Don't Go to Giverny, It's a Beautiful Nightmare
Plus, one of Morocco's most over-the-top hotels opens a second location.
Welcome to Getting Around, a weekly newsletter about traveling better. My name is William O’Connor and I’m the former travel editor for The Daily Beast. I’ve been in the media world since I was a teenager, and I’ve been traveling almost nonstop for the last decade. I started this newsletter in large part because while we are all traveling more than ever, I remain convinced most of us aren’t having fun.
My dream with this weekly missive is to put stories with depth in your inboxes every Saturday morning, whether it’s filling you in on some deliciously rich backstory about an opulent Gilded Age house or finding ways to experience popular destinations without feeling like you’re on a conveyor belt.
The amount of information out there for readers is mind-numbing, and a lot of it ranges from useless to downright misleading. My bet is that folks are desperate for discernment, for a bit of, dare I say, elitism. By elitism I mean that there are benefits to being educated about places you’re going, pursuing wisdom, and having quality experiences (I loathe the words authentic and luxury). Perhaps most important, I believe there is value in having curation by people with taste.
That isn’t to say this will be snobbish. In fact, I think equally missing from the travel media landscape today is a bit of populism. A bit of that “Who’s looking out for you?!” as I think people are being ripped off by inferior products that get hyped up on social media and in the press. Hotels have gotten exorbitant, and checklist tourism is rampant. A guiding star for this mindset is a piece I wish I’d assigned at The Beast: The Instagram Capital of the World is a Terrible Place to Be by Rebecca Jennings in Vox.
Plus, I’ve probably stayed at more La Quinta Inns doing road trips across the U.S. over the years than in thousand-dollar-a-night hotels.
The plan each week is to offer up some form of a feature. Some will be reacting to news or timed to seasonal travel planning. Others will be about destinations or some hidden gem I’ve uncovered. Or an interview with somebody doing exciting work in the industry. The feature will be followed by recent travel industry news readers might find relevant, including new hotel openings and new clients for PR firms. There will be a section called “Department of Grievances” where I bleat about whatever has bothered me lately in the travel world. And I also plan to feature recent travel writing I found engaging, as so much great work is often missed. The desire is there to add more components over time, so please give feedback about what you’d like to see.
I think you’ll find these letters useful and entertaining, and, of course, I’m grateful if you choose to eventually become a paid subscriber. Financial sustainability means coverage that is independent and boundary-pushing. Paid subscribers can also mean doing fun things like hiring freelancers to dig up answers to reader questions. Oh, and ensuring I’m properly edited.
So, without further throat clearing, here’s this week’s feature on the world-famous Giverny!
The crowded train was the first warning sign, but I should have known better.
Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny are the perfect cultural social media day trip from Paris. It takes an hour by train to reach them, they are vaguely intellectual without requiring any depth, and they make for fantastic visual content. As a result, the place is a zoo.
While third-wheeling with two friends from college at the tail end of summer last year, I agreed to make the journey and check it off the list of “great” sights in France. You know–Mont St. Michel, Normandy Beach, Chambord, lilac fields in Provence, etc.
There’s a rush to board the train at Saint-Lazare in Paris (no assigned seats) and when you arrive at Vernon, the closest station to Giverny, there’s a collective milling about as people decide between boarding buses, renting a bicycle, taxi, or a little gimmicky “train” which is essentially a chain of golf carts playing dress up as a miniature train. The buses were taking forever to load so we took out some cash and hopped on the “train.” A decision made in haste, and we regretted it immediately as the buses all ended up departing before our driver decided he had enough cash to take off, too. The ride on it is also painfully slow, and as anybody who sifts through online reviews will discover, is spent inhaling diesel.1
This is followed by a number of people trying to discreetly speed walk in the hope that maybe, just maybe, if you hustle through the charming if tourist-trap-filled village of Giverny, all these people won’t get in the way of your photos.
Inside the gardens, you are essentially in a line of one kind or another the whole time. An ovine stream of tourists snaked down the rows of geraniums to get into the house, which, it should be noted, has only reproductions. Once inside, you’ll move one achingly slow step at a time as the house is tiny and most visitors want photos from the upstairs rooms overlooking the gardens.
Out by the lily ponds, transatlantic alliances were almost rent asunder as a French woman hissed at Americans for walking too fast along the paths and they laughed in her face. An errant plastic water bottle floated in one pond. People are each waiting for certain angles that capture the beauty without all the crowds.
On TikTok accounts where influencers promote Giverny as an easy destination outside Paris, you can spot the crowds. If the crowds aren’t easily picked out, once you start to pay attention, you realize most photos and videos are tightly cropped. On those videos, open up the comments. You can just skip past the lustful ones in English that often say something like, “adding to my bucket list immediately” to the ones in French that lament how awful the experience is. France’s most popular television network, TF1, reported last year that visitors stood in line to enter for three hours on one day when 3,000 people visited the gardens.
