Admire the wonders of medieval Rouen and visit Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny
Looking to go on an adventure beyond the concrete jungle of Paris? Enjoy this exciting private tour and travel from the City of Lights to the picturesque region of Normandy to see the magnificent city of Rouen and the humble village of Giverny. If you love Gothic architecture and want to learn more about the most important exponent of impressionism, this tour is a must during your Parisian stay.
Meet our driver and our tour guide at the reception of your centrally located hotel and get a relaxing journey of 2 hours in a comfortable vehicle toward Rouen. With some of the finest gothic architecture in Europe (including a stunning cathedral) and a rich historical and cultural past, Rouen is the capital of Haute-Normandie from the Roman time and is the perfect town to visit if you feel like getting out of Paris for a day. The city center is very well preserved and is a UNESCO World Heritage, so get ready to enjoy a very beautiful stroll with our expert guide in this magnificent medieval town. Our visit will include the city highlights like House of the Exchequer, the 15th century Archbishop Palace, and the Renaissance Palace of Justice. You will also stop for a photo of Rouen’s most popular monument: the Grosse Horloge, a 16th century clock with a dome-crowned belfry and then you will walk to reach the Place du Vieux Marché (Old Market Square), where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. Finally you will visit of the Notre Dame de Rouen Cathedral, one of the most beautiful examples of French Gothic, immortalized over 20 times by Claude Monet.
Claude Monet will be the guiding line that will take us to the second part of this tour. After the visit in the beautiful Rouen, we will take our vehicle again and will drive approximately 1 hour to reach Giverny. Once arrived we will immediately immerse in the world of Claude Monet. We will enter to his famous pink-plastered house, where he lived and worked for more than 40 years (long explanations of the interior are not permitted due to the lack of space). We will visit the bright yellow dining room and a blue-tiled kitchen. In the dining room, marvel at one of the world's most important collections of Japanese prints. We will explore the reading room, leading into the larder and the artist's studio, and the beautiful painter’s blue-tiled kitchen. Looking at all the artist's personal effects, we will gain a sense of the atmosphere and rhythm of his daily life. Exiting to his extensive gardens, we will explore this important source of inspiration. Passionate about gardening and color variations, Monet literally designed his flower garden, fruit tree orchard and water garden as if they were works of art. As you visit the gardens at Giverny, you will see the central pathway leading up to the house, bordered by different varieties of nasturtiums and roses, as well as the multicolored flower beds full of tulips, narcissi, daffodils, irises and peonies. Stroll through the Clos Normand Flower Garden, which is home to many plants of Eastern origins, until you reach the lavish water garden, so famous for its water lilies, weeping willows and green-painted Japanese Bridge. Fans of Monet's paintings and garden-lovers alike will be inspired by the changing dominant colors of Monet's gardens from month to month: blue and rose in April, lilac and white in May, rose and mauve in June, rose and red at the beginning of July.
At the end of this pleasant and relaxing promenade with your expert guide, we will meet our driver again and start our journey back to Paris. After this immersive experience in the Normandy Region, you will certainly understand why this is one of the best place throughout France.