The house and gardens open from 1 April to 1 November, and close from 1 November to 31 March. Those winter months are the sowing season. There is no exception, no reduced winter opening, and nothing to see through the gate. If your trip to Paris falls between November and March, Giverny is not available — and a surprising number of people only discover this at Vernon station.
Within the open season, Giverny is one of the most rewarding half days available from Paris: 75 kilometres north-west, in the Seine valley, where Monet spent forty-three years building the garden he then spent the rest of his life painting.
This guide covers when to go, how to get there, and how to make a half-day site into a proper day out.
| Journey | The catch | |
|---|---|---|
| Train + shuttle | Paris Saint-Lazare to Vernon-Giverny, ~50 min, then electric shuttle | Vernon is 5 km short of Giverny; shuttle around €10 return per person, generally April–November |
| By road | ~75 km, about 1 h 15 | Door to gate, and the only way to combine Giverny with anything else |
Fifty minutes from Saint-Lazare is genuinely quick, and for two people travelling light it is the sensible choice. Two things to know: Giverny has no station — you arrive at Vernon and cover the last five kilometres by shuttle, taxi or bicycle — and the shuttle is seasonal, running broadly in step with the garden itself.
Check the return times when you arrive rather than assuming. Vernon is a pleasant town but not one you want to be stranded in at seven in the evening.
An hour and a quarter, straight to the village. What it buys is not speed — the train is quicker — but the last five kilometres, the timing, and above all the ability to put something else in the day. More on that below.
The garden is not one garden. It is a planting scheme designed to change continuously through the season, and the month you choose determines what you actually see.
There is no bad month inside the season. There is only the question of which garden you want. If the wisteria or the lilies are the point of the trip, pick the date from the flower rather than from the diary — and see our note on when to visit Paris for how those weeks sit in the wider year.
Particularly from May to July and at weekends. Booking fixes your entry time, avoids the queue, and gives the day a spine. Note that last admission is half an hour before closing — an afternoon arrival that drifts is a very short visit.
The coach parties arrive mid-morning and thin out after four. The first hour after opening and the last two before closing are a different garden — quieter, and with the light doing what Monet was painting.
That covers the house, the flower garden in front of it, and the water garden with the pond and the bridge, without hurrying. Add an hour for the nearby museum of Impressionisms, and more again for lunch in the village.
The flower garden sits by the house; the water garden with the lily pond is reached by an underpass beneath the road. They are quite different in character, and it is worth knowing there is a second half before you decide you have seen it.
Here is the honest limitation: Giverny is a half day. Two to three hours on site, an hour or so each way. Done alone, it is a slightly unsatisfying use of a day in France.
The fix is to pair it, and the geography is generous — Giverny sits on the road into Normandy, in the Seine valley:
All three need a car: the train serves Vernon and nothing else on that list. That is the real argument for driving here, rather than any claim about speed — our private day at Giverny is built to be combined for exactly this reason.
Opening dates, hours and the Vernon shuttle are as published by the Maison et jardins de Claude Monet. Dates and fares change from year to year — confirm them for your season before travelling.
Related: the best time to visit Paris, getting to Versailles, Mont-Saint-Michel, and guide or driver — which you actually need.
Door to gate, with the afternoon free for Rouen or a lunch in the valley. Price agreed before you travel.