Giverny

In 2019, we did a half day tour of Giverny with Paris City Vision. It was the only organized tour we did on our trip that year. We were very happy with the experience. They took us in a minibus of maybe 9 people. I was worried we wouldn't have enough time at Giverny, but it was fine. It was easy to get to the tour office from our hotel on the metro. The whole experience was very easy.

I haven’t been for a few years and I was worried then but it was really straightforward. You took the train and met the bus. The train used to have pictures of the garden on it. Virtually everyone on that train was headed to Monet’s garden so you followed the crowd. The crowd followed the feet to the bus stop, then once the bus arrived at the town you follow the crowd to the house. Definitely pre purchase tickets so you can use the green door entrance and not have to buy tickets there. I guess someone else can chime in on any changes since 2018.

The crowd ebbs and flows. If you think it’s crowded at a vantage point then just wait a few minutes and the tour group will pass on and you will enjoy some peace. I’ve been a few times when visiting France and love it. The town itself is lovely too.

Thanks! I'm leaning toward just doing it ourselves, but I did see the City Visions site, we thought they were very well run when we did their Sistine Chapel after hours tour. I always think a guide can add interesting tidbits during a tour, but I'll just read Rick's chapter on Giverny and that will probably do just fine.

I was in Paris 3 weeks ago and did a Blue Fox Travel tour to Giverny that I booked a couple days before. Went on the 8 am tour which was great - our driver/guide took us in before the public entered, we went directly to the waterlily pond and had it to ourselves for 10 minutes. We had plenty of time to see the house and wander in the gardens and were back in Paris by 1 in time for lunch.

Wow that sounds great, thanks, I’ll check it out!

@Jay,
I happen to be also looking into a Giverny daytrip to visit Monet's house and garden. Joining a group tour was my initial plan; but I've decided to just do my own tour instead. You can take the TER train then the shuttle bus; it should be quite straight forward. Below are all the information I just gathered (two days ago); I also included the Google Maps links for the train, shuttle and walk. From what I read online it's best to try to get there early in the morning to avoid the crowd; it means catching the very first shuttle bus that departs at 9:15am (the next one is two hours later). People also recommend to visit the water lily pond first before the house to avoid the crowd.

Train TER (50 mins)
Gare Saint-Lazare ➤ Vernon - Giverny
(8:14am - 9:03am), or (7:12am - 8:02am)
https://goo.gl/maps/1joXmnw2Yzw5sXv39

Train TER (50 mins)
Vernon - Giverny ➤ Gare Saint-Lazare
(12:56pm - 2:06pm)
https://goo.gl/maps/6iBJqpkWfDDV3HnH6

Shuttle Bus (20 mins, round trip 10€)
Gare Vernon-Giverny ➤ Giverny
Mon-Sun 9:15am, 11:15am
Giverny ➤ Gare Vernon-Giverny
Mon-Sun 12:10pm, 2:10pm

Walk (8 mins)
Giverny shuttle bus stop ➤ Monet’s house
https://goo.gl/maps/FQFHMK9BVa52aKyr5

The shuttle bus schedule between Gare Vernon-Giverny and Giverny:
http://fondation-monet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/giverny-shuttle-2018.pdf

You can buy your e-ticket for Monet's garden here:
https://giverny.org/gardens/fcm/visitgb.htm

.

Edit:

Apparently the shuttle schedule has changed; this is the new schedule (thanks David for posting it). I like the new schedule much better, it gives a 20 mins margin between TER arrival and shuttle departure time.

https://www.sngo.fr/fr/horaires-timetables/79

This should be an easy one to do yourself - there's a veritable cottage industry that has developed over the years at the Vernon train station of ways to get to Giverny - tourist trains, shuttles, bike rentals, you name it. It's a small train station so it would be almost impossible to go to the wrong place for the shuttle. If you look at the Google Street view there's even an image of a signboard directing you to where you can order a taxi!

If it's an option for you, it's technically even possible to walk there from the train station (I've done it multiple times!). It's been a long time since I've done it but I'd say it's an hour to and hour and a half to get there, partially through Vernon, partially along a walking path.

Editing to add: for anyone interested in the walking path, Google walking directions don't seem to take you on it. When you cross the bridge and see the old mill (Vernon's postcard image), there's a dedicated path before you get to the road. It does show up on Google as a green line with Google Street View, but for whatever reason the walking directions don't use it!

I think it would be a half-day with a tour, giving you a half-day back in Paris. It's definitely easy on your own, it just takes longer. Giverny has two parts, the house and the gardens. For most people the gardens are the big draw and the fewer people there, the better the experience. So it's best to get up early and get there when it opens, then go to the gardens before touring the house.

There are buses waiting at the station for each train. The second time I went (about 6-7 years ago), I arrived mid-morning and it took a really long time for the buses to fill up and leave for Giverny, because the tickets were sold at each bus and you had to choose one-way or round-trip, most visitors didn't speak French and most drivers and ticket sellers didn't speak anything but French. You can also rent bikes in Vernon, it's about a 20-minute ride.

