Monet's garden at Giverny

Imagine a place with so many colors. Pink, purple, and yellow flowers dance in the sunshine. You can hear the happy buzz of busy bees flying all around. A little green bridge makes a happy curve over a pond that sparkles like a diamond. It is so beautiful and peaceful here. I am a special garden in a country called France. I am Monet's garden at Giverny. I am full of flowers and water and light, and I love when friends come to visit me. I am a happy, beautiful place for everyone to see and feel joyful.

One day, a long, long time ago, a kind man with a big, bushy beard came to see me. His name was Claude Monet, and he was a painter. He loved to paint sunshine and colors more than anything in the whole wide world. In the year 1883, he found me and said, 'This will be my home.'. He was my special friend. First, he planted a flower garden with rows and rows of bright tulips and sleepy poppies. He filled me with so much color. Then, in the year 1893, he had a new, wonderful idea. He wanted a water garden. He dug a big pond for me and filled it with beautiful water lilies. He even built a green Japanese bridge so he could walk over the water and look down at the floating flowers. I loved my new pond and my pretty bridge.

My friend, the painter, loved me so much. He would sit by my pond for a very long time. He watched the light dance on the water. He watched my water lilies float like little boats. He painted me again and again and again. He made hundreds of paintings of my water and my bridge. Now, my friend is gone, but I am still here. People from all over the world come to visit me. They want to see a real, living painting. I love to show them my beautiful flowers and sparkling water. I help everyone feel happy and full of ideas, just like I did for my painter friend.