Monet's Water Garden and "Pont Japonais"
Your taste of life in Paris and France
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Wednesday, April 6, 2011 • Paris, France
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April in Paris is a song, a movie and season. The burgeoning young trees at the Jardin du Luxembourg form a pale green lacy canopy under which there is serenity and hope. The garden is still in its planting stages, some of which is already bright with the colors of newly bedded flowers, but still looking a bit stark with rows of freshly turned earth. It won't be like that for the long.
Created in 1612 around the Palais du Luxembourg, the garden covers about 24 hectares featuring plantings, flower beds and fountains. It is one of the most beautiful parks in Paris thanks to its special blend of both French and English gardens. I have a few favorite spots, one of which is the Fontaine de Médicis -- it's the coolest spot in the capital on a hot, summer day. In the early fall at the beginning of October, the flowers are at full height and maturity. This is when the garden is its most beautiful. Still, nothing is quite so sublime as a short repose on a lounging green metal fauteuil at the Jardin du Luxembourg.
Currently at the newly re-opened Musée du Luxembourg in one wing of the Palais, is an exhibition of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472 – 1553), a German Renaissance painter and printmaker. One section is devoted to the nudes that were central in his work, "female figures of great sensuality, sometimes borrowed from the ancient repertoire (Venus, Diana, etc.), sometimes to the Christian culture (Eve)." He was a famous and politically powerful painter, centered in the intellectual circles and an original personality making him one of the most of amazing artists of 16th-century Europe. The images are beautiful, sometimes disturbing, often surprising and in some cases, comical.
Combine a visit to the Musée with a stroll through the gardens. If you have never had the pleasure, then be sure your life doesn't end without at least a visit to the park, and what could be the city's most romantic gardens.
Location: in the 6th arrondissement, bordered by rues Vaugirard, Guynemer, Médicis, August Comte and boulevard Saint-Michel. For more information, visit museeduluxembourg.fr
The home of Monet and the gardens at Giverny opened on the first of April with the flowers in their infancy, the home washed and polished ready for the onslaught of visitors and the pond not yet bursting with its famous lilies. The wisteria covering the Pont Japonais are still simply vines, awaiting their lavender blossoms. The azaleas bordering the path around the pond that face the sun are deep red and in full bloom while those facing away are about to burst. At least the tulips are tall and colorful in the garden in front of the house.
The first time I stood on the bridge over the pond about 15 years ago, I welled up with tears to think I was standing on Monet's famous little wooden bridge he had painted so many times. My daughter thought it 'stupid' of me to be so sentimental. The sentiment has never waned.
As it's just opened, the busloads of children and other tour groups have arrived, but not so much the individual tourists. At about noon, we were shockingly the only ones to board the bus from the train station and entered the garden just ahead of about 30 British kids. They cleverly route you through the gift shop before you visit the house and gardens and route you back again as you exit. Ignore the commercialism and just take in the sights and scents.
The house is sprawling and colorfully decorated. Monet's pale yellow dining room and clear blue kitchen send ideas swirling in my head for the decor of my next property adventure. The main garden is a square of crisscrossing pathways to follow, but is just the appetizer for the main course -- the water garden for which Monet was so proud that it is known he spent hours looking at it had gardeners to remove every dead leaf so as not to disturb its perfect beauty.
The town has grown up around Monet's house and gardens, with a Musée des Impressionnismes just down the road, other artists' ateliers and galleries from which you can purchase art works and lots of little restaurants and hotels.
Currently there is an exhibit of "Bonnard en Normandie" at the museum, worth a trip, but disappointing once one compares the vibrancy of Claude Monet's paintings to the dull lifelessness of Pierre Bonnard's. I marvel at an impressionist work that is clear and precise when viewed from a distance, but just a mass of blobs from a closer inspection. Bonnard's works are merely blobs -- but you understand, this is a personal perspective and not a criticism of such a famous painter's work.
It's easy to spend the whole afternoon in Giverny whiling away the time and taking in the fresh Normandy air. To get there, take a train from the Gare Saint-Lazare (there are about six from as early as 8:20 a.m. to 2:20 p.m., about 13€ each way) to Vernon from which there is a "navette" (shuttle bus) that is timed with the trains to take you to Giverny (4€) (and as easy in reverse back to Paris). Allow at least 1.5 hours each way. For more information, visit fondation-monet.fr
April in the gardens of Paris and Normandy...not a bad start for the makings of a fine spring.
A la prochaine...
Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris
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P.S. Last night I taste-tested a new little bistrot, Restaurant le Gaigne, at 12, rue Pecquay (4th, Phone 01.44.59.86.72, Métro Rambuteau), across the street from one of my once favorite and now sadly less than favorite's (Le Felteu). While the food was exceptionally delicious, I'd have to give it a thumb's down for atmosphere (too small, too tight, too bright and too low scale [no table cloths]) compared with the high price (at least 45 euros for two courses plus your drinks) and the all-American loud-voiced dining crowd (not a Frenchman among the bunch). (I heard every word one woman was saying and unfortunately it wasn't at all interesting.) I used to say "one day I'll write a guide" and guess, what? I did. Scroll down to learn more about my Top 100 Cheap Insider Paris Restaurants -- where to dine well for a whole lot less without the intrusion of the tourists (you can therefore pretend you aren't one!)
