A Japanese visitor wrote on August 18th, 2005

Vernon is a village town in France. It is very close to the town, Giverny,(note 1) Monet's garden and house. There is no train station in Giverny, therefore, you must transfer bus from Vernon if you would like to go to Giverny and I believe that is the key reason that Vernon became famous. However, it is also quite worth to take a look at this town. I like its riverside the most and it looked like just like the view I had in Zurich, Switzerland. Walking along the riverside and looking for windmill (note 2)  and something ancient there were what I spent the afternoon there. I enjoyed walking in this little town and sitting by the riverside to look at local people spending their weekend and let my mind wander around —this is the most enjoyment. If I am the Parisian, I shall do this often---hop on the train to Vernon and spend the afternoon or evening there to blow away my worries or anything annoying.

The full text of the vist to Giverny and Vernon can be read at http://lovinginsunriseandsunset.blogspot.com/2005/07/vernon-in-france.html

Note 1: I wouldn't use the word 'village' to refer to Vernon ( 24,000 inhabitants) neither would  say 'town' 'to mean Giverny which is a very small village (less than 500 inhabitants)
Note 2: this is not a  wind mill but a watermill perched on the remains of the medieval bridge, something fairly unusual and quite picturesque.) Go to page  http://www.vernon-visite.org/rgb2/vernon_giverny_5.htm in ordre to see a  pictures of the 'Old Mill'.

It was raining that day but the drizzle adds to the beauty of the place. (There is no video of the inside of the house as photos and films are forbidden there.)
Mozart will acompany you in your video visit.

http://vernon27journal.typepad.com/vernon27journal/files/jardins_de_monet_giverny.wmv

duration:  1mn, 11sec

URL of the blog where this video comes from

Some people think that Giverny benefits by a microclimate that bathes the village in a special light, which attracted Claude Monet and pleased him so much that he decided to spend the rest of his life there – together with hundreds of other artists who set up their easels in the streets  or in the neighbouring countryside.

Giverny is composed of a single street (called ‘rue Claude Monet’, of course!) with a few little lanes branching off. Flowers seem to be growing everywhere for everyone’s delight in the streets lined with old farm houses and cottages. In addition there are plenty of studios and art galleries along the main street.

Although one can drive along the village it is best to stroll along its street and, perhaps also take a walk on the hillside paths offering extended views over the village and the Seine and Epte valleys.
(You can find directions for two pleasant (and recommended) walks in the hills above Giverny (as well as a map) at : http://www.vernon-visite.org/rgb2/leisures.htm

Mary sumpter wrote on June  5th, 2006

... and the rest of the group and took a train to the village of Vernon (note 1) about 45 minutes outside of Paris. Once in Vernon, there was an open-air market where everyone picked up their own supplies for a picnic lunch. We then picked up our bikes and rode out to the picnic spot at a park on a river bank.(note 2) Anne, Caroline, and I sat with a nice Norwegian lady  who shared her pate in exchange for some of our cheese. We had bought a nice bottle of red wine, which went very well with  our fresh cherries, apricots, cheese, and bread.

After lunch, everyone saddled back up on the bikes and made our way to the old cart path that leads from Vernon to Giverny.
It takes about 20 minutes to ride the path through the picturesque countryside.

The full text of the visit to Giverny and Vernon can be read at http://marysumpter.livejournal.com/5293.html

Note 1 : I defintely would't  call Vernon a village: it is a (small) town with a population of 24,000.
Note 2: indeed, there are excellent picnic spots on either side of the river, on the right from the bridge ( on the Vernon bank) and on the left of the bridge on the right bank. For  more details and a map , see  this webpage http://www.vernon-visite.org/rgb1/accommodation_4.htm

We didn't stop at Giverny, there is a town nearby called Vernon that is very interesting, and in their 800-year-old church there are some really great statues. (Note 1)

Note 1: for more details about this church go to  http://www.vernon-visite.org/rgb2/vernon_historic_centre_3.htm for  some basic explanation about the church and to http://www.vernon-visite.org/colleg/accueil.htm for a whole s Website dedicated to the monument 

The full text of the visit to Giverny and Vernon can be read at http://foreverwiser.blogspot.com/2006/04/hit-trail-for-impressionists-and-post.html

Sandy wrote on May 29th, 2006

Having seen everything that there was to see, Olivia and I headed back to Vernon only to realize that the next train wasn't for another hour and a half. So we wandered around Vernon. Found their , which had some  really funky stained glass. And we were just looking around, minding our own business, when someone starts playing the organ.  Freaked us out. It was very Phantom of the Opera; I was totally expecting a guy in a mask and cape to swing down from the loft. Left the church, and I totally bought what has to be the most delicious Opera (the pasty, not the thing involving singing and phantoms) ever.

The full text of the vist to Giverny and Vernon can be read at  http://peachykeen0419.livejournal.com/112047.html

Monet lovers have turned Monet's home in Giverny, the site of the waterlily pond, Japanese bridge, and willow he painted so often, into a museum, preserved much as he left it. The guidebooks tell the visitor to take the bus from Vernon (note1) but one can enjoyably walk from Vernon. We enjoyed looking at the gardens and house restorations along the road.

