests to this fact. Archeological finds have included booties dating from Gallo-Roman times and to the earlier 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The town was known in ancient deeds as "Warnacum". The cultivation of grapes has been an occupation of the inhabitants of Giverny since Merovingian times. The village church dates from the Middle Ages and is built partially in the Romanesque style, though additions have since been made. It is dedicated to Sainte-Radegonde. The village has remained a small rural setting with a modest population (numbering around 301 in 1883 when Monet discovered it) and has since seen a boom in tourism since the restoration of Monet's house and gardens.

Monet at Giverny

Claude Monet noticed the village of Giverny while looking out of a train window. He made up his mind to move there and rented a house and the area surrounding it. In 1890 he had enough money to buy the house and land outright and set out to create the magnificent gardens he wanted to paint. Some of his most famous paintings were of his garden in Giverny, famous for its rectangular Clos normand, with archways of climbing plants entwined around colored shrubs, and the water garden, formed by a tributary to the Epte, with the Japanese bridge, the pond with the water lily, the wistarias and the azaleas. Monet lived in the house with its famous pink crushed brick façade from 1883 until his death in 1926. He and many members of his family are interred in the village cemetery.

Attractions

Claude Monet's property at Giverny (house and gardens), left by his son to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1966 became a Museum opened to public visit in 1980 after completion of large-scale restoration work: the huge Nymphea's studio was restored and the precious collection of Japanese engravings was displayed in several rooms, hung in the manner chosen by the master himself, the gardens were replantedas they once were. The house become a popular tourist attraction (the Fondation Claude Monet), particularly in the summer when the flowers are in bloom.

The other main attraction of the village is the Museum of Impressionism.

The Hôtel Baudy was a center of artistic life in the Giverny heyday. It is now still a café and restaurant, with period decoration.

Population

Historical population of Giverny
Year 1793 1800 1806 1821 1831 1836 1841 1846 1851 1856
Population 422 430 327 407 396 417 406 378 348 334
Year 1861 1866 1872 1876 1881 1886 1891 1896 1901 1906
Population 354 340 328 306 279 277 305 291 250 313
Year 1911 1921 1926 1931 1936 1946 1954 1962 1968 1975
Population 273 243 309 298 276 304 372 363 386 509
Year 1982 1990 1999 2008
Population 502 548 524 502

See also

References

External links

Bibliography