Claude Monet was one of the few impressionists who actually made pretty good money at his art later in life. During a three week stay in Paris, I spent one day visiting Monet's home in Giverny which along with his gardens and lilly pond is kept in much the same state as he left it when he died in 1926. Monet's famous paintings of his gardens, pond and Japanese bridge which celebrate the beauty of nature don't tell the story that they were first created by the meticulous Monet who then later painted them. So he was a gardener, pond builder and bridge builder in addition to being a painter
From the Gare Saint-Lazare train station it's about a 45 minute trip to Vernon. From here it's about 4 km to Giverny to which you can either walk or take a bus. I took a bus for the trip out, but, once I had the lay of the land, I felt confident to walk back to the train station through the Foret de Vernon. One of my best memories is hiking through the Foret de Vernon, listening to Take 6 on my cassette player on a beautiful French afternnoon.
In 1877 Monet did a series of paintings of the Saint-Lazare train station, and I was fortunate enough to attend an exhibition at the Musee d'Orsay of the paintings of the Saint-Lazare by both Monet and Manet. In those days the trains were steam engine powered and the stations were dirty, sooty places, but fascinating nonetheless. From 1916 to 1926, Monet worked on 12 large canvases called "The Water Lillies." After the Armistice for World War I was signed, Monet donated them to France. These paintings can be viewed at the museum of the Orangerie in Paris which is near the Tuilleries Gardens which is just west of the Louvre.
On the beaches of Normandy, he met fellow artist Eugene Boudin, who became his mentor and taught him to use oil paints. Boudin taught Monet en plein air (outdoor) techniques for painting. Monet was a non-conformist eschewing the techniques of the conventional art establishment at the time. Instead he joined with artists such as Renoir, Bazille and Sisley to create a new approach to art which came to be known as impressionism.
It was at Giverny that he began his well-known series which later made him famous. He painted the series of twenty-five "Haystacks" between 1888 and 1891. In 1892, he exhibited a set of twenty-four Poplars at the Durand-Ruel gallery; from 1892 to 1898, he painted the series of Cathedrals, "Matinées sur la Seine " and then the Japanese Bridge , Wistarias and Water Lilies with their interplay of sky, clouds, grass and flowers.
After 1900 Monet became famous and continued to paint the "controlled nature" of his gardens and lilly pond at Giverny. Monet lived and painted in Argenteuil, Rouen and London among other places.
His first wife, Camille Doncieux, with whom he had two children died in 1879. He later married Alice Hoschede and moved into the Giverny house in 1883 where he lived and painted until his death. In his later years he suffered from cataracts which affected his painting. His sight somewhat recovered after cataract surgery. In 1911 Alice died and in 1914 his son, Jean, died. 
At Giverny there is a nice gift shop as well as the house and gardens which you can tour. The town itself is very small. It's a beautiful way to spend a day and get back to the Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris by nightfall.
