Claude Monet's house at Giverny : behind closed doors

The visit begins on the ground floor, where each room cultivates its own visual universe. The sitting room, where Alice loved to read with her children, displays white walls edged with blue and a brick-coloured ceramic floor that creates a striking contrast.
 

Before having a second workshop built in the garden, Monet painted in the small studio set up in the heart of the living room. From 1899 onwards, this room also became a smoking parlour. Today, faithful reproductions of his paintings adorn the walls, each evoking a moment in his career.
 

The dining room, with its yellow walls, curtains and furniture, surprises by its luminous palette, rare for the period. The earthenware service, also yellow with blue edges, was brought out for special occasions. On the walls, more than 200 Japanese prints collected by Monet bear witness to his fascination with masters such as Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro. Adjacent, the kitchen reveals a beautiful blue Rouen ceramic decoration.

Upstairs, Monet's bedroom overlooks the gardens. Soberly decorated, it lets in the abundance of flowers from below : 'Perhaps I owe it to the flowers that I became a painter,' he confided. The walls display works by his Impressionist friends.
 

Blanche Hoschedé's room, the painter's stepdaughter, follows in floral wallpaper, in cream and pink tones evocative of nature. The only pupil of Monet, herself a painter, Blanche lived in the residence from 1883 to 1897, then again from 1926 to 1947, contributing greatly to the maintenance of the gardens.

Visiting the house at Giverny means entering the very heart of Monet's daily life and feeling, room after room, the atmosphere that nourished his work. A moment suspended in time, between art, family and nature, that lingers long after one has left the place.