Day trip · Paris → Giverny
Out of Saint-Lazare at 8:20, in the water-lily garden before the coaches, home by 5:30. April to October only — the house shuts for winter.
8 stops · 52 min on the train · about 4 km (2.5 mi) on foot
1 h 25 door to garden · 1 change, at Vernon · ~€40 return, both legs
75 km (47 mi) · about 1 h 15 without traffic · park once
1 h 15 Porte d’Auteuil → Giverny · Exit 14 Bonnières, then the D5 · Toll on the A13 — card works
Direction Rouen or Vernon. Sit on the left for the Seine.
The Normandy trains leave from the far platforms. Buy the Vernon-Giverny ticket on the SNCF app the night before — the machines have a line at 8am. Left-hand window seats get the river after Mantes.
10 min · Ticket ~€16 each way
Shuttle bus meets the train. Or a bike from the shop opposite.
The shuttle waits on the station forecourt and leaves a few minutes after each train arrives, April to October. Rent a bike instead if the sun is out: 5 km (3 mi), flat, on the old railway path along the Seine — 25 minutes and you skip the bus queue on the way back.
15 min · Shuttle, pay on board
House, Clos Normand, then the water-lily pond. Book the 9:30 slot.
Go through the house first while everyone else heads for the pond, then do the flower garden, then cross under the road to the lilies. The Japanese bridge is a one-photo-at-a-time affair by 11. The pond is best in the first hour and the last.
2 h · About €12, timed entry
Hôtel Baudy — the painters’ inn. Terrace if you are early.
Baudy is where Cézanne, Rodin and the American painters ate, and it still does the honest three-course lunch. It fills at 12:30. If it is full, the crêperie two doors down is fine and nobody will judge you.
1 h 15 · €25–35 a head
Small, quiet, one good show at a time. An hour is right.
The museum most people skip, which is the point. One or two exhibitions, good rooms, its own small garden with a bench facing the hills. Combined tickets with the Fondation exist — ask at either desk.
1 h · About €12
Monet’s grave, a bench, the whole valley in view.
A short climb to the village church. Monet is buried with his family behind it under a plain stone and a lot of flowers. Sit on the wall for ten minutes — this is the view he painted from the hill.
20 min · Free
The half-timbered mill on the old bridge. Ten minutes, one photo.
A medieval mill hanging off the remains of a bridge over the Seine — Monet painted it too. Cross the modern bridge for the view, then wander the two streets of old Vernon behind the Collégiale for a coffee before the train.
30 min · Free
Arrive 17:35. Dinner in Paris at a normal hour.
Trains back run roughly hourly until the evening; the 16:40 gets you in for an apéro. If you miss it, Vernon has cafés by the Collégiale — there are worse waiting rooms.
55 min · Same ticket type as the morning