Monet's Garden at Giverny

Monet’s garden at Giverny is the house where Claude Monet lived for 43 years and the two gardens he made around it. The first is a flower garden in front of the house. The second is the water garden with the Giverny water lilies and the green Japanese bridge. The site opens from April 1 to November 1, and a visit takes 1h30 to 2 hours. This guide covers what you need in order: a short background, what you will see, how long to allow, tickets, getting there from Paris and when to go. For current prices and hours, see our Monet’s House and Gardens page or the official site.

Monet at Giverny in brief

Monet moved into the house in Giverny, a village in the Eure department, in 1883. He rented it at first and bought the property in 1890. He lived and painted here until his death on December 5, 1926, and he is buried in the churchyard of the village church of Sainte-Radegonde.

Today the house and gardens belong to the Académie des beaux-arts, and both were restored in the late 1970s. The entrance is at 84 rue Claude Monet.

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

What to see

The visit has three parts: the flower garden, the water garden across the road, and the house. You can take them in any order. Leaving the site is final, though, so plan to see all three before you walk out.

The Clos Normand flower garden

The Clos Normand covers about 1 hectare in front of the house. It was once an orchard and kitchen garden. Monet took out the spruces that lined the central path and put up metal arches instead. Those arches still stand, and roses and nasturtiums now line the path beneath them.

The beds are planted by color, and the flowers change with the seasons. Normandy Tourism describes tulips in spring, then irises, then roses in June. If there is a particular flower you want to see, time your trip to it.

The water garden

Monet began the water garden in 1893 on land across the road at the bottom of the Clos Normand. He made the pond by diverting a branch of the River Epte. In 1897 he started painting the water lilies.

The Japanese bridge is painted green. Bamboo, ginkgo, maples, tree peonies and weeping willows frame the pond, and small boats are moored along the edge.

The house

Inside the house, the visit takes you through a series of rooms:

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

The house is not wheelchair accessible, but the gardens are.

Elsewhere in the village

The Musée des impressionnismes Giverny is at 99 rue Claude Monet, a short walk along the same street. Entry is free for visitors under 18. Monet’s grave is at the church of Sainte-Radegonde. Restaurant Les Nymphéas, opposite the house, is open through the same April-to-November season.

Our Giverny town page covers the village in more detail.

How long to allow and what to bring

The official site suggests 1h30 to 2 hours for a visit on your own. That covers both gardens and the house at an unhurried pace. If you also want the Musée des impressionnismes or the church, add time for them in your day.

Check these rules before you set out:

• Bags: 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. If you are coming straight from a train with a suitcase, you have nowhere to leave it.
• Pets: none, except assistance dogs.
• Activities: no picnics, no painting or drawing, and no wedding photo shoots.
• Accessibility: the gardens are accessible to people with reduced mobility, but the house is not wheelchair accessible. Visitors with a disability card get priority access at the group entrance on Sente Leroy.

Tickets and booking

If you are looking for Monet house Giverny tickets, the official advice is simple: book online. Tickets are also sold at the entrance every day. But once the online quota is filled, you should expect long waits on site.

A few points to know before you buy:

• No refunds: e-tickets are non-refundable.
• No changes: tickets bought from May 1, 2026 cannot be changed, so pick your date carefully.
• No time slots: the official pages describe online booking and quotas, but they do not describe a timed-slot system.
• Free entry: children under 7, jobseekers, holders of the French disability inclusion card plus one companion, and others on the official list get in free. Free tickets are only given on site with proof. They cannot be booked online, and there is no skip-the-line access for them.
• Reduced rates: there are reduced rates for ages 7-17, students and visitors with disabilities. A companion of a visitor with a disability pays the full rate.
• Combined tickets: combined tickets with the Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, or the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris are sold on site only, to individual visitors.

For current prices, see the attraction page or the official site.

Getting there from Paris

Giverny works well as a day trip from Paris, with or without a car. Our Giverny day trip from Paris lays out a full day. The Getting to Normandy from Paris page covers the wider region.

By train

Trains to Vernon-Giverny station leave from Paris Saint-Lazare. SNCF Connect lists 22 trains a day, with the fastest taking 46 minutes and the average 57 minutes. Check the timetable for your date and book your return before you leave Paris.

From Vernon to Giverny

Vernon is 5 km from Giverny. You have four ways to cover that distance:

• Shuttle bus: runs from the station to Giverny from April to November. Boarding depends on available seats, and groups are not carried.
• Little tourist train: runs between the station and the village.
• Bike: you can rent a bike at Vernon station (Givernon). A signposted, mostly flat route crosses the Seine on the Clémenceau bridge. Giverny also sits on the 430 km Seine à Vélo cycle route.
• On foot: about an hour each way.

If you want to see more of Normandy by train and bus, Normandy Without a Car shows how to link the main sites.

By car

Giverny has free car parks. If you drive from Paris, note that the A13 Saint-Cloud tunnel near Paris closes in the Paris-to-Normandy direction from November 16, 2026 to the end of August 2027, with signed diversions. Allow extra time on that stretch.

Giverny also pairs well with Rouen. Rouen Cathedral is about 58 minutes and 67 km away by car, based on OpenStreetMap routing. That is an estimate without traffic.

When to go

The house and gardens open every day from April 1 to November 1 for the 2026 season and are closed the rest of the year. The official site only gives dates for the current season, so check next year’s dates before you book.

Within the season, the gardens change from month to month. Spring brings tulips, then irises follow, and the roses come in June. Normandy Tourism recommends a weekday in spring or mid-autumn, and suggests arriving in the late afternoon. It advises avoiding July, August, public holidays, fine weekends and school holidays. It names roughly 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as the busiest part of the day.

If you are visiting in 2026, the centenary events around Normandy and the Paris region may also shape your plans. The tribute at Monet’s grave takes place on December 5, 2026, after the house and gardens have closed for the season.

For month-by-month planning across the region, see Best Time to Visit Normandy. To fit Giverny into a longer trip, Five Days in Normandy and Gardens in Normandy show where it sits alongside the coast and other gardens.