Paris to Giverny by private car — Monet’s house and garden

Giverny is the shortest of our long trips and the easiest half-day out of Paris. Monet’s house and garden are eighty kilometres north-west of the city on the Seine, and the drive takes an hour and a quarter on the A13. The alternative is Saint-Lazare to Vernon, then a shuttle bus or a taxi for the last seven kilometres, which turns a short outing into most of a day.

Because the trip is short, it is the one people most often combine with something else. Rouen and its cathedral are forty minutes further on. Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh spent his last months and is buried, is an hour east. Vernon itself has the old mill on the bridge and a Saturday market worth thirty minutes.

Distance

80 km

Drive time

1 h 15 each way

Day length

5–7 h door to door

From

€300

When the garden is worth the journey

The Fondation Claude Monet opens from late March to the start of November and closes for the whole winter. The garden is not the same place from one month to the next, and it is worth choosing your date rather than taking the one that happens to be free.

April and May are tulips, wisteria on the Japanese bridge and irises. Late June through August is the water lily season, which is what most people came for. September gives you dahlias, nasturtiums spilling across the Grande Allée and noticeably fewer visitors. The first and last weeks of the season are the quietest of all.

Beating the coaches

Giverny is small and it fills up. The coaches from Paris arrive between 10:30 and 11:30 and the Clos Normand is genuinely crowded from then until mid-afternoon. Leaving Paris at 08:00 puts you at the gate for opening, which buys you an hour of the water garden with almost nobody in it.

The other quiet window is the last ninety minutes before closing. If your morning is committed elsewhere, a 15:00 departure from Paris works better than a midday one.

What else fits in the same day

Since the car is yours for the day, the return route is worth using.

Popular additions

• Rouen — 40 minutes on: the cathedral Monet painted thirty times, the Gros-Horloge and the market square
• Vernon — 10 minutes on: the half-timbered old mill straddling the Seine and the Collégiale
• Auvers-sur-Oise — 1 hour east: Van Gogh’s room, the church he painted and the wheatfield where he died
• Château de La Roche-Guyon — 25 minutes: a cliff-face castle above the Seine, almost empty most days

What makes this journey different

• Door to door in 1 h 15, no shuttle bus from Vernon station
• Early arrival before the coach groups, which land around 11:00
• Combine with Rouen, Vernon or Auvers-sur-Oise at no change to the structure
• Half-day or full-day quote, both fixed in advance
• Ideal for anyone who does not want a 12-hour day out of Paris

How the day runs

1. 08:00Pick-up in Paris

   From your hotel or apartment, or from CDG and Orly if you are arriving that morning.

2. 09:15Giverny

   Dropped at the entrance while the driver parks. Two to two and a half hours is the usual visit.

3. 11:45Vernon or lunch

   The old mill, the market, or somewhere to eat before the return.

4. 14:00Optional second stop

   Rouen, La Roche-Guyon or Auvers-sur-Oise, agreed in advance.

5. 16:00Back in Paris

   Or continued to your next destination.

What the price includes

• The whole vehicle, not a seat: four people pay what one person pays.
• All motorway tolls and fuel, on both legs of the journey.
• Your driver’s waiting time at every stop, with no meter running.
• Parking charges at the sites you visit.
• Baby, child and booster seats, fitted free on request.
• Flight tracking and free waiting time if your plane lands late.
• Bottled water, phone chargers and Wi-Fi on board.
• A written invoice, issued by a licensed French VTC operator.

Frequently asked questions

Other journeys out of Paris