Private Giverny Tour from Paris with an Art Historian

★★★★★ 4.7 (159 traveller reviews)

Paris hotel pickup, or meet at the houseMonet house ticketYour guide in the gardensPrivate, up to 7

Monet's house and gardens with nobody else in your group. A private car collects you from your hotel or flat in Paris. An art historian walks you through the rooms where Monet lived, and then you have the gardens and the village before the drive home. Five hours, your party only, up to seven people.

Hours, prices and access verified by the Giverny Tours team — last checked 2026-09-28.

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Your own car and your own guide

Door to door from your Paris address

The car collects you from your hotel or from a private residence anywhere inside Paris, and brings you back to the same door. Already in Normandy, or driving yourself? Then meet the guide at the house instead, at 84 rue Claude Monet, and call the operator when you arrive. Either way the day is yours: one party in the car, up to seven people, and a pace your slowest walker sets.

The drive to Giverny is about 80 km, and it is the guide's first hour of commentary. The guide covers the move to the village in 1883, the forty-three years Monet spent there and the paintings the garden produced.

An hour in the house with an art historian

This is where a private guide makes the most difference. The house is small and its rooms are narrow. A guide who knows it can take you through before the crowd, and tell you what each room meant to the family. You cross the little blue sitting room, then the first studio, where Monet worked until 1899. About sixty reproductions now hang there, in the places the painter's own canvases did. None of the paintings in the house are originals.

Upstairs are Monet's bedroom and the rooms of his wife Alice and of Blanche Hoschedé-Monet, who lived in the house until 1947. Downstairs again, the yellow dining room holds the Japanese prints Monet collected, and the kitchen beyond it is lined with blue tiles from Rouen. The house belongs to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, which Monet's son left it to, and the rooms you see were restored from the late 1970s.

The flower garden and the water garden

The second hour is the gardens. The Clos Normand lies in front of the house, with its single-colour beds and iron arches. The water garden lies across the railway line, with the green bridge and the lily pond. The Fondation hands out a brochure for the gardens, and the fare covers the entry to both. One traveller expected the guide beside them among the flowers and found most of the commentary came in the car and the house. If a guide in the gardens matters to you, say so when you book.

Half an hour in the village

The last half hour is the village street, with its flowered houses, galleries and cafés. Look for the pink front of the Hôtel Baudy. The American painters who followed Monet to Giverny stayed there from the late 1880s, and it is a restaurant now. Lunch is not in the fare, and with a private car you can choose when and where to stop for it. The Giverny private tours page sets this day beside every other private option, including the ones that add Versailles or Van Gogh.

The day, from your door and back

1. Your Paris address. Pickup at your hotel or residence, or meet the guide at the house in Giverny.
2. On the road. A private drive to Giverny, with the guide's commentary.
3. The house. An hour with your art historian, room by room.
4. The gardens. An hour in the flower garden and the water garden.
5. The village. Thirty minutes on rue Claude Monet.
6. Back to Paris. The drive to your door, about five hours after pickup.

Who this suits, and who should book something else

What $499 covers, and what it leaves out

The fare is per person, not per car, so multiply it by your party before you compare it with a private day priced per vehicle.

From your hotel, or at the house in Giverny

Pickup is from any hotel or private residence inside Paris, and the car brings you back to the same place. Give the full address when you book. If you would rather meet in Giverny, the meeting point is Monet's house, 84 rue Claude Monet; call the operator when you get there.

Driving yourselves? Giverny has free car parks near the house. Getting to Giverny covers the road and the train. For the lunch the fare leaves out, where to eat in Giverny lists the tables near the gate.

Know before you go

• The gardens have a season. Every day from 1 April to 1 November, 10 am to 6 pm, last admission 5.30 pm.
• The house is not wheelchair accessible. The gardens are accessible to people with reduced mobility.
• Pushchairs and infant seats are fine. Say so when you book so the car is ready.
• Lunch is not in the fare. Choose your stop with the guide.
• Bags are limited to cabin size. At most 55 x 35 x 20 cm, and nothing can be left at the gate.
• Tips are optional. They are not in the fare.

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