Giverny

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Commune of Giverny

Nympheas in Claude Monet's garden in Giverny

Location
Coordinates 49°04'37" Nord 01°31'48" Est
Administration
Country France
Region Haute-Normandie
Department Eure
Arrondissement Les Andelys
Canton Écos
Intercommunality Communauté d'agglomération des portes de l'Eure
Mayor Guy Colombel
(2001-2008)
Statistics
Elevation 10 m–139 m
(avg. 17 m)
Land area¹ 6.46 km²
Population²
(1999)
524
 - Density 81/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
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 sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).
France

Giverny (pronounced[help] [ʒivɛʀˈni]) is a village and commune of the Eure département, in France. It is best known as the location of Claude Monet's garden and home.

Contents

Giverny sits on the "right Bank" of the River Seine. The village lies 80km (50 miles) from Paris, west and slightly north, on the border between the province of Normandy and the Île-de-France (it is officially in the département of Eure, in the région of Haute-Normandie).

A settlement has existed in Giverny since neolithic times and a monument uncovered attests to this fact. Archeological finds have included tombs 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 Saint Radegonde. The village has remained a small rural setting with a modest population (numbering around 300 in 1883 when Monet discovered it) and has since seen a boom in tourism since the restoration of Monet's house and gardens.

Monet's "Water Lily Pond" in his garden at Giverny, painted 1899.
Monet's "Water Lily Pond" in his garden at Giverny, painted 1899.

Claude Monet noticed the village of Giverny while looking out the window of a train he was riding. 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, such as his water lily and Japanese bridge paintings, were of his garden in Giverny. Monet lived in Giverny from 1883 until his death in 1926. He and many members of his family are interred in the village cemetery.

Monet's house and gardens were opened to public visit in 1980, following restoration work. They have become a popular tourist attraction (the Foundation Claude Monet), particularly in the summer when the flowers are in bloom.

The other main attraction of the village is the American Art Museum.

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

Monet's garden at Giverny, May 2002.
Monet's garden at Giverny, May 2002.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.