Celebrated novellist JANEY FRASER travels to Giverny for a long weekend to visit Monet’s garden
‘Remind me,’ said my husband as we boarded the Brittany ferry at Portsmouth. ‘Why are we going all the way to Normandy just to see a garden?’
He had a point. To be honest, I was beginning to have doubts myself. But Monet’s Gardens has always been on my wish list, ever since I discovered the painter himself in my early teens.
Any admirer of Claude Monet’s wonderful rich impressionist paintings with their powerful blues and pinks (amongst other colours) must wonder where he got his inspiration from. So where better to start than the gardens which he created in his sanctuary at Giverny, Northern France.
What I hadn’t realised, until we set off, was that getting there was part of the whole experience. We decided to take an overnight crossing from Portsmouth to Caen. It was brilliant.
Apart from waking in the night in the lower bunk (I’d drawn the long straw), I hardly knew we were moving. Then it was time to disembark which was rather poignant given that we are coming up to the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings. It made me think about all the courage of previous generations and the heartbreak both at home and abroad.
Despite this, there is something very exciting about driving through France. Almost immediately, the houses look different with their tightly-closed shutters (it was only 7am) and neat front gardens with picket fences. We’d already booked our accommodation on the internet: a process which I always find incredibly difficult even though I write on a computer all the time. How can you tell which is the best place?
I had my heart set on a French chateau but there seemed to be literally hundreds in Normandy. In the end, I plumped for the Chateau Bonnemare which offered b&b for around £50 a head and was only forty minutes from Monet’s backyard. 
“You’ve pulled a blinder here,” admitted my husband as we arrived, after an hour’s journey, at a stunningly beautiful stately home surrounded by parkland. “You don’t think you got the price wrong, do you?”
It certainly didn’t detract from the experience. Our bedroom was both spacious and gracious with long windows opening out onto the gardens. It was decorated in an 18th century style – the same age as the chateau – and we also had an enormous bathroom of our own.
Although Sylvie doesn’t normally do evening meals, she took pity on us and cooked a delicious quiche with mouth watering pastry, followed by fantastically strong local cheese and then a pear pudding made from fruit in the garden. Breakfast was similarly divine with pains au chocolat and quince jam.
“Do we really have to go to these gardens?” asked my husband as we stretched out in front of the blazing fire in the enormous dining room and listened to Sylvie’s tales about how the Germans had occupied the chateau during the war.
Somehow, we managed to tear ourselves away and get on the road to Giverny. We’d already tried to book our admission tickets online but (again) this wasn’t as easy as it looked. Luckily, it was perfectly simple to buy them on the day in the museum. But where were the gardens?
“In the village,” explained an English-speaking guide. “But first you do the paintings. Yes?”
It so happened that there was a wonderful exhibition of Impressionist painters while we were there, as well as the permanent display of Monet’s own work. It was a perfect appetiser since most of the scenes depicted the gardens that we were about to finally see.
“Down the lane,” instructed another guide. “You cannot mees them”.
We wandered down, admiring the little shops en route, ranging from a bakery to an antique shop. It turned out that Giverny is a village in its own right with a thriving community.
In fact Monet discovered it when he was a lonely widower with two young boys to bring up. He then moved in with his ‘companion’ Alice and her two girls; one of whom ended up marrying Monet’s son and then running the gardens until her own death.
But still we hadn’t yet caught sight of a single flowerbed.”Ou sont les jardins?” asked my husband whose French, rather annoyingly, is superior to mine.
Unfortunately, he’d asked another tourist who seemed equally confused about where he was going.
Finally, we were ushered into a small hut where hordes of people were coming out. Uncertainly, we joined the free for all to get in (no queues here!).
Down the stairs and through the shop (the French clearly weren’t missing any tricks) and then – finally – out into a wonderful cottage garden bursting with shrubs and plants of every colour ranging from bleeding heart to generous, sprawling clumps of irises.
Each section led into another: sometimes in the most unexpected ways. At one point, we were ushered downstairs and along an underground passage before rising again and finding ourselves by a river.
Here was Monet’s famous blue bridge . In fact, there were several of them. “Look,” said my husband excitedly. (By now, any doubts about coming here had long dispersed.) “Those are frogs croaking from the water lilies.”
They were too. I have to admit that I’m more of a black-fingered gardener than a green one (plants tend to die on me) but I began to feel quite inspired at the eclectic mix of colours. How did Monet have time to paint if he was gardening too? Doubtless he had a bit of help. On the other hand, part of the gardens’ charm is that they aren’t formal. Instead, they give the impression of organised chaos with flowers and shrubs popping up in random fashion.
But that wasn’t all. Our ticket included a tour of Monet’s house itself, sitting on the edge of the gardens. I could have moved in immediately. It was spacious without being grand with lots of wonderful light in the large studio which was carelessly studded with masterpieces on the walls. Upstairs, were various bedrooms including Monet’s and Alice’s with its views over the beautiful garden. No wonder he was inspired.
On the way back, I stopped at a neighbouring garden centre to buy some French mint at an exorbitant price. ‘You do realise that’s not Monet’s mint, don’t you,’ pointed out my husband not unreasonably. I’m not that daft. But it will be a reminder of our long weekend – providing it doesn’t die on me.
We travelled from Portsmouth to Caen for £369 return (this included the car and an overnight cabin on the way out). www.brittany-ferries.co.uk
Tickets to Monet’s Garden and house can be bought on the day
You can book a guide but make sure you do it in advance or they will probably be booked up. www.giverny.org/gardens
The Chateau Bonnemare b&b can be contacted at www.bonnemare.com
Use the opportunity to visit other local spots.
We also went to Deauville – beach of the stars – where we ‘did’ the board walk along the front; following the footsteps of Hollywood celebrities over the years.
We also visited the Bayeaux Tapestry. Don’t miss this! A brilliant audio headphone commentary is included in the price. www.tapestry-bayeux.com
For Normandy landings events visit www.normandie-tourisme.fr/D-Day2014
JANEY FRASER IS THE AUTHOR OF ‘AFTER THE HONEYMOON’. PUBLISHED BY ARROW, RANDOM HOUSE. £6.99. 
ONE HONEYMOON DESTINATION; THREE COUPLES OF VARYING AGES; SIX SECRETS .http://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Honeymoon-Janey-Fraser/dp/0099580845/
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