Monet's House and Gardens Guided Tour with Entry Giverny

Monet's water garden and the Japanese bridge

The water garden is the reason most people travel to Giverny. Monet bought this piece of marshy land across the road from his house in 1893, diverted a small branch of the Epte river and created a pond that he planted with water lilies, weeping willows, bamboo and irises. The green arched footbridge, inspired by the Japanese prints he collected, became one of the most painted motifs in art history, and for the last decades of his life the floating lilies and their reflections were almost his only subject.

With your guide you walk the shaded paths around the pond and stop at the best viewpoints for photographs while hearing how the light, the seasons and the reflections changed every canvas. Water lilies flower from about June to September, while wisteria drapes the bridge in May. Many visitors ask whether Monet's garden in Giverny is worth visiting: standing on this bridge is the answer.

The Clos Normand flower garden

Between the house and the road lies the Clos Normand, about one hectare of flower beds that Monet designed like a painter's palette. Instead of formal patterns he mixed simple and rare flowers so that colours would follow one another from spring to autumn: tulips and daffodils in April, irises, peonies and poppies in May and June, roses climbing iron arches in summer, then dahlias, sunflowers and asters in early autumn.

The central Grande Allée runs under metal arches towards the house, and by late summer nasturtiums creep across the gravel until the path almost disappears. Your guide points out the different species and explains how Monet chose plants for their colour and height. If you are wondering about the best time to visit Giverny, May and June are the most colourful months, but every season from April to early November has its own palette.

Inside Monet's house

Monet rented, then bought, this long house with its pink rough-cast walls and green shutters, and lived here from 1883 until his death in 1926. After years of decline it was carefully restored and opened to the public in 1980. Inside, the rooms are furnished as in his time: the bright yellow dining room with yellow furniture and blue-and-white tableware, the blue-tiled kitchen with its copper pans, and the large studio-salon hung with reproductions of his works.

Throughout the house you see part of Monet's collection of Japanese woodblock prints, which deeply influenced his art and his garden design. Upstairs, the bedroom windows look straight down over the Clos Normand. The house is visited on the same ticket as the gardens and your guide brings the rooms to life with stories of the large family that filled them.

Giverny village and how to get there

Giverny is a small village of stone houses and walled gardens on the edge of Normandy, about 75 km west of Paris above the Seine valley. Along its main street you find cafés, galleries, the museum devoted to Impressionism and the church of Sainte-Radegonde, where Monet is buried in the family grave. After the tour you are free to stay longer in the gardens, browse the large gift shop or explore the village lanes.

A common question is how to get to Giverny from Paris: trains run from Paris Saint-Lazare to Vernon in around 45 minutes, and from Vernon a shuttle bus, taxi or rented bicycle covers the last 5 km. The gardens open daily from early spring to the first days of November, which is when this Giverny day trip runs. Please allow time to reach the meeting point, as entry is timed.