There is little doubt Monet would have sneered at we visitors, especially since so many are American. The squat, piggy2 painter “detested crowds,” writes Ross King in Mad Enchantment : Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies. When his paintings sold in the U.S. because of his popularity there, he declared it “does nothing but prove the stupidity of the public.” A number of the American painters who moved to Giverny and created an artist colony there would spend a whole year and not meet him. In fact, Monet thought about moving away because of their presence.
“I live in the countryside so that I can have peace,” he harrumphed when asked about the American painters. Once, when he feared he was going to have a lot of visitors, he fretted, “These people are coming in a mob … they’ll get everything dirty, they’ll pillage everything.”
In the decades between Monet moving into the house in the early 1880s until his death in 1926, tourists would drive out and go slowly past the gardens, but were not let in. Monet’s sole accommodation was a gap in the stone wall giving tourists a peek at his garden.
In the underbelly that is internet reviews and travel forums that I traversed to get a sense of how travelers felt after visiting Giverny, one comment in particular struck me. On Fodor’s, a reader wrote to ask about audio guides for the gardens. To which a contributor wrote back, “I don't see the need for a guided tour or knowing extensive amounts of history to visit. It's really about looking at a pretty water lily pond, seeing pretty flowers and walking through his house.”
I’m not saying folks must read multiple books on Monet, but this mindset is what makes a visit mere empty calories. There is a poignancy, an extra beauty, for instance, in knowing the suffering of Monet here as he lost a succession of loved ones in the 1910s and almost gave up painting. Or how cataracts–exacerbated by the sparkle of the water here–left him nearly blind for the last decade of his life, making those final years tumultuous but valiant as he fought through color and perspective distortion to complete his water lilies series–most of which now hang in the Orangerie. It was here in Giverny that Monet slashed and burned numerous canvases in anger and frustration.
Or little nuggets, like how Monet had all the vegetables in the main gardens here ripped up because he found their vegetable vegetation hideous. When gazing at the lilies so elegantly splayed across the ponds, it might be nice to ponder the generally accepted theory that these were Monet’s replacement for female muses as he was denied female models by his jealous wife Alice.
“If a model comes in here,” Alice once stated, “I walk out of the house.”
The gardens, it must be noted, are magnificent–a triumph of romanticism and controlled serendipity. You’ll find yourself marveling at how many turns lead to a view that cries out to be painted. Or, and this is the problem, photographed.
Because visitors are not capped, and it’s so easy to get to Giverny from Paris, the experience is worlds apart from what you might imagine. In fact, places that are photogenic have been severed from their original purpose–La Muralla Roja, the metro stop outside La Sagrada Familia, Livreria Lello, and so on. It’s caused Oahu to begin removing the Haiku stairs. Japanese authorities are erecting a barrier to block views of Mount Fuji at a famous photo spot. It’s also why I’ve come to appreciate places that don’t allow photos or videos–Santa María Tonantzintla in Cholula or Sansevero Chapel in Naples.
If you absolutely love Monet and have wanted to go to Giverny, of course, go. Just try to go on a weekday and be prepared for the possible crowds. Other options for a nice day trip from Paris could be Roubaix, the hometown of Bernard Arnault. There, one can find the modernist icon Villa Cavrois as well as what some consider the most beautiful museum in France, La Piscine. If you’ve done Versailles, or are reluctant to go because of the crowds, consider Vaux le Vicomte. The backstory is to die for, it was in many ways the predecessor to Versailles, and in the summer on Saturday evenings it’s lit by candles for a firework show.
But I also think Giverny and the mess it’s become highlight a couple of ideas I’d love for readers to consider.
First, we should no longer solely ask, “What should I see?” when going somewhere but rather “What shouldn’t I do?” It’s wonderful that international travel is accessible to more Americans than ever. But that means we need to be realistic about the consequences–and one is that maybe you shouldn’t spend precious time trying to see everything on a checklist–you’re likely not the only person using that checklist. You should want more out of your trip than this.
Or let’s just get rid of the idea of checklist tourism altogether. Don’t be controlled by a list that you have persuaded yourself you must work your way through.
Plus, all those tourists you’re horrified by? When you go, you’re one of them, too.
Second, there needs to be some middle ground between the accessibility of culture and maintaining the wonder of those spots. Whether it’s putting in caps on visitors, banning photography, timed entry, guided tours so that it’s about more than photos, or having hours set aside for those willing to pay large sums for a better experience, which can lower the cost for everybody else–there need to be creative solutions.
All this isn’t to be snobbish. Some places are more fun precisely because of their popularity–Miami, Mykonos, etc. And some spots–the Grand Canyon, the Taj Mahal, Falling Water–are photogenic and attract lots of tourists but it’s worth all the trouble going to see them because they’re so much better in person than in any reproduction you’ll ever see.
I don’t think the same can be said for Monet’s gardens.
