Experience the best of Giverny

Claude Monet moved to Giverny in 1883 and lived there until his death in 1926. His pink house with green shutters, the flower-filled Clos Normand garden in front and the water garden with its Japanese bridge and lily pond beyond are preserved, and the pond was the subject of his late series of paintings. Monet is buried in the cemetery of the village church of Sainte-Radegonde.

The Musée des impressionnismes shows Impressionist and related art and recalls the American painters who gathered in the village. Vernon, with its half-timbered houses, is across the Seine. The ruined castle of Château Gaillard, built by Richard the Lionheart at Les Andelys, stands downstream, La Roche-Guyon, a château set against a chalk cliff, is a short drive east, and Rouen lies further down the valley.

Normandy's tables are rich with cream, apples, cider and Calvados, camembert and neufchâtel cheese, and sole, and tea rooms near the village serve tarts and pastries. The garden changes month by month, from spring tulips to summer water lilies and autumn dahlias.