After years of struggling as an artist, Claude Monet became wealthy by the age of 43, when he could afford to rent a large garden 75 kilometres from Paris. That's how his passion for the pond in Giverny turned into the most impressive sights of waterlilies and weeping willows.
I was at least ten years older than Monet when I discovered a pond in Japan bearing an uncanny resemblance to the pond owned by the Father of Impressionism. My wife and I traveled to Gifu today, when our daughter took her school trip to Chengdu.
Anyone with the slightest fondness for the famous painter's garden won't want to miss the pond known officially as "Namonaki-ike", meaning "the pond of no name." This breathtaking piece of nature has now earned the nickname "Monet's Pond." No doubt the drawcard for us is the much less costly airfare than that of flying to France. An extra bonus is to find peace and quiet around this pond; it's less famous and won't be swamped with tourists by busload.
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