Monet’s home from 1883 until his death in 1926, the Musée Claude Monet (www.fondation-monet.com) is a living legacy of the green-fingered father of Impressionism. The pink and green-shuttered house is as he left it with its collection of rare Japanese prints, yellow dining room and blue kitchen, but it is the gardens that everyone comes to see. Arrive before the gates open to get a brief glimpse of the scene before the crowds descend. May and June see the rhododendrons, azaleas and clouds of purple wistaria frothing over the Japanese bridge by the lily pond at their best. But the scene is spectacular whenever you get here, each month defined by a dominant colour scheme. The Nymphéas studio has been restored, but Monet’s original canvases are spread around the world.

A short walk down the road, the new Musée d’Art Americain may not possess a Monet, but it does have an interesting collection of paintings by his disciples, turn-of-the-century American Impressionists who came to Giverny to study or just to be given inspiration from proximity to the master.