Visit the house of Claude Monet in Giverny has become a must more and more often offered to the tourists are Chinese, Japanese, or Americans visiting France. Located in the French department of Eure, the home of the impressionist painter is a victim of its success and of its narrowness. It is today the second most visited site in Normandy after the Mont Saint-Michel and before the old town of Rouen.

” READ ALSO – Monet and Paris: je t’aime moi non plus

In 2018, 696.000 curious have discovered the home of the artist, its flowery garden and its pond of water lilies, during the seven months of opening. Less than half of the visitors are French, 319.000 exactly according to the officials of the Claude Monet Foundation-Giverny, is at 45.6% of the overall attendance. The other big half is composed of 20.4% in the U.s. and 4.4% for Chinese.

other tourists from Asia complement this classification: a 3.1% were from South Korea, while 2.3% were from Japan. This trend is explained in particular by the likes of the painter, whose extensive collection of 231 japanese prints is widely exposed.

Why to be so successful in the far abroad of this French property of modest size (1.8 hectares), little spectacular, such a lovely second home, entered its fortieth year of opening to the public?

Since the beginning of the Twentieth century, “the world knew that the garden existed, it was the subject of entire pages of journals, american, English, German. The Japanese came to see the painter in Giverny,” says Hughes Gall, president of the foundation.

In addition, its access is made easier via the A13 motorway, close, shuttle buses from the train station in Vernon, and also by development of tourism on the Seine, tour operators organizing stops at Vernon for the boats which descended the Seine.

The genie does the rest, a painting light and accessible, an aesthetic appeal for the garden and flowers, and the effect of sponsorship from us in the past. And perhaps, simply, to not look like a museum.

” READ ALSO – The cat in Monet’s return to Giverny, thanks to the generosity of a Japanese

Nearby, the impressionist museum in Giverny, which is celebrating its ten years, does not have the same enthusiasm. In 2018, it has attracted 183.000 visitors despite a nice program. An exhibition is currently to honor the “dialogue” art between Monet and his contemporary Jean-Francis Auburtin.