Giverny – Monet’s Garden Travel Tips

Monet’s paintings of this bridge over the lily pond at Giverny are famous, but the iconic site looks quite different when it’s loaded with visitors.

Giverny – I’d dreamed about seeing this garden for at least a decade. Actually, maybe longer. I think I was still in high school when I wrote a term paper on the French Impressionist artist Claude Monet. In the process, I fell in love with his garden at Giverny, France.

Paintings of the Giverny lily ponds hang in art museums around the world.

And now I was in Paris studying the time table for the train that would take me to the water lilies I’d admired in museums all over the world.

“Look. We can take a train to Vernon and then catch a bus,” I said to my husband in our Paris hotel. “That will give us a couple of hours at Giverny before the last train leaves to come back.”

“That isn’t long enough,” Richard replied. “I know you. You’ll need more time.”

Within minutes he’d rented a car and soon we were whizzing around the Arc de Triomphe on our way out to the motorway.

French Impressionist artist Claude Monet lived in this house and created the gardens and lily pond that surround it.

Giverny – the house, the garden…and the crowd

An hour later I was standing in front of Monet’s pink house, then walking through his gardens bursting with roses, day lilies, and foxgloves – or rather, trying to walk through the garden. It turns out I wasn’t the only one who wanted to visit Giverny that day and the crowd was considerable. I tried for half an hour to take a picture of the Japanese bridge before I finally gave up and went in the air-conditioned gift shop.

I stayed there for some time, loading up on floral t-shirts for fellow gardeners, books, and a beautiful water lily reproduced on a ceramic dish. When I emerged, the garden was empty.

“Where’d everybody go?” I asked Richard.

“To catch the last train back to Paris,” he replied (with surprising modesty).

I checked my watch. The garden would still be open for another 20 minutes and we were almost the only people there. In fact, we sat on a bench overlooking the lily pond until 20 minutes after closing time – and by then we did have the whole place to ourselves.

Alone in Monet’s garden, I could take pictures at will – but I almost didn’t need to. I knew I’d never forget this incredibly special moment.

Alone in Monet’s garden…bliss.

Giverny travel tips

I want you to have a great experience, too, so here are my Giverny travel tips:

• Don’t use public transportation to get to the garden unless you’re willing to share the space with lots of other visitors. Rent a car (like we did) or hire a private guide who is licensed to take you in his car.
• If you’re ok with going by train and you want a guide, this company provides the best tours.
• Travel off-season when Giverny isn’t as crowded as mid-summer. The house and garden are open daily April 1 to November 1, 9:30 am – 6 pm. Last entrance 5:30.
• Buy your entrance ticket ahead of time to avoid waiting in line.
• Consider staying overnight in the Giverny area.
• I’ve perused dozens of books about Giverny and this is easily the best. The author Elizabeth Murray is a landscape designer from Northern California and she worked at Giverny for many years.
• If you visit Giverny during the summer, keep in mind what I said about sun protection.

Bon voyage!

An artist in the garden after the crowd is gone.

Tags: advice, artist, avoiding crowds, botanical gardens, Claude Monet, flowers, France, French, garden, gardens, Giverny, insider tips, Japanese bridge, lily pond, Paris, travel, trip planning, Vernon

Category: France, garden visits