If you go on your own, you can also spend a couple hours wandering in the charming town of Vernon.

I now remember that I made the mistake of waiting to buy train tickets at the station. There was a very long and slow line, took half an hour or more and I had to run to get on the train with a minute or two to spare. The train was very crowded and I had to stand almost all the way. There were others on the train with luggage (continuing on past Vernon) and some used seats next to them for suitcases.

Hi Jay, we did a Fat Tire Bike Tour to Giverny. We met the group at a train station in Paris and took the train to Vernon. It was market day so we shopped for a picnic lunch. The guide set us up with bikes. We rode a bit, stopped for lunch, and then continued on to Giverny. Tickets for Monet’s house and garden were included. Fun day!

https://www.fattiretours.com/paris/tours/monets-gardens-bike-tour/

Thanks for the responses, I’ll check the links posted by mindfulness! Very helpful! Bike tour is a nonstarter, my partner isn’t into biking. Still torn between a tour and DYI; especially the tour that gets you in before the crowds. I’ll let you know what we decide!

Thanks all, we opted to go ourselves, partly to save costs, partly because we really want to have time to ourselves in the village. One further question: how far in advance do we need to buy our train tickets for June 23? Can I just buy our outbound ticket now, and wait until we are in Giverny to purchase a return ticket? We don't want to get back to the city too late as we are planning on going to the D'Orsay (they are open till 9:45 on Thursdays) and we'll probably want to rest up a little at our hotel before going over there. Should I just bite the bullet and buy the train tickets now?

@Jay,
My plan is to use the 'SNCF Connect' app to buy the TER tickets. I'm assuming this way I only need to buy it when I need it and no validation of ticket is needed. Maybe people who have done it could confirm if this is the case.

Thanks, I’ll have to download that app.

We just got back from France and unfortunately we chose to go to Giverny during the middle of one of France's heat waves, which are increasingly common in June and have been record-breaking in past Julys. We arrived at Giverny shortly after opening, along with an unusually-large morning crowd, but were unable to beat the suffocating heat. We've been to Giverny before, so our experience wasn't completely ruined, as we did not have to "do everything." I would strongly recommend that anyone going on their own (totally doable and it would be our choice if we were to do it again - but not in the summer!!) check this website before buying train tickets: https://www.sngo.fr/fr/horaires-timetables/79 - which gives the bus schedules and explains how buses match with the trains (we didn't realize that though the bus usually arrives at the Vernon train station just before the train back to Paris, there was a mismatch with our train, so we waited for an extra hour in the heat at a cafe across the street where the prices were high and the service indifferent. It was way too hot to stay at the train station itself with N95s on. Train tickets are nonrefundable and nontransferable, so we chose (in retrospect, probably unwisely) not to take an earlier train back. Although no one checked our tickets, we have been on other routes where conductors do check and will make you buy a new ticket if you get caught without a proper one. Also, be sure to arrive at the Giverny parking lot early, b/c the bus left 5 minutes ahead of schedule. I would also recommend downloading a map of the site ahead of time as they do not give you one on arrival. There's no requirement to do anything "in order," so if the house is crowded, do something else. Even though we waited until the house was less crowded, it was miserably hot inside and b/c of the prescribed route through the house, impossible to escape from early. The lily pond was a little cooler than the gardens in front of the house, where the heat was completely intolerable. We bought our tickets for everything months in advance, but in retrospect, even though monkeys throwing darts probably do a better job predicting French weather than do French forecasters, I think if I were trying to go to Giverny in the summer, I would wait to see if a heat wave is in the forecast before buying tickets. And...as I'm sure you've read elsewhere on the forum, no one in France except American tourists wears masks, even if they are sneezing and coughing, so be warned.

@David,
Sorry you had to deal with the heat wave! When I took the Best of Italy 17 days tour in early May 2019; we had the opposite problem ... a cold front; it was cold and windy for the first week of our tour. Thanks for posting the new shuttle schedule; my post above was obviously outdated.

We arrived in Paris on June 17 when the high reached 98 degrees. We had been planning on a 3-hour Sandemans highlights of Paris tour but decided to go to the Orangerie and the D’Orsay instead where it was because ce and cool and air conditioned. We went to Giverny this past Thursday via the train and yeah it was a bit crowded but it was fine, we were able to see the house and the gardens. It turned out that we could use the train tickets I bought through SNCF anytime that day, but we just bought our return trip at the Vernon train station. During our stay the temps have been in the low 60s in the morning and then warming up in the afternoon with some showers at night or in the afternoon. Not too bad.

PS There is a smattering of people wearing masks on the Metro and in indoor spaces, not only American tourists. We’ve been wearing our masks indoors and only eating outdoors with a couple of exceptions where there is a lot of space between people (and there aren’t that many people), like the bar area in our hotel where we take our breakfast.

@Jay
Glad you were able to visit Giverny on a cooler day; it will be my turn in a couple months :)
Thanks for the update!