This week, I’m taking you to Normandy to visit Giverny together et meet Monet! So let’s go visit Giverny from Paris : it is a lovely destination just an hour from Paris! A small Norman village on the border of the Yvelines and Val d’Oise departments, Giverny is famous for being home to the house and gardens where Claude Monet lived and painted his most beautiful works.
If you want to come to visit Giverny from Paris on your own, this is the guide you need ! What is the best way to get from Paris to Giverny? How to plan your trip and your visit? What to do around Giverny? Here is the best way to visit Giverny!
PRACTICAL TIPS TO VISIT GIVERNY FROM PARIS
How to get to Giverny from Paris by train or by car?
How to get to Giverny from Paris? Giverny is is located 75 km west of Paris and 70 km east of Rouen. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes by car from Paris and an hour from Rouen.
Note that you will need a car if you want to explore the surrounding area! Rent a car here if you need to.
Compare car rentals to find the best price!
Giverny is also easy to reach by train. To me, it is the best way to visit Giverny from Paris!
From Paris Saint Lazare station, it takes 45 minutes to Vernon-Giverny. A shuttle bus will then take you to Claude Monet’s house (€10 return). Each departure is coordinated with the arrival of the trains.
Where to stay to visit Giverny?
Here are several accommodation I recommend near Giverny!
Find you accommodation in Giverny!
3 recommended accommodation to visit Giverny and its region
AU RELAIS DE CHAUSSY
- Historic building
- Charming B&B
- From €110
LA PLUIE DE ROSES
- Stunning house & garden
- Right next to Monet’s garden
- From €200
HAVRE DE PAIX EN BORD D’EURE
- Calm and green setting
- B&B
- From €90
How much time do you need to visit Giverny?
A visit to Claude Monet’s house and garden takes between 1.5 and 2 hours (picnics are not allowed). But if you come by car, you can easily spend the day in and around Giverny exploring the countryside and the banks of the Seine.
What to bring back from Giverny?
While the Monet Foundation shop in Giverny is full of souvenirs illustrated with the painter’s works, the region is also known for its culinary specialties. Apples reign supreme, appearing in desserts, cider, and spirits. Milk is also a major product of the region, transformed into milk jam, Camembert, and other cheeses. You’re sure to enjoy yourself in Normandy!
HOW TO VISIT CLAUDE MONET’S HOUSE IN GIVERNY
Let’s start by visiting Giverny, and more specifically the house of painter Claude Monet, a true treasure trove of colors. Until his death in 1926, Giverny was Monet’s paradise, his home but above all his source of inspiration. The Water Lilies series, grandiose impressionist paintings worked in several shades, all found their source in this extraordinary garden, shaped by the painter’s creativity.
Practical info : Maison et jardins de Claude Monet: Claude Monet’s house and gardens: open from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. (only between the end of March and November 1) – admission €12 (€6.50 for students)
The flowering calendar is available on the Monet Foundation website.
Visit Giverny : Claude Monet’s house
At the entrance to the garden, his pale pink house is highlighted by bright green shutters. Climbing plants cover the façade like tentacles. I invite you to step inside the house. This unusual villa has two floors, with the kitchen, dining room and the painter’s studio in the basement. Upstairs are the Monet family’s bedrooms.
You will discover a colorful interior with checkered tile floors. At the windows, small gingham curtains give this charming building the feel of a country house. One of the first rooms on the tour is Monet’s studio. This huge room also has a small living room and a large bay window that lets in plenty of light. Its walls are now covered with reproductions of Monet’s paintings, just as they were during his lifetime.
At the top of the stairs, you will find Monet’s bedroom, decorated with an incredible collection of works by his painter friends. Renoir, Cézanne, and Berthe Morisot are featured on the walls. The bedroom also offers a magnificent view of the paths of his beloved garden.
As you walk through the corridors and living rooms, you can also admire the many Japanese prints that testify to Monet’s fascination with Hokusai and Hiroshige.
Let’s go back down to the ground floor. The end of the tour takes us to the most surprising rooms in the house. His canary yellow dining room is an opportunity to display new prints and a collection of tableware. Right next door, his charming blue kitchen is world famous. This room alone could be a painting! The small blue tiles covering the walls contrast with the copper utensils and dishes lined up on the shelves. The period stove (yes, I have a passion for old kitchens, remember the ones at Chenonceau!) completes this work of art.
Visit Giverny : Claude Monet’s gardens
Monet’s garden is undoubtedly the highlight of a day trip to Giverny. At the foot of the house lies the painter’s entire palette of colors. A festival of carefully arranged flowers fills the grounds throughout the seasons, as the compositions change with the blooms.
In April, tulips bloom in the sun, accompanied by pansies, poppies, and then peonies. The flower beds become more colorful every month! Later in the season, the central path is covered with a bed of nasturtiums, while the house is surrounded by bright red geraniums.
