How to Get to Giverny from Paris

Your Giverny day trip begins at Paris's Gare Saint-Lazare. Take Metro Line 3, 12, 13 or 14 to Saint-Lazare, then follow the signs marked with a train icon and "Grand Ligne" to reach the mainline platforms.

You can buy a ticket at the counter, but these days most travelers use the self-service machines. Choose "Vernon-Giverny" as your destination. A Paris–Giverny round trip cost 28.6 euros as of 2020. Check the monitors for your platform number, and look up the timetable before you go so you can plan your day. Schedules are also available online.

The train ride takes about 1 hour 10 minutes. Once you step off at Vernon, simply follow the crowd and you'll find the shuttle bus that takes you to Monet's house and gardens. The fare is 8 euros round trip, payable on board, so it's handy to carry cash. Buses don't run very frequently, so check the return bus times and your train back to Paris, decide which train you want to catch, and plan your time in the village around it.

When you get off the bus, you'll again follow the other visitors through an underpass into the village. The road is a narrow two-lane street, but with around 500,000 visitors a year, the underpass keeps everyone safe. You won't need to ask for directions. Still, it helps to look at the map before you set off and pick a route for the places you want to see.

A quick detour into art history: think of Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare paintings. In 1877, he showed some 30 works of the station at the third Impressionist exhibition. Even among the Impressionists, Monet stands out for painting the same subject over and over in series. At a time when the railway was a hot new form of transport in the 19th century, choosing a train station as his subject may have had a commercial angle, some suggest. He began to prosper in the 1880s, and once he had made enough money, he started painting the nature he truly wanted to paint, right here in Giverny.

Now, on to the home of the painter of light.