Giverny Tickets--available

I assume you’ll be going by train. If so I had a question about booking the train tickets. Do you book ahead of time or just day of travel? Since I have no idea of how much time we will want to spend we don’t want to commit to a certain return trip. I am not as concerned about saving money as I am about our convenience. Is that reasonable to just get a schedule of the times and go from there and buy at the train station? Or do the trains sell out on busy days?

@ncangelose Definitely no need to buy your train tickets in advance! I bought mine at a machine in the station (Gare Saint-Lazare). It's an easy trip from there, with no changes, and there's a shuttle bus from the station in Vernon to Giverny...or you can rent bikes in Vernon if you're more ambitious than me :)

@ncangelose: I agree you do not have to get tickets ahead of time. I recommend downloading the SNCF-Connect app and just buying on there. Your ticket is right on your phone.

When I went with friends at the end of October we made sure to take the direct train to Vernon. There are some where you have to make a change and that's a hassle. I think we left at 10:11 and did the return at 16:51. Since it was late October it was dark by the time we got back to Paris. The RT total was 34.40E. Even though our train was seriously delayed leaving Saint-Lazare, we still had time to eat lunch before our Garden entry time of 1330.

Janet, I'm glad you are excited! You really don't have to buy this far in advance unless you are trying to go on a holiday like Easter, etc. In Oct I just bought mine the day before. IF I were going in spring I'd probably do it a week or two ahead.

BTW, the place to go for a timed entry is kind of around on the back side of the gardens. Watch for the sign for group tours and pre-purchased tickets. This puts you right near the little tunnel that goes over to the water lily pond so go do that first and come back to the other garden and his home.

IF either of you have time, walk down the main street to the church where Monet is buried along with his family. There is also a touching memorial to a British Lancaster Bomber crew who crashed nearby right after DDay. A crushed propeller from the plane is on the monument.

Thanks @maggieD and @Pam, I’ve downloaded the train app and set up an account so I should be good to go. I just got my Paris guidebook for our tour the first week of April so lots of reading to get started on.

I buy tickets for places like Giverny based on the weather forecast. So a few days ahead. Not perfect but better than months out and then a rain storm. We have never had trouble getting Giverny tickets a few days ahead. Last time I went it was the day before.

I just found out that there will be disruptions of the train from St Lazare to Vernon/ Giverny on several weekends this spring. I wanted to book the tickets to Monet’s Garden based on the train arrival schedule but couldn’t find a schedule for the weekend I have available ( I am on a Sunday-Saturday 7day Paris tour). There were trains on Friday and trains on Monday but none that weekend.
Here is the schedule of disruption according to a newspaper article.
from Saturday 15 to Sunday 16 February
from Saturday 29 to Sunday 30 March
from Saturday 5 to Sunday 6 April
from Saturday 12 to Sunday 13 April
from Saturday 26 to Sunday 27 April
from Thursday 1st to Sunday 4th May
From Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 May
From Saturday 14 to Sunday 15 June
from Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 November

I guess I will sign up for a Paris City Vision bus tour to get us there unless someone has another recommendation.

@ncangelose: Are you "Teacup" on Trip Advisor? If not there is a long thread on the TA Paris forum about this and I think she has decided to do an all day tour.

Hi Pam. Yes that’s me..and I see from your location that you have graciously replied to my newbie questions there also. Thanks for all the tips!
I wanted to share the info here because it would really throw quite a wrench into plans for others planning their trips if they just show up expecting to get train tickets at the station. I looks like most of late March to the beginning of May is affected. I don’t speak French enough to determine if there are alternatives like a bus available for those weekends.
The optimistic view is maybe it won’t be as busy at the gardens if the trains aren’t running,though I am prepared to enjoy.