In Claude Monet’s gardens in Giverny (Normandy), August 8, 2025. ARNAUD BEINAT/MAXPPP
There are worse places to be stuck in a traffic jam. In Claude Monet’s gardens in Giverny (Normandy), on one of the bridges over the water lily pond, visitors wait for the crowd to move forward, inching along to the chaotic rhythm of photo stops.
This Thursday in September, the gardens of the most famous Impressionist painter were almost full to bursting. Several hundred tourists from the United States, China, Italy and Japan shuffled in single file between the bushes of dahlias, irises and nasturtiums. “It’s a beautiful place,” said Raelee Houck, a nurse from Oklahoma vacationing in France. “I took a class on Impressionism, so it really speaks to me. Yes, it’s crowded, but yesterday at the Louvre it was even worse.”
While an influencer strikes pose after pose in front of Monet’s house with its green shutters, some give up trying to go inside: too many people. The restrooms? Forget it. On the other hand, the queue management at the gift shop is remarkably efficient. No risk of discouraging visitors from leaving without a poster, water lily socks, or a glass Eiffel Tower filled with the famous Guérande salt.
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