Visiting Giverny - Monet's Home & Gardens
Oct 11, 2009, 2:17 AM
Returned from Paris recently and offer the following tips and recommendations:
HUGE TIP: Monet's Home & Gardens, previously not open on Mondays, are now open every day. So, Monday is an excellent day to go (at least until all the tour guides catch up with this).
Most of the tour buses (except those also going to Versailles, etc., for the afternoon) leave Paris at 1PM. So, going in the morning is recommended, though not necessarily at opening time. (We took a later train.)
If you plan to purchase your train tickets ahead of getting on the train, allow plenty of time. There may be a long line to purchase tickets. Depending on the number of clerks on duty, a long line may move quickly, or a short line may move very slowly. If you have a chip/pin credit card, you can purchase tickets (easily) using the automated ticket machines, but Americans have to purchase tickets at the ticket office.
When looking at the board at the station for your track number, look for departures at your time to Rouen (not Vernon). Be SURE to validate your ticket in the yellow machine at the head of the track.
Buses are coordinated with train schedule. As the train pulls into the station, the bus is waiting (to your right facing front). When you get off the train, follow the shoe prints to the opposite side of the station to the bus - when we visited, a huge plain white coach with a digital display: Vernon-Giverny over the front window. Bus fare €2 each way. You can purchase a return ticket on boarding the bus.
When you arrive at Giverny, check the posted bus schedule at the bus stop for return times (also coordinated with train schedule). The Vernon-Giverney bus uses the parking space closest to the walking path. Returning, the digital sign on the bus displayed something other than Vernon-Giverny, but showing our return tickets, the driver indicated it was the correct bus.
You can purchase your tickets to Monet's Home & Gardens ahead of time at FNAC (plus €1.60 service charge). There's one just opposite Gare St-Lazare. With an advance ticket, you can use the Group entrance, rather than wait in line at the regular entrance. Tickets are for any day (not a specific date/time). Then, you can go to Gare St-Lazare and purchase your train tickets ahead of time. With some tickets, you can take an earlier/later train, should you decide/need to do that. With others, you must exchange your ticket if you miss your train (to or from). (The clerk will advise.)
We purchased our train and admission tickets ahead of time. As it turned out, there were few visitors when we arrived, but even so, using the Group entrance gives you a good chance of getting to the bridges for photo opportunities without people on them taking photos of other people on the opposite bridge! So, we were very lucky in that respect.
There are many wonderful places for lunch within steps of the exit of the gift shop. To the LEFT, and down the road on the right, is the fabulous Terra Cafe - with an enormous terrace, moderate prices, very good food, excellent service (and spotless rest rooms). And, it's at the top of the path that leads back to the parking lot and the bus stop.
We took a later train from Paris to Vernon (10:20AM) figuring we'd arrive after all those who take the advice to arrive ahead of opening time, which worked out very well for us. We booked a return to Paris for 2:53 PM, which gave us plenty of time for a leisurely stroll through the gardens, and there was no line for the house (and, no crowd inside), along with plenty of time for a visit in a lovely gallery and a nice lunch on that beautiful terrace. But, be sure to check the website for other things to see/do in the area.
Curiously, when we checked with the concierge at our hotel as to whether the site would be open on the Monday (9/21) we planned to visit for sure, he told us there may not be many flowers, adding that when the flowers are best "there are more people than flowers". I was not concerned with that (having checked the website ahead of time for what would be in bloom). And, to our amazement, the water lilies were in bloom (white, pink, dark pink)!
Also curious, the clerk at the train station asked our ages. I told him we were both under 60. He sold us Senior tickets (€9.40 rather than €12.50 each way) and told us to bring ID with proof of age. When we produced our tickets for the Conductor, no ID or proof of age was requested.
Not only were the water lilies in full bloom, along with flowers in the gardens, on September 21st, the weather was just perfect! Low 70's, sunny, just a few clouds in a very blue sky!
When returning to Paris from the Vernon station, there are only two tracks: A and B. When you check the board, note that trains (to other destinations) use the same tracks, so don't hop on an earlier train to elsewhere! (We knew this, but advised others, who did not.)
No comments:
Post a Comment