Bend in the Epte River near Giverny

The stream curling through these trees was once a national border. In 911 the king of the Franks granted the Viking leader Rollo the land west of the Epte, and for centuries the little river marked where royal France ended and Normandy began. By 1888 it was simply the water at the bottom of Monet's meadow. He had rented the house at Giverny since 1883, and between 1887 and 1890 he worked this river over and over, moving along the bank and coming back at different hours. The summer growth is packed so close here that almost no sky gets through, and the current carries most of the light. Five years after this he asked the authorities for permission to divert a branch of the Epte into his garden, and that diverted water became the lily pond.