The national railroad, SNCF, runs trains from Gare St Lazare (appropriate: Monet painted this station a few times) about twenty times a day, the first leaving at 6:39. The last returns at 10:30 in the evening. The train takes about an hour to make the trip. A round-trip ticket costs 142 Francs ($20). If one travels in groups, even groups of two, one gets a 25% discount. SNCF enforces this by giving out only one ticket for the group. Read the schedule carefully: SNCF runs trains on a different schedule for the summer vacation season, roughly August. The schedule lists 130 trains, most of which do not run on any particular day. We took the 8:16. The ticket vendor detected our American-ness and gave us fliers in English listing the first four departures of the day that synchronize with the Vernon-Giverny bus and three afternoon return trips. See schedule below. Get a schedule of the trains to Vernon at the most convenient train station when planning your trip. (note 2)

Take the train to Vernon, a rural town worth a short visit itself. It has markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the main square in the middle of town. It has a Monoprix (large discount department and grocery store) and the usual bakeries and other stores one finds in a French town.

From the train station walk rue de la Gare or rue Emile Loubet one block southeast to rue d'Albufera. Take a left on rue d'Albufera and walk northeast to rue Carnot.(note 3) Take a right on rue Carnot and walk one block southeast to the corner with rue St-Sauveur. Here one finds the old church on the northeast corner, the tourism office on the northwest corner, and city hall on the south side of the street. Ask the tourism office person for le plan de ville de Vernon (the map of the city). The Hôtel de ville (city hall) has a toilette on the second floor. Place General de Gaulle hosts the city markets and the Monoprix. Most city businesses center on Place General de Gaulle. We arrived on market day, Wednesday, and walked around the market, seeing a lot of attractive food.

To get to Giverny continue northeast on rue d'Albufera, cross the Seine on Pont Clemenceau (the only bridge for ten kilometers) to Vernonnet. Walk around the right side of the circle on the northeast side of the Seine, pass route de Giverny (a highway not pleasant to walk) to voie Andre Touflet, a bicycle/foot path that parallels route de Giverny. Take a right on voie Andre Touflet and follow it southeast, a ridge rising on the left, old stone homes on the right. In about three kilometers it reaches the northwest end of Giverny, just after passing an amusing sculpture garden and just before a gas station.

Take the road into Giverny to the left. It changes name to rue Claude Monet, the road on which one finds the Musee de Monet and the other museums in Giverny. After a pleasant walk of about a kilometer along this road past old stone homes one arrives at the Monet Museum.

The museum opens Tuesday-Sunday, 10 AM to 6 PM, 1 April to 31 October. One pays 4.5€ (about $5) to enter. One gets to see the gardens, the waterlily pond, the house, and the atelier, but no original Monet paintings or sketches. It has a number of places to sit down and enjoy the pleasant ambience. Although it forbids picnics we snuck in cheese, bread, and fruit, sat down on a bench, and ate discreetly. A guard saw us from a distance, we put it away, and he left us alone. After he left we finished it off.

The American museum, a collection of the works of American artists who went to Giverny in hope that some of the magic it seemed to work on Monet it would work on them, held mostly curiosities, as near as I could judge; I don't appoint myself a judge of art useful to others. It had two Marie Cassats, a few Morses, a lot of artists I did not know. Much looked like attempts to copy the vision of other Impressionists. We found no-one else there when we went to see it though hundreds had gone to the Monet that day. (note 4)

We walked back to Vernon (one could take the bus - the bus stops have schedules posted), arrived too late to shop at the Monoprix (note 5), bought a baguette at the bakery and cheese and the local specialty, cider, either of apples or at the Fromagerie, sat down on a bench in the square, made cheese sandwiches and washed them down with the cider. Then we bought a sweet at a pastry shop before walking back to the train station to catch the 8:42 to Paris.

Train-Bus Schedule

You can find this page at: http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~rbell/France/Giverny.html

Blogger's NOTES

1- A shuttle bus (called Navette Vernon – Giverny) leaves from the strain station after the arrival of the main trains from Paris The first bus is at  9.15. on the way back, the last bus leaves Giverny at 17.25 in time to catch the  18h00 train – Cost in 2006: 3€ return. Taxis and also bicycle rent outside the station.

2 - Careful: the schedule indicated here are likely to have changed. So has the price of the train ticket or the possibility of a 25% discount.

3 - That is to say walk down Albuféra street to the first traffic lights and there, turn right to go to the Tourist Office and to vist the church (definitely worth a half hour visiit , 150 m further.  By the way, do spare an hour, either in the morning or in the afternnon, to visit Vernon.

© 2001, Russell Bell

This blog is also for sharing your tips and comments about Giverny.

If you have been there, please inform future vistors of what you found great  or hopeless, of the hotels / restaurants / B &nd B you went to  with their positive points but also the negative ones, give tips about the best season / days / hours for visits of Claude Monet's garden, tell  us about the other things you saw and did while in Giverny (did you visit the American Art Museum? Did you have a look at the neighbouring litle town of Vernon? etc...)

If you are planning a visit there, this  blog is the right place for asking questions and profiting by previous visitors' experience...

Hello, 
Here is something new about Giverny. There isn't much in the blog for the moment, but it will grow larger soon, I hope.

You can already have a look at the two galleries (On the right , called ALBUMS PHOTOS)

Under construction

Chamber Music in Giverny : August 24thd - September 3rd, 2006

The Chamber Music festival in Giverny is a way to recreate an artists' colony - something similar to what existed in Monet's time. During two weeks at the end of Summer,only one hour's away from Paris, the festival is an opportunity for young musicians from all over the world, England, the USA, Israel, Russia or France.

This year, romantic music with Robert Schumann and the Polish composer Krzystof Penderecki will be celebrated.

Information: www.musicagiverny.net - email: contact@musicagiverny.net - Phone (from France) 02 32 71 02 99