09/29/2026
Day 3/30
Today I left Paris early in the morning to head to Giverny for a half day tour. Giverny is home to Claude Monet, the ‘father’ of impressionist art - and one of my favourite artists!
The entire town of Giverny is centred around Monet and his legacy. It features a historic church, multiple small museums and galleries, multiple gardens and the Monets personal residence.
Originally from Paris, Claude had an infinity for wanting to persue art. During his young adult years, he was drafted into the Paris military like most young men at the time. He desperately wanted to get out of the military so he called his father and asked if he could buy his military contract out. His family couldn’t afford to do so, but luckily for Monet he had a wealthy aunt. He called his aunt and asked if she could buy him out. She said yes under one condition which was that he would enrol in university in any course of his choosing so he would at least do something with his life. He naturally and swiftly agreed and chose an art degree at one of the most prestigious school, Académie Suisse.
At the time, while he was producing, he kept getting rejected from big galleries. During this period, artists in Paris were still so focused on renaissance art that they failed to appreciate anything else. This led him to form the group the Anonymous society of painters, sculptures and engravers. The society put off events for all those rejected from the big galleries who wouldn’t conform to renaissance art.
The military soon came back looking for Monet again and he was not interested in joining. He instead fled to London to avoid being listed. While there, he befriended famous a French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel who was obsessed with Monets work but didn’t believe it was him, because why would he be in London and leave his society behind? He explained his story about running from the military and Paul requested he paint to prove it, so he did. This kickstarted the fame that led Monets legacy to where it is today.
When the war ended, he went back to France and settled with his family in Giverny which ended up inspiring many of his paintings. He created a home that suited his large family and due to his obsession with Japanese culture, he created a Japanese garden through his acreage.
He also left multiple diaries with extremely detailed notes of his life through all stages. Because of this, the gardens today are still a vision of his exact plan down to each plant placement.
As an art lover, this was a special place to visit and certainly worth the half day trip.
After the half day trip was complete, I visited the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Then I found an Italian restaurant where I drank lots of white w**e and had handmade pasta.
Day 4 will be a rest and travel day as I head to my next country so there will not be an update tomorrow. However I look forward to sharing an update with you on Thursday!
