Stop in Giverny

I am guessing you will have luggage with you? I'd say this is not so easy. The train stops in nearby Vernon, not Giverny. There are shuttle buses that go from the Vernon station to Giverny but I've never seen anyone on there with luggage and not sure about luggage storage facilities in the Vernon train station. You'd visit Monet's house and gardens then reverse the trip taking the shuttle back to the station and catching the train.

"Worth it" completely depends on your personal goals. It's a gorgeous garden and the house is neat. The small town of Giverny is picturesque, has a nice church and you can see Monet's grave. There is also a touching tribute to a WWII Lancaster Bomber crew that went down nearby killing all, on June 6 or 7, 1944.

To be honest trying to make a stop with luggage would be a pain in the neck to me but YMMV.

Thanks Pam

I agree with Pam... Luggage would be a problem (there used to be a café that kept luggage, but that was years ago), and the shuttle to the station is timed for trains to Paris rather than trains to Rouen so you might have to wait.
Also, while it is certainly great to see Monet's garden for yourself, including the water lily pond, there is not much more to it than that. It depends on your interests - for example, I find the castles and abbeys along the Seine (La Roche Guyon, les Andelys, Jumièges, St Martin de Boscherville,...) far more interesting than Giverny, but that's just me!

I will have a car once I arrive in Rouen. What castles and abbeys would you recommend close to Rouen? Yes I would like those better.

I have a trip scheduled this May/June from Paris to Rouen with a stop in Giverney. After Rouen I plane to drive to the Normandy Beaches. But I will rent a car in Paris and make the drive. My plans are to stop in La Roche Guyen (where Field Marshall Romell made his Headquarters in WWII), and possibly Château Gaillard.

http://chateaudelarocheguyon.fr/

If you rent the car in Rouen, I definitely highly recommend the Jumièges abbey. It's a ruin, and it's very, very atmospheric. One of my favorite medieval sights in the country, no less. You can easily hit St Georges de Boscherville Abbey on the way.

It can be more convenient having a car already in Giverny for the above mentioned La Roche-Guyon and if of interest Château Gaillard too. The latter is a ruin but the view is stunning and to my opinion not to miss. Nearby Les Andelys is lovely and worth walking around but nicer is more north of it Lyons-la-Forêt. Driving through Écouis between the two isn’t bad either.

The shopkeeper in the castle of La Roche-Guyon said they didn’t wanted to be remembered about Rommel, besides the casemats and a documentary dvd in the shop there is not so much to see about him. It is always possible that there can be an occasional exhibition about WW2 but this was not the case during my visit in 2019. For the rest is the castle inside a bit empty and it was actually the fanatastic view from the donjon that made it worth visiting. Nevertheless the look from the outside, the village and the location along the Seine is very lovely, I certainly can recommend a detour.

So this is what you can do on the way to Rouen, staying in Lyons is an option too. Have to say that Rouen with it’s maze of oneway streets is not an easy place for driving through and there is also an express bus lane to be aware of.

Worth adding to the two abbeys balso remarked is the one of Saint-Wandrille-Rançon and still has a living community. I didn’t go inside but there are guided tours, no idea English too. The village is anyway very adorable. If the plan is travelling further west you can cross the Seine with the toll free Pont de Brotonne for going to the A13 motorway. Fun to do is crossing the Seine with the free car ferry in case you only visit Jumièges and want to continue to the A13 near Bourg-Achard.