Each season, you can rediscover the garden in a new light! Only a few paths are open, so the visit remains pleasant despite the daily influx of visitors. You will marvel at the flower displays and the precision of the garden’s design, which seems to have no rules.
Visit Giverny gardens : The Water Lily Pond
A tunnel then leads to the second garden on the other side of the road. This one also has plenty of surprises in store! The first path runs alongside a small stream lined with tall bamboo, gradually replaced by monumental, colorful trees: weeping willows, Japanese maples… Here and there you can see a few small green bridges, the same color as the shutters of the house. These are just a glimpse of the wonders that await you in the garden: the water lily pond and its Japanese bridge.
At the end of the path, you will come to another small bridge with a panoramic view of the garden’s large pond. It was from here that Monet painted his famous paintings, to which the garden still owes part of its fame today.
The pond exudes a wonderful sense of serenity, where the beauty of nature invites contemplation. It is easy to understand the painter’s deep attachment to this garden, which inspired him until the end of his life, even when he had become almost blind.
The pond is covered in places with water lily leaves, not yet in bloom in spring. Each season gives a new reason to revisit this garden, and Claude Monet’s works bear witness to this, with their infinite colors and perspectives.
This diversity reflects the garden itself, which offers many different little corners of paradise. You can lose yourself among the flowers, with your feet in the water on a small bridge just above the surface, in the shade of a weeping willow, or by the stream surrounded by bamboo… There’s a special place for everyone here!
At the end of the perspective, the pond is finally enclosed by the famous Japanese bridge, the star of the painter’s canvases. In early May, the footbridge is covered with sumptuous wisteria that invades its roof like a purple fountain pouring over the green pillars of the bridge. However, August is the time to come and discover the blooming water lilies floating on the pond.
WHAT TO SEE NEAR GIVERNY?
Visit Giverny and its Museum of Impressionism
Musée des Impressionnismes: open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – admission €12 (free for under 18) – free for everyone every first Sunday of Octobre and November
A few steps from Monet’s house is the Museum of Impressionism. Temporary exhibitions are held throughout the year on themes related to the Impressionist painters.
If you want to discover Monet’s most beautiful paintings, I recommend the Musée d’Orsay, the Orangerie, and the Marmottan-Monet Museum, all three in Paris. The Musée de l’Orangerie is also hosting a wonderful exhibition of American Abstract Impressionists until August 16, 2018. Their paintings show their strong heritage from Monet’s work and echo his paintings from Giverny. One of the best exhibitions of the summer in Paris!
Visit Giverny’s surroundings: the Valley of the Impressionists
If visiting Giverny takes a good day, it’s also because the surrounding area is very pleasant. I loved getting lost on the small roads of the Eure and its neighbor, the Val d’Oise. Narrow and sometimes winding, they cross rivers, run alongside fields and small villages. The journey is full of wonderful surprises!
For example, I recommend stopping off at the charming Fourges mill. This 18th-century mill on the banks of the Epte was one of the surprises of my random wanderings! And what a surprise to see a fisherman who looked like Claude Monet daydreaming on a bridge the same green color as the Japanese bridge in Giverny…
Visit Giverny’s surroundings : the banks of the Seine
Right next to Giverny, the Seine winds its way through the Normandy countryside. Walks along the banks of the Seine are very pleasant and can also be an opportunity for a picnic in the countryside or activities such as canoeing and kayaking.
In Vernon, for example, you can stop off in the countryside and discover another very pretty mill, this one older. The view from the bridge over the Seine is picture-postcard perfect!
Visit Giverny’s surroundings : la Roche-Guyon
The village of La Roche-Guyon is located just 10 minutes from Giverny, in the heart of the French Vexin Regional Nature Park. La Roche-Guyon was also a very pleasant surprise, but more for its amazing castle than for the rest of the village. This was actually the first time I had been disappointed by a village listed as one of the “most beautiful villages in France,” as I didn’t find the charm and history that usually characterize them.
The highlight of the village is therefore its castle, which is truly unique! Nestled against the cliff, it is partly troglodytic and overlooks the meandering Seine that surrounds the village. I was amazed by its impressive façade and its old keep perched on the cliff.
Inside the castle, you can discover the history of the place, the living quarters of its former owners, and some troglodyte galleries. The tour then continues outside in the huge historic vegetable garden.
Château de la Roche-Guyon: open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. on weekends and public holidays) – admission €7.80 (€4.80 for young people and students)
Would you like to explore Giverny and its surroundings a little more? I also recommend visiting Rouen (1 hour from Giverny).
The capital of Normandy is a little gem to discover on foot! Its historic center is full of pretty Norman houses with colorful half-timbered walls. Rouen Cathedral, painted by Claude Monet, will undoubtedly attract you as much as it did the painter. It is also the city of Joan of Arc, to whom numerous tributes are paid throughout the city.
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