Day Trips from Paris: Vernon & Giverny

Giverny can be an afternoon trip from Paris or you can make it a full-day excursion and rent bikes to explore the town of Vernon before following the pretty bike path to the village of Giverny, three miles away. To see Monet's paintings, you'll need to visit the A.G. Poulain museum in Vernon or the Orangerie ro Marmottan Monet museums in Paris.

Vieux Moulin

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Getting there: Take the train from Paris St. Lazare to Vernon (45 minutes for direct trains). From there, you can pick up the shuttle bus to Giverny, or you rent bicycles at the café L’Arrivée de Giverny opposite the train station. The shuttle bus will meet trains departing from the Paris St. Lazare station beginning at 08h20, 10h20, 12h20 and 14h20. The shuttle serves trains returning to Paris from Vernon in the afternoon at 14h53, 16h53, 17h53, 18h53 and 19h53. Consult the shuttle schedule here.

Claude Monet’s House and Gardens

Maison de Monet

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Claude Monet lived in the village from 1883 until his death in 1926.  It was here, inspired by the lily pond he created, that he painted the huge canvases of the Nymphéas series which can be seen in the Orangerie Museum in Paris.  In fact, you won’t see any original Monet artwork here. See below for information on where you can see Monet paintings. The house and gardens formerly owned by Monet are today a museum where reproductions of his most famous works are displayed.  The Nymphéas studio (visitor center and exhibits) is the former main studio.

The house, pink and green, long and low, contains reproductions of the painter’s works and the collection of 18^th and 19^th century Japanese prints (18-19C) he gathered.  The dining room with its yellow painted wooden furniture, the main bedroom with its lumpy bed, family photographs and view of the garden, and the bright blue tiled kitchen are especially memorable. The visit is one-way and the guards do not let you retrace your steps, so be sure to take your time in each room.

The flower garden, replanted according to Monet’s original designs, is a spectacular array of color; and on the other side of the road (access through the tunnel) is the water garden. Japanese in inspiration, the water garden has a lily pond, gracefully curved bridges, and is bordered by bamboo trees, rhododendrons and a majestic weeping willow.

 

Of interest in Giverny

Visit the Musée des Impressionismes, dedicated to the Impressionist Movement and beyond has a

Jardin de Monet

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rotating selection of impressionist paintings. Paul Signac’s works on water will be on display until July 2, 2103. The museum will be closed from July 3-12, 2013, and will open again on July 13, 2013 with a show on Hiramatsu’s Lily Pond Homage to Monet. The modern landscaped gardens are also worth a stroll. Visit also the recently restored village church (Eglise) where Monet and members of his family are buried, along with a group of British airmen whose plane was shot down during the Allied invasion of Normandy. American Impressionists (and others) lived at the Ancien Hotel Baudy while studying in Giverny. It is now a restaurant and if you request permission, you can usually walk into the gardens in the back. You might also have crèpes in the garden of the restaurant/hotel La Musardière (#12 on the map) after a stroll through the village galleries.

Village of Giverny, www.giverny.fr

Collégiale Notre Dame Vernon

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Things to see in Vernon

Cycle or stroll around the city center and admire the corbelled houses in the old town, visit the Musée Poulain for its Monet paintings and the gothic Collégiale Notre-Dame.

Costs: Roundtrip train tickets from Paris to Vernon are approximately 28€. A roundtrip Veron-Giverny shuttle ticket is 8€. Bicycle rental is 14€ per person, at L’Arrivée de Giverny, 3 rue de la Gare, 27200 Vernon, Tel. 02 32 21 16 01.

You can purchase tickets online for Monet’s House and Garden (Fondation Monet) for 6€ (students) and 9.50€ (adults) or dual admission tickets for the Fondation Monet and the Musée des Impressionismes for 10.50€ (students) or 18.20€ (adults). Directions in English on how to complete this transaction. The main reason for buying tickets on line is for the line-jumping (coupe-file) privileges. The cost for a day in the country, not including lunch and the obligatory crèpe or glace artisanale, will be 46.50€ for students and 54.20€ for adults (add 6€ if you rent bikes).

Other museums offer dual admission ticket deals. The gorgeous Musée Marmottan Monet with rooms devoted to Monet, Berthe Morisot and other Impressionists, is also hosting a Marie Laurencin exhibit until June 30, 2013. The Musée de l’Orangerie which houses Monet’s Water Lilies series, les Nymphéas, often has long, long lines. If you’re planning on visiting the Orangerie, the best strategy would be to buy a dual ticket for Monet’s Gardens and the Orangerie since they have the longest lines.


NB: Thank you to Bert Lazerow, founder of the University of San Diego Paris Institute on International and Comparative Law, for providing the initial text on Claude Monet's house and garden.