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If you’re looking to take a day trip from Paris, you should spend the day in the town of Giverny, located just one hour north of the city by train! In Giverny is where you’ll find the house of the father of Impressionism, Claude Monet, where he lived between 1883 and 1926, along with his garden where he drew inspiration for many of his famous paintings!

Spending an afternoon here in the cute town of Giverny along with strolling through his gardens, you’ll leave fully inspired and wanting to learn even more!

I recently visited Monet’s house and garden when my parents visited me in Paris during the summer, and it was such a great day trip from the busy city. They really enjoyed seeing the rural, tranquil side of France.

In this blog, I’m going to share tips for reaching Monet’s house from Paris and how to enjoy your day in this cute little town!

At a Glance:

Quick tips
How to Get to Giverny from Paris: by train, bike, or bus!
Lunch in Giverny
Exploring Monet’s House and Garden
Heading Back to Paris & Dinner by Gare Saint Lazare

Looking for more inspiration for your next trip to Paris? Check out all of my Paris blogs filled with the best restaurants, museums, monuments, and more!

Quick Tips:

• Buy your tickets for Monet’s Garden and House exactly one month in advance of when you want to go! These tickets will sell out quickly.
• Monet’s Garden and House is only open during the spring, summer, and fall, so plan accordingly! Here is the schedule for their opening dates.

How to Get to Giverny from Paris

There are a few ways to reach Giverny from Paris. The first option is to take a tour bus that will have a pick up spot in Paris, bring you to Giverny, allow you some time to see the gardens, and bring you back to Paris.

However, I don’t recommend this option because you won’t be able to have enough time to see everything! One of my friends had done this and said she’d rather go on her own the next time.

The second option is to take a train from the center of Paris into Vernon, and then take the bus or bike to Giverny, which is what we had decided to do.

Arriving in Vernon by Train

To reach Giverny from Paris without a tour guide, it’s super accessible by train! However, it’s good to note that the closest you can get to Monet’s house by train is to the town of Vernon, and then from there you still need to reach the town over of Giverny. But no worries because there are plenty of options to get there.

First, we took the train (TER) from Gare Saint Lazare to Vernon and it took just under 1 hour. You can book these tickets ahead of time using Omio or the SNCF website to ensure the train doesn’t fill up.

Personally, these two platforms are my go-to options when traveling throughout Europe (France specifically for SNCF) because they’re super easy to use and show you the best prices. Omio even compares the bus routes to train prices!

Since these trains head into Normandy, there’s a chance on busy holiday weekends that people are heading up north for a vacation or to see family!

For timing reference, we arrived in Vernon at 11:15 am, had tickets to the museum for 1:30pm, and our train back to Paris was at 5:52 pm!

How to get from Vernon to Giverny: Bus or Bike

Once you get to the town of Vernon, directly outside of the train station, there will be a bus that takes people to Giverny every hour or so. However, we didn’t feel like waiting, and at the brasserie that is also just outside of the train station, they had bike rentals available, so we decided to bike to Giverny!

I honestly loved this option. It was so fun to bike along the Seine and through the parks, and just to be surrounded by nature, especially since I live in Paris.

If you’re visiting on a sunny day, definitely take this option! Otherwise, try to coordinate your train’s arrival with the bus departure so that you can maximize your time in Giverny.

The total bike ride from Vernon to Giverny is about 6 kilometers, or 3.7 miles, and took about 30 minutes.

Lunch in Giverny

Once we got to Giverny, we had some time before our rendez-vous at Monet’s house, so we settled for lunch at Au Coin du Pain’tre which is just a short walk down the road from the gardens. We were lucky enough to be seated within 10 minutes, but because it was lunch hour this place filled up quickly! There’s only a handful restaurants available since it is a tiny town, so come prepared.

I really enjoyed this restaurant! They have a super cute terrace and a menu with lots of classic French dishes. I settled on the charcuterie, my dad had the croque monsieur, and my mom had their sandwich! Everything was super tasty and decently priced.

Exploring Monet’s House and Garden

It is essential that you buy your tickets to Monet’s house ahead of time, A) to ensure you can get in, and B) to avoid waiting in an insanely long line!

After we finished lunch, we headed towards Monet’s house and immediately stumbled upon a huge line leading up to the entrance. We became worried that we’d have to wait in this line, but as I looked around I saw another hidden entrance that had a label of something related to having tickets already. So we walked down a little alleyway and were able to skip the huge line!

We first explored Monet’s garden, and then headed into his house.

Monet’s garden is quite large actually, which took my by surprise. I definitely recommend taking your time to explore and appreciate all of its beauty! There are even benches so you can sit and take it all in, or even make some sketches of your own if you wish.

Obviously if you buy your tickets a month in advance you won’t know what type of weather you’ll have, but ideally you’ll have a sunny day to really experience all of it’s glory. We had a cloudy afternoon, but it was still beautiful!

Walking through Monet’s house was truly a unique experience. He lived there with his wife and 8 children for 43 years, so you can really feel the strong history left behind, even though it’s been restored since. They have mounted many of his paintings on the walls, and even included some of the Japanese art he collected and that he’d drawn inspiration from. It was incredible to be able to see where he lived, I never thought I would get to experience this!

Heading Back to Paris & Dinner by Gare Saint Lazare

To head back to Paris, we rode our bikes 6 kilometers back to the train station, and had plenty of time before our train came in.

Once we got back to Paris, we were quite hungry so we decided to grab an easy dinner nearby Gare Saint Lazare at La Pause Libanaise. They have a takeout side of the restaurant (the comptoir) and also a dining-in portion (the restaurant), and we decided to do takeout since we were more tired.

I decided to have their falafel sandwich and it was super flavorful! I didn’t know what to expect from this spot but honestly was blown away, and it was only takeout. I definitely want to go back and have dinner in the restaurant side!

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I hope you enjoyed reading about my day trip to Giverny and Monet’s house and garden, and that you were able to pick up a few helpful tips for your upcoming trip!

Have you visited Monet’s house and garden? I would love to hear about your experience and what you thought! Feel free to leave any questions you have as well :)

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PS, if you’re looking for more things to see and do while you’re in Paris, be sure to check out my other Paris blogs with fully detailed itineraries!

Xx,
Carmela