While in Paris, one of my bucket-list items was to visit Monet’s Gardens and the city of Giverny was only an hour outside of Paris. Since the weather was so lovely in April, I decided that booking a bike tour was a fun way to see the gardens. It was one of the highlights of my trip and I recommend the tour to everyone visiting Paris!
I used the company Fat Tire Bike Tours and it was an amazing day trip away from Paris! Our tour started in Vernon so I took an hour train ride from Paris and met our tour group in the Vernon train station. Since the entire tour was on bikes, I knew the tour group was going to be small and intimate.
We were each given a bike (my bike was named Twinkletoes!) and then road to the Vernon Farmers Market to purchase food for our picnic by the Seine. I purchased sandwiches and pastries at Boulangerie Rose and bought some alcoholic cider. We loaded up the front baskets of our bikes and rode to the bank of the river to have our picnic. It was so beautiful and relaxing!
After lunch we rode our bikes to Giverny to see Monet’s House and Gardens. It was about a 3-mile bike ride on a very flat path and we had gorgeous views of the countryside.
We were able to spend 2 hours touring Monet’s House and Gardens. His gorgeous Japanese Garden inspired his waterlily paintings (which are displayed in Paris at the Musée de l’Orangerie!).
Monet’s gardens were stunning and he planted his flowers so they were in sections of the same color, like a paint pallet. His house consisted of bright walls of color and Japanese paintings.
Claude Monet is buried in the nearby Church Sainte-Radegonde of Giverny and we stopped to visit his grave on the way back to Vernon.
Until next time,
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