Giverny for a Day from Paris

I just wanted to give a detailed guide of how we went to Giverny from Paris, in case it could help anyone!

We rode out of Paris on the Region Normandie train from Saint Lazare to Vernon. We booked in advance, so our ticket only came to 20€ round trip, which saved about 15€ day of. We took the 8:14AM train out, and when we arrived to Giverny, there were two options for the shuttle. We ended up on Le Petit Train, as it was right in front of the train station, easy access with cash, and the same price as the SNCF shuttle bus. I strongly believe taking this little train allowed us to enter the gardens way sooner than others. The SNCF shuttle bus was close behind and did accept TAP on board if needed. The little train is an open air stringing of two or three vehicles that operated between the train station in Vernon and the bus parking at Giverny and Monet’s house and gardens, again arriving at the same location as the SNCF shuttle.

From the parking lot, it was about a ten minute walk to Monet’s house. We booked our tickets in advance for the first entrance at 10AM. We continued to follow signs for e-tickets, and we ended up in a queue to be within the first ten into the property. We did use the entrance closer to the stairs to the water lilies, as opposed to Monet’s house. The employees let us in around 9:40AM, which was a total bonus. I cannot recommend getting the first entrance time enough, as it was very quiet and not crowded at all. We beelined right for the water lilies, and, it was the right choice. Many of our photos had no other people in them because groups were still entering and maybe chose to look at the house first. We then made our way over to his house, and to the gift shop, which were a bit crowded, but nothing like they were going to be, as I saw a line of around 100 people waiting just to buy tickets. Finally, we had lovely lunch at Le Temps des Fleurs.

We, unfortunately made the mistake of booking a 3:57PM train home, when really, we could’ve made the 1:55PM train, and the tickets were nonexchangeable. I wasn’t 100% sure how much time we were going to spend, and I believe if we had a later time and crowds were larger, we would’ve spent more time walking around, just with foot traffic.

We had some time to kill in Vernon after taking Le Petit Train back to the station, so we wandered around some grocery stores, a pharmacy, and eventually had a drink at a nearby Brasserie. We would’ve had much more to do with all the little shops in Vernon, but many of them were closed, as it was Monday. It was also very toasty, so we weren’t trying to do too much walking.

Overall it was a great day, but if you have first entrance to the gardens, I truly believe you could’ve made it to the 1:55PM train, especially since the train literally does not arrive until maybe 5 minutes before departing.