In the 1960s, Michel Monet, the painter Claude Monet’s son, bequeathed the Giverny property to the Académie des beaux-arts. In 1976, the former chief curator of the Château de Versailles, Gérarld Van der Kemp, was commissioned to restore the estate. The gardener Gilbert Vahé was hired to revive the gardens. Thanks to photographic archives, they succeeded in recreating the spirit of Monet’s beloved gardens and started to open them to the public in 1980. In its very first year, no less than 80,000 visitors showed up at Giverny. Today, more than 400,000 people still walk the paths of the gardens every year.