There’s a particular quality of light in the Eure Valley in May — soft, green-gold, the kind that makes you understand why Impressionism was invented here and nowhere else. Claude Monet knew it intimately. He chased it for four decades from the windows of his pink house in Giverny, the village he made famous by refusing to leave it.
Every year, nearly 700,000 people make the pilgrimage from Paris to visit that house and those gardens. Most of them arrive on a tour bus, file through a gate, and spend exactly forty-seven minutes navigating foot traffic around the Japanese bridge. They see Monet’s garden. They don’t experience it.
This guide is for the other kind of traveler. The one who wants to arrive before the gates open, linger in the lily pond as the morning mist rises, then take a meandering drive back through the Seine Valley countryside stopping for lunch in a village restaurant where the menu hasn’t changed since 1985.
Why Giverny Rewards the Unhurried
Claude Monet moved to Giverny in 1883, renting — and eventually buying — a modest farmhouse that he transformed over three decades into one of the most influential gardens in art history. The walled “Clos Normand” in front of the house, with its riot of roses, nasturtiums, and irises trained on metal arches, was his painter’s studio. The water garden across the road — the lily pond, the Japanese bridge, the weeping willows — was his obsession.
The Nymphéas series, 250 oil paintings of this single pond across changing seasons and hours of light, are now scattered across the world’s greatest museums. Seeing the real pond after seeing those paintings is one of those rare moments when life exceeds art.
But Giverny also rewards patience. The gardens are at their absolute peak from late April through June when the Clos Normand is in full bloom and the Japanese bridge is draped in purple wisteria. On a weekday morning in May, arriving at 9:30am when the gates open, you can have the lily pond almost to yourself for about twenty minutes before the first coach parties arrive.
The Drive: Paris to Giverny
Giverny sits approximately 80 kilometers northwest of Paris, in the Normandy region near the town of Vernon on the Seine. By private car, the journey takes roughly 1 hour 15 minutes from central Paris — crossing the Seine, leaving the périphérique behind, and gradually entering the pastoral landscape of the Eure and Seine valleys.
This is one of the pleasures of the drive itself. The approach to Giverny from the west, crossing the Seine at Vernon and following the river road before climbing to the village, is genuinely beautiful. Your chauffeur will know to take the scenic approach rather than the GPS’s preferred motorway junction.
The most practical departure from Paris is around 8:00–8:30am if you want to be among the first through the gates.
Route note: There is no convenient direct train to Giverny. The nearest station is Vernon, served by the Rouen line from Saint-Lazare, but from Vernon the garden is still 7 kilometers away with limited bus connections. For families, couples with luggage, or anyone who values door-to-door comfort, private transport is the only way that makes the day work as it should.
A Day in Giverny: The Full Itinerary
9:30am — The Gardens Open
Arrive for opening. Go immediately to the water garden via the tunnel under the road. Spend the first twenty minutes at the Japanese bridge before the light gets harsh and the groups arrive. Photographs here are genuinely magical in morning light.
Then double back through the Clos Normand at your own pace. The Grande Allée, flanked by climbing roses and metal arches, is spectacular in May and June.
11:00am — Monet’s House
The house is included in the entry ticket. The interior has been meticulously restored to how it looked during Monet’s final years. The famous yellow dining room, the blue-tiled kitchen, the walls covered floor-to-ceiling with his Japanese woodblock print collection — all exactly as they were.
Insider detail: Look for the two enormous Nymphéas panels in the dining room. They’re not originals (those are at the Orangerie in Paris) but facsimiles made to scale.
12:30pm — Lunch in Vernon or the Village
The village of Giverny itself has several restaurants. La Musardière (just outside the garden gates) is reliable for a simple French lunch. If you have the flexibility of a private driver, take the 7-minute drive to Vernon for lunch instead.
In Vernon, Le Château de Brécourt is one of those Norman country-house restaurants that feels like it exists in a different century. Lunch on their terrace, surrounded by apple trees, with a carafe of local cider or a glass of Chablis, is the natural complement to the morning’s impressionism.
2:30pm — The Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny
Directly opposite the entrance to Monet’s garden, this modern museum is criminally underrated. It presents rotating exhibitions on the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements. Allow 45–60 minutes.
4:00pm — The Drive Back: The Seine Valley Route
This is where having a private driver transforms the day from a “visit” to an experience. Ask your PrivateDrive chauffeur to return to Paris via the D313, following the Seine valley through the Château-Gaillard ruins above Les Andelys — a dramatic Norman castle built by Richard the Lionheart in 1196.
Return to central Paris by 6:30–7:00pm, in time for a pre-dinner aperitif.
Practical Details
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Distance from Paris | ~80 km, ~1h15 drive |
| Best time to visit | Late April–June (peak bloom); late September for autumn colors |
| Garden opening | April–November only; 9:30am–6:00pm |
| Entry ticket | €15 adults; book online in advance for high season |
| Recommended duration | Full day (8am–7pm from Paris) |
| Best for | Couples, cultural travelers, photographers, art lovers |
What Most Travelers Miss
1. Giverny in October. While May and June are justifiably famous, October offers the garden’s second act: dahlias, nasturtiums, Japanese anemones, and the trees turning gold around the pond. The quality of autumn light here is extraordinary — Monet himself preferred it.
2. The church in the village. The small church of Sainte-Radegonde in Giverny contains Monet’s grave — a simple family plot in the churchyard. It’s five minutes’ walk from the garden and almost always empty.
3. Vernon’s Norman church. The Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame in Vernon, dating from the 11th century, has spectacular Flamboyant Gothic architecture that most visitors to Giverny never see.
For Romantic Travelers
If you’re visiting as a couple and want to elevate the day further, ask your PrivateDrive chauffeur to arrange a champagne stop en route — a chilled bottle in the car as you arrive in the Seine valley is a detail that costs little and transforms the journey into an occasion.
Turning the Giverny visit into a two-day Normandy trip with overnight accommodation is one of the most beautifully coherent luxury itineraries available from Paris.
For Families
The gardens work remarkably well for children with some preparation. Give younger children the Monet garden story before you go — the painter who made his garden his studio, who painted the same pond hundreds of times because the light was never the same twice.
Your chauffeur can coordinate the timing to avoid the noonday crowds by arriving at opening and leaving before 1pm, perfect for nap-prone younger children who can sleep in the car on the return journey.
You can visit Giverny by bus. You can take the train to Vernon and rent a bike. These are fine options. But the day changes shape entirely when you’re not watching a clock, not racing to a departure point, not sharing space with sixty strangers on a tour. When you have a driver waiting, the day belongs to you.
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