Monet's House and Gardens, Giverny

Monet’s house in Giverny is where Claude Monet lived for 43 years, from 1883 until his death, and where he made the two gardens behind his water lily paintings. You can walk the flower garden, stand on the green Japanese bridge over the pond and go through the rooms where he lived. The site is open only from April 1 to November 1, so visiting Giverny means planning your trip around that season.

What you will see

The property is at 84 rue Claude Monet in the village of Giverny, in the Eure department. It belongs to the Académie des beaux-arts. Monet rented the house when he arrived in 1883 and bought the property in 1890. He died here on December 5, 1926. The house and gardens were restored in the late 1970s.

2026 is the centenary of Monet’s death. Normandy Tourism lists exhibitions and events across Normandy and the Paris region through the year, ending with a tribute at his grave on December 5, 2026.

The Clos Normand

The Clos Normand is the flower garden in front of the house. A central path runs under metal arches covered in roses and nasturtiums, and the beds on either side are planted by color. The planting changes through the season. Normandy Tourism describes tulips in spring, then irises, then roses in June.

The water garden

The water garden lies across the road. Monet started it in 1893 on land at the bottom of the Clos Normand and diverted a branch of the River Epte to fill the pond. This is the part of Monet’s garden you know from the paintings. You see the green Japanese bridge, the water lilies, bamboo, willows and small boats moored at the edge. Monet began painting the water lilies here in 1897.

The house

Inside the house you walk through a series of rooms:

• The blue reading room.
• Monet’s first studio-lounge, hung with about 60 reproductions of his paintings.
• His bedroom.
• The yellow dining room, its walls lined with Japanese prints.
• The kitchen, with blue Rouen tiles and copper pans.

Planning your visit

Season. The Giverny gardens are open every day from April 1 to November 1 and are closed the rest of the year. The official site had published dates for the 2026 season only, so check the dates for later years before you book. What’s in flower depends on the month. Come in spring for tulips and later irises, or in June for the roses on the arches. For a wider look at the seasons, see Best Time to Visit Normandy.

How long to allow. Plan on at least an hour and a half. The official site suggests 1h30 to 2 hours for an unguided visit. Leaving the site is final, so finish both gardens and the house before you exit.

Booking. The official site strongly recommends booking online. Tickets are also sold at the gate every day, but once the online quota is used up you should expect long waits. The official pages don’t describe timed entry slots. E-tickets can’t be refunded, and tickets bought from May 1, 2026 can’t be changed.

If you qualify for free admission, for example children under 7, you get your ticket on site with proof. Free tickets can’t be booked online, and there is no skip-the-line access. For prices, hours and the full list of free-entry notes, see the Visit facts box above. Combined tickets with other museums are sold on site, and the official site has the details.

Rules to know before you go.

• No pets, except assistance dogs.
• No picnics, and no painting or drawing.
• Bags are checked at the entrance. Only cabin-size bags up to 55 x 35 x 20 cm are allowed, and there is no luggage storage. This matters if you are traveling between cities with a suitcase.

Accessibility. Visitors with reduced mobility can get around the gardens, but the house has no wheelchair access. With a disability card you get priority access at the group entrance on Sente Leroy.

Food. Restaurant Les Nymphéas, across from the house, is open every day from April 1 to November 1.

The pass question. Monet’s house is not a partner of the Explore Normandy Pass, the official pass of Normandie Tourisme, the regional tourism board. Your visit here won’t get a pass discount. My Normandy Pass is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with Normandie Tourisme or the official Explore Normandy Pass. To total the entry prices for the sites on your list, use the Normandy pass calculator.

Getting there

By train

Trains run from Paris Saint-Lazare to Vernon-Giverny station. SNCF Connect lists 22 trains a day from Paris to Vernon, operated by TER/NOMAD. The fastest takes 46 minutes and the average is 57 minutes. From the station, a shuttle bus runs to Giverny from April to November. Boarding depends on available seats, and the shuttle does not carry groups. For a full car-free plan, see Normandy Without a Car.

By bike

There is a signposted, mostly flat bike route from Vernon to Giverny across the Clémenceau bridge. You can rent bikes at Vernon station through Givernon. Giverny also sits on the Seine à Vélo, a 430 km cycle route.

By car

Giverny has free car parks. If you drive from Paris, note that the A13 Saint-Cloud tunnel near Paris is closed in the Paris-to-Normandy direction from November 16, 2026 to the end of August 2027, with signed diversions. That covers the start of the 2027 garden season. For other options, see Getting to Normandy from Paris.

As a day trip

If you are coming from Paris for the day, the Giverny Day Trip from Paris page sets out how to fit the visit into a single day.

Nearby

Giverny has more to see. The Musée des impressionnismes Giverny is on the same street, and Monet is buried in the churchyard of the village church of Sainte-Radegonde.

Rouen Cathedral is about 58 minutes and 67 km away by car, according to OpenStreetMap routing estimates that don’t include traffic. Monet painted the cathedral’s facade, so it makes a natural second stop on an art-themed day.

Rouen works as an overnight base after Giverny, with the cathedral and the old town close together.