Monet's House

We had to stand in a very long queue in the hot sun to see Monet’s house, but it was well worth it to explore this charming, quite small but very famous cottage with its spectacular view over the garden.

I gather that when Monet saw this cottage, it was just what he wanted so he was determined to have it. He was able to pay for it by simply selling a couple of his paintings, such was their value even then.

The cottage was full of what I should imagine were reproductions, but I daresay that when he lived in it, it was full of his work. It was interesting to see so many Chinese paintings on the walls, and to see a painting by his artist friend Renoir hanging over his bed. I love that painting - those days men thought fuller figures were beautiful! 

Our guide told us that Monet actually had bad cataracts and so could not see very well, which to me explains his more ethereal paintings. Until I had my cataracts removed last year, I thought the world was a misty, foggy place, which I put down to air pollution. When your sight slowly deteriorates, you don’t realise it is happening. When the eye pads came off, I reeled back with the brightness of colours, the sharp borders around everything and the rich textures. It was a completely new and wonderful world!  A world that sadly, Monet saw no more. I wonder what transformation would have occurred in his art if he had been able to have the same surgery . . .

I will not caption these photos. Just walk up to then around the cottage with me, starting at a little drawing room then a small lounge, then upstairs to Monet's bedroom, through the door to his wife’s bedroom, with what looked like her wedding posy preserved in a glass dome, through to his daughter’s room (if I recall correctly), then downstairs to the dining room-kitchen area. Not every single room is shown. But it looked like his favourite colours were blue and yellow. They were the dominant colours in the garden too.