DEPARTMENT OF GRIEVANCES
I’m honestly bored by essays from “highbrow” outlets trashing cruises. It’s so lame and unimaginative. And this Atlantic feature is the latest and so … meh. (The last one that attempted this was one about a Goop cruise.) People of all incomes, races, sexual orientations, politics, and so on love cruises. I personally don’t have much desire to go on a big one, but come on. Navel-gazing at its worst.
This Wall Street Journal profile of Aman owner Vlad Doronin is fascinating, but it actually leaves me with more questions than I had beforehand. One’s eyebrow is raised when it comes to Doronin’s obsession with not being seen as a Russian gangster stereotype. The article mentions Aman founder Dorian Zecha claiming he was intimidated into leaving while Nader Tavakoli, an adviser on the deal to acquire Aman, says Doronin “threatened bodily harm.” I also wanted a better understanding of why Doronin believes Amans in urban settings are “crucial to becoming a global brand” and its success?
I really enjoyed this little essay in The Nation: Capitalist Rot Has Spread to American Kitchens. It examines the “identity crisis” designers of kitchens are having. It’s in the same family as this Curbed article talking about why so many new builds already seem old. Essentially, the companies producing knock-offs of whatever gets shown in glossy spreads are getting very good and very quick. The whole thing reminds me of an issue I’ve come to have of late with AirBnB and Vrbo. The decor is almost always terrible or devoid of personality (or both), very cheap, and has this globalist mass-produced feel to it which is so far removed from the original premise of renting out somebody else’s home.
Saudi Arabia and my skepticism about the treatment of it as a soon-to-be major destination will be the subject of an upcoming newsletter, but it’s worth noting that Bloomberg reported a week ago that the Line, the befuddling idea for a 105-mile long glass city in the desert there, was now going to only be 1.5 miles long by 2030. (This week Saudi’s economy minister said all projects are still going ahead as planned, but was otherwise vague.) A few years ago the Wall Street Journal did a good job detailing some of the farfetched dreams in the whole Neom scheme.
LATEST IN TRAVEL WORLD
One of the quieter of the grand hotels in Paris, the St. James, turned the pavilions in its gardens into private suites–booking just became available this week.
Royal Mansour Casablanca has finally opened. It’s the sister property of the magnificent historicist Royal Mansour in Marrakech. It remains to be seen if opening in a city most tourists try not to spend time in will be a success. But it looks sufficiently over the top.
Turkey is the latest country to introduce a digital nomad visa.
The most hated museum in Finland, the Lenin Museum where Stalin and Lenin first met, will close
California is considering banning CLEAR in its airports. To be honest, I just dropped my CLEAR membership. A combination of under-staffing, its popularity, and that the process on the machine takes just a teeny bit too long has made its lines just as long as regular Precheck.
Nobu is planning to have 80 hotels in five years. I’ve never been to one, and not sure I know anybody who has, so if you’ve been would love to hear your thoughts!
Brightline broke ground on its Las Vegas to (almost) Los Angeles rail line. Meanwhile, California’s high-speed rail project remains unfinished.
Barcelona bus route to Park Güell was removed from map apps due to overtourism.
Speaking of boondoggles that make no sense to me. Dubai just unveiled plans for the new terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport which will be five times the size of the current airport. Ummmm…I’m not sure people want bigger airports? They’re a nightmare to get around. Plus, the hub-and-spoke model is currently on life support.
Thomas Heatherwick’s The Vessel is supposed to reopen later this year, but wrapped in mesh. As if that whole saga couldn’t get more depressing.
Amtrak can finally take control of Union Station. America’s painfully slow march toward passenger rail that makes sense scores a victory.
If you do go, just take an Uber. We ended up Ubering back to Vernon which was painless and only 15 euros.
Monet was a fan of le trou Nourmand (the “Norman break”), which King describes as "a shot of apple brandy that served to cleanse the palate and stimulate the appetite for further bouts of gluttonous indulgence.” Basically he took a shot so he could continue to shovel food in his mouth.
Nice first newsletter! I visited Giverny in the (barely) pre-social media age and I remember it being lovely. Sad it’s become a symbol of overtourism.
One of the problems American’s have, is the lack of vacation time. Europe is far away, and if you only have a few days then you focus on the ‘must see’ tourist destinations. It is a combination of wanting to see what you have heard about and wanting to show friends and family that you have seen it. Which is also why Japanese tourists aways include themselves in any picture of a landmark.
The best way would be to rent a house for a few weeks to absorb the atmosphere and culture of a place, and to go to tourist attractions at a time when there are fewer people. Sadly, that is a luxury few of us can afford.
It does astonish me that people are so keen to take their own photo at a landmark. After all, photos / postcards by a professional photographer, taken at an optimal time with no crowds, are usually available to buy. Besides – does anyone ever look at their photographs after the holiday?
Nicolas Fouquet, who built The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, was like Cardinal Wolsey. You should never build palaces and show off a magnificence and wealth greater than the Kings. He will never believe you built your palace in his honour, and it will be your downfall. They forgot the King had the power over life and death.