See Monet's gardens in bloom at Giverny

Monet bought the house at Giverny in 1890 and spent the rest of his life turning the grounds into his subject matter. Your private guide walks you through both halves: the Clos Normand, a dense grid of flowerbeds running downhill from the pink house, and the water garden beyond it, with the green Japanese bridge and the lily pond he painted for the best part of thirty years. Inside, the kitchen is tiled blue and the dining room is yolk-yellow.

Two things worth knowing. The gardens are smaller than the paintings suggest and by midday they're busy, so go early.

And they close over winter, which makes this an April to October outing.

Stand at the pond and the paintings suddenly make sense.