Giverny is a Perfect Day Trip from Paris

The picturesque village of Giverny is just 75 km from Paris. Our day trip to Giverny was a highlight of our week in Paris.

If you recall from last week’s blog, our week in Paris had a shaky start, with our airbnb disaster. A day later, we were settled in our new digs, livin’ the posh life on Avenue Foch. We were ready to do Paris!

We went to Paris with no fixed agenda and no particular schedule. We decided to wing it. It worked out perfectly. On day one in our new digs, we checked the weather forecast for the week so that we could pick indoor activities on rainy days and outdoor activities on sunny days. The forecast for the week was sun, sun and sun! We picked the warmest day for a trip to Giverny to see Monet’s famous gardens. I’ve been to Monet’s gardens in the spring and I was looking forward to seeing the gardens in the fall.

Getting to Giverny

You can get to Giverny by car, train or bus. If you drive to Giverny, there is a very large parking lot just across the road from the village. But we had no intensions of renting a car and driving through Paris to Giverny.

You can book a package bus tour but most tours offer only two hours in Giverny, not long enough to see the gardens and the village at a leisurely pace.

You can take a train to the nearby town of Vernon, about 5 kms from Giverny:

The average travel time between Paris and Vernon is 1h19 minutes. The quickest route is 55 minutes. The first train leaving Paris is at 06:11, the last at 18:53.

 

There is an average of 7 trains a day between Paris and Vernon, leaving approximately every 1h32 minutes.

 

Departure station : Paris st lazare (13, Rue d’Amsterdam 75008 Paris)

 

https://www.raileurope.com/train-tickets/journeys/article/paris-vernon

If you take the train, you have to hope that you can find a taxi or shuttle bus in Vernon to get you to Giverny … and from Giverny back to Vernon in time for your train.

We pressed the easy button: we hired a car and driver for the day!

The cost for the car and driver was 320 euros. Split three ways, it was just over a 100 euros each. We didn’t need to worry about getting to the train station on time, or finding rides between Giverny and Vernon.

A shiny black Mercedes picked us up at our door and took us directly to Giverny. We asked for a pickup in four hours.

Our airbnb host, Alexandre, in our posh digs on Foch, arranged the car and driver for us. I’ve looked online and I have found some sites that offer the same service for almost a thousand euros!

When public transportation is difficult and inconvenient, a car and a driver is a perfect solution.

Monet’s gardens are stunning in the fall

The flowers in Monet’s gardens are much the same as what you will see in any garden in Canada … except that the flowers are super-sized, Jurassic sized. What might be a little mound of colour in my garden is a giant bush in Monet’s garden.

To give you an idea of the size of the flowers, I asked my sister and sister-in-law to stand on the path behind a flower bed. I could barely see them! I asked them to wave!

We had a ton of fun, doin’ the wave in Monet’s gardens!

This row of nasturtiums runs from Monet’s house to the back of his garden

If you are interested in how Monet’s gardens are tended, here is a link to an interesting article:

The Man Who Keeps Monet’s Famed Gardens Growing

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-man-monets-famed-gardens-growing

 

 

Monet loved colour

Monet was not afraid of colour in his home. The yellow dining room is perfect to showcase his Japanese artwork.

The flowers in his garden make a beautiful bouquet for the dining room table.

Would you paint your dining room sunny yellow?

These are Monet’s famous water lilies

Monet painted over 250 water lily paintings

Monet bought a pond across the road from his house. He fought his local council to allow him to divert water from a tributary of the Seine into his pond.

Monet imported exotic water lilies from Egypt and South America that would change colour throughout the season from whites to blues to pinks.

When I visited Monet’s gardens in the spring, it was too early to see the water lilies in bloom, so this was a real treat to see them on a beautiful October day.

Monet painted willows in many of his lily paintings

Monet planted weeping willows around his pond to honour the French soldiers who were killed in World War I.

I stood under a willow tree and took many photos as the breeze blew through the willow trees.

If you want a little slice of heaven on earth, stand under a willow tree in Monet’s lily pond.

Monet sat in his boat and painted his famous water lilies

Monet was a master of en plein air painting. He left his studio, went into the open air, sat in his boat and painted water lilies, from morning to evening, from summer to fall.

Monetplanted the bamboo grove that you can see behind his boats.

If you want to get a feeling of what it is like to be surrounded by Monet’s lilies, you can visit take a virtual tour at Musée de l’Orangerie. Better yet, visit Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris!

https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en/article/water-lilies-virtual-visit

Everyone wants a selfie on Monet’s iconic Japanese bridge

We were lucky to be in Giverny on a beautiful October Sunday, but it was not busy so it was easy to grab a selfie on Monet’s bridge.

Me and Monet

This is a selfie from a few years ago at a special exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario

You can visit Monet’s corner in Japan

I saw this little sign while we were wandering around Monet’s pond. I snapped this photo so that I could find more info. It looks like there is a little slice of Monet in Japan!

You can find Monet’s water lilies in Toyohaski, Japan. To celebrate the opening of the Toyohashi Zoo and Botanical Park in 1998, water lilies were imported directly from Monet’s garden!

http://www.honokuni.or.jp/toyohashi/en/spot/000087.html

If you have more information on Monet’s corner in Toyohashi, I would love to know more!

Monet’s lily pond is 360 degrees of beautiful!

The restoration of Monet’s gardens in Giverny would not have happened without the dedication of Gerald Van der Kemp and his American wife, Florence Harris Van der Kemp.

When Monet died, he left his estate to his only surviving child, Michel, who later died heirless in a car crash in 1966. Michel bequeathed his estate to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. By that time, Monet’s gardens and house were in a terrible state of neglect. In 1977, the Académie asked Gerald Van der Kemp to restore Monet’s house in gardens.

Gerald Van der Kemp

This is a portrait Gerald Van der Kemp, painted by my Instagram friend, John Swihart, who lives in Santa Monica in California.

If you want to know more about the extraordinary life of Gerald Van der Kemp, you can read more in this New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/15/arts/gerald-van-der-kemp-89-versailles-restorer.html

Gerald Van der Kemp is buried in Giverny, right beside Monet

After visiting Monet’s house and garden, take the time to stroll through the picturesque village to Giverny.

If you have time, there is a wonderful impressionist museum in Giverny: http://giverny.org/museums/impressionism/

At the end of the street, you will find a lovely church and graveyard.

This is Monet’s grave in Giverny

This is Monet’s gravestone in Giverny

The first  monument you will see in the graveyard is dedicated to 7 British airmen who crashed in Giverny in 1944.

Below is the monument, followed by a photo of the plaque on the monument:

Up on a hill, behind the church, you will find the grave of the 7 British airmen

This is the grave of 7 brave men

It was time for us to take a final stroll through the idyllic village of Giverny and find our ride back to Paris

Most streets in Giverny are closed to traffic

You can walk or bike through the village of Giverny

Autumn is a beautiful time to visit Giverny

Our ride back to Paris!