The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: August eighth, meandering through Monet's garden. 

One fine morning in 1883, the French painter Claude Monet looked out of the window of a train and first beheld Giverny. Something about the light in the tiny village on the Seine River 60 miles west of Paris, caught Monet's eye. "I'm filled with delight," he later wrote a friend. "Giverny's a splendid spot for me." 

The discovery came at a difficult time in the artist's life. Then a 43-year-old widower, Monet was caring for his two small children and those of his common-law wife, Alice Hoschede. Having little money, Monet rented a tiny cider farm along a small stream. Setting up his studio in its rundown barn, he began to produce painting after painting of haystacks and flowers he observed along his daily walks.

Painstakingly, Monet developed a new way to capture nature on canvas. "Subjects are of secondary importance to me," he wrote, "I want to reproduce that which exists between the subject and me." Critics labeled his style of blending colors "impressionism," after an assessment of one of his early paintings.

Monet eventually bought the farm and slowly transformed it to match his pastoral vision. He planted a garden with myriad trees and flowers. A small Japanese bridge spanned a lily- covered pond. Monet lived and worked in Giverny until his death in 1926. Twenty years ago, the house and gardens were taken over by a foundation who have restored them to their former glory. Now, from April through October, those who wish to gain insight into the master's inspiration may find it in the tranquility of his gardens.

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