Weekend Trips From Paris by Train: Claude Monet’s Home and Gardens
In all the times I had been to Paris, it took a few visits before I looked into weekend trips from Paris by train and made it to Claude Monet’s house. Now that I’ve been I can say it was well worth a visit!
Monet was a famous impressionist painter who lived from 1840-1926 and is best known for his fascination with light. He often painted the same scene at various hours of the day when the sun would light his subject differently. His work is displayed in museums across the world. His home, where he painted many of his famous waterlily pictures, is open to visitors from March – November.
Getting There:
When planning my trip to Monet’s house I read multiple times that it’s possible to get there by public transportation. Except, when I looked up the directions it didn’t sound so straight forward. I was mostly worried about how to get to the house itself from the train station we would arrive into. Knowing now what we didn’t know then we saw multiple shuttles that transferred people to and from the home and train station. Monet’s house is a popular site to see and it’s only open for eight months out of the year. I should have known it would be geared toward helping visitors get there!
Because we didn’t know about the handy shuttles beforehand, my parents and I decided to buy our tickets through a tour option on Viator that included round trip transportation. We opted to explore the house and gardens on our own. So the only draw for us in booking a “tour” is that it included transportation.
*Food for thought.* Both are great options but If I was going to visit Monet’s house again I think I’d opt to take public transit. I wasn’t disappointed with taking a tour bus to and from the home, but with public transit I could be on my own schedule instead of the bus’s. I would arrive at the home right when it opened to avoid crowds, and I would spend the afternoon exploring the little town around Monet’s home. Again, I wasn’t disappointed with the tour bus; I just know now that there’s more I’d like to see than the tour bus’s time table allowed. 😊
Exploring the Gardens and Home:
Monet seriously had the COOLEST gardens. Spend some time walking around the garden on the side of his home where a giant pond is surrounded by various types of greenery and flowers of all different kinds and colors. The front of the home itself is FILLED with rows and rows of colorful flowers. So be sure to spend some time walking through those as well. Take a stroll through the home to see where Monet actually lived. (But know that the gardens might just be the highlight for you like they were for us.) My mom and I couldn’t stop taking pictures! 😄
On that note, here’s some of my favorite captures I took of Monet’s gardens and home.
Safe travels friends.
CE
