50% to 80% doesn't mean 50% or 80% of the day will be wet. 80% chance of rain could easily mean a 20 minute shower in the AM and nothing the rest of the day. It <i>might</i> rain all day -- but that would be highly unusual.

We just returned from Paris (wow it has been 3 weeks) and we were blessed with beautiful weather. It did rain on the day we were going to Giverny to see Monet's garden and house. At first I wanted to cancel. I wasn't excited to walk around gardens in the rain.

We decided to go and in the AM it was a steady sprinkle and in the PM it was a steady rain. I am SO glad we went. With umbrella in hand we walked the gardens and around Giverny. The pictures below show a little of the beauty of Monet's gardens in the rain. It was amazing...and not too crowded.

After that experience, when we go back to Paris we won't let rain change our plans. Bundle up and walk. It will be great.

DaveMM

Monet's Pond from the bridge:
http://tinyurl.com/3c87tzy

Monet's bridge:
http://tinyurl.com/3bp8dg2

Monet's pond:
http://tinyurl.com/3lc44gz
http://tinyurl.com/3sqce8j
http://tinyurl.com/3eq7c2e

Do keep in mind that weather forecasts are reliable for only 24-48 hours for most locations. You can out-predict the weather people by just rolling dice for time periods beyond that.

lol, yes! DaveMM.. sounds like it was amazing! =) I didn't consider going there but now I will. How did you get there?

Hey Sharon, I'm also from NE (Boston) and leaving for Paris on Sunday and my dd just told me it was going to rain all week. I don't think you're a wimp. I don't mind rain, but some things are just better on a nice day. I'm traveling with 3 teens and was planning on the picnics etc. Saint Chapelle is a nice indoor thing as is the Musee d'Orsay and of course the Louvre is a good bet on a really bad downpour day. We'll still have a great time, right? It's Paris.

sharona,

I cut the following from a Fodors post by clsparis (June 18, 2010) and used it to plan our trip to Giverny. Great advice.

One thing we discovered....the taxis do not line up at Monet's to take you back to Vernon. You have to call them. Give yourself enough time. We thought 20 minutes was long enough but it wasn't and we missed our train. So for 2 hours we wandered around Giverny and sat and had a coffee and dessert. Very relaxing but not in our original plan.

DaveMM





Here is part of the original post but if you search for Giverny you will find other great posts with more info:

I agree that getting to Giverny on your own is not difficult, but you'd probably want to time your visit so you are not there in the middle of the day when it is crowded. I've been there a few times and try to get there before it opens at 9:30 or after 3:00 when the tour buses are not so abundant.

I have some tips for that - take the 8:20 train from Gare St. Lazare, which will get you to Vernon around 9:05. Most people on the train are going to Giverny and will come out of the train station, veer right and walk the block to the bus. Instead veer left to the taxi stand and grab a cab. I just did this in May and the price was 12 euro. (Now it is 13) There were 3 of us and it was more than the bus fare (which I think is 4 euro round trip). The cab dropped us off at the entrance and we were first in line!

When you get in the garden, instead of starting your tour there - go quickly to the opposite corner to find the entrance to the water lily pond. We got there and there were us and 2 other people for about 15 minutes. It was beautiful and peaceful. We got awesome photos of the bridge without a lot of other people in them. When you're done there, go back to the garden and the house to see those. When you're done, walk to the parking lot (exit the gardens, turn left and I think it is the first left street to walk to the buses). The city bus will be sitting near the entrance to the parking lot. Or you can arrange for the cab to return for you. We opted for the bus - but check the schedule.

An alternative is to take a later train and be there at the end of the day, it is also less crowded.

If you go to www.giverny.org and look for the visitor information, you'll find a train and bus schedule to you can plan accordingly. You'll want to be at the bus early because it will fill up. The buses are timed for train arrivals and departures.

If you are near a train station one day, you can go to the Grand Lines ticket office and get your ticket for whatever day you plan to travel. Sometimes there is a long line for tickets and you don't want to miss your train. Be sure to validate your ticket before boarding the train - there is a yellow box at the station end of the track, simply stick the ticket in and it will date/time stamp it. You can get in trouble if you don't do this - I forgot once and I was told by the conductor that I could have fined, but wasn't.

Have fun - Giverny is worth the trip!

Wow, Dave, gorgeous photos!

And another "wow" for your beautiful photos.

Thanks Cathinjoetown and MaineGG.

It was suppose to be thunder showers in Paris today and it is +30 celcius!!! Gorgeous!! Always take the weather reports with a grain of salt. Just because it rains for a part of the day doesnt mean it will rain the whole day!

Enjoy!

You know you're probably right, jamikins. I just checked the so-called forecast for the week again this morning and most of the predictions have changed since yesterday. (Unfortunately, the one sunny day forecast now is the day we were planning to be inside the Louvre.) I imagine that it will continue to be unpredictable, though I do hope the poor Parisians get at least SOME rain.

Meanwhile, it's raining buckets here as we're having an unusually wet, cold spring for California. Also, when you say that rain in the forecast often means just a short shower or two, that is not what happens here, so hence the loss in "translation." Our precipitation fronts come in from the Pacific and can last for days with little letup. So, hopefully, even Parisian spring rain is better.

Weekly forecasts are not worth the time it takes to read them. If you follow them, you'll notice that they change constantly, gradually converging on whatever the actual weather turns out to be. And of course nobody remembers what the original forecast was, so the final forecast always seems to be uncannily accurate.

It is indeed 30° C today in Paris (more than that on the street), with very high humidity. If you think that's nice weather, I have some swampland in the Deep South that may interest you.

There's some thunder right now, too, but I predict that only the suburbs will get any rain. It's the microclimate of the big city again, which is overheated and burns off all the rain. But there have been some power glitches, which is odd given that all the utilities are underground in Paris.

Bonjour from Paris, all. =)
It has thundered every night but in the mornings, afternoons and evenings it has been a combination of cloudy/clear/HOT and sunny. =) It seems like the upcoming few days will also be the same way. Very grateful.

I've been doing SO much walking that my legs feel so stiff in this non-rainy weather (just after two days).. lol (and I'm a runner so it's not like I don't exercise!).

We went to the Louvre and the Musee Rodin yesterday (free admission). After searching through Fodor forums, I heeded the advice and took the side entrance and got into the Louvre in 5 minutes... by 10 30am, the line to get into the Louvre through the pyramids (the main doors) snaked around BOTH courtyards and extended outside!! Those ppl probably waited at least an hour. It was crowded inside but not bad if you just took your time to stroll around and looked at what you were interested in.

Having a blast in Paris! Thanks for all for the suggestions. Dave, still debating if I should do Giverny or Versailles. This is my third time to Paris and I still haven't seen Versailles so I am torn. Monet is also one of my favorite painters.. ah.

Versailles is usually more cost-effective than Giverny: closer to Paris, faster to get to, more to see.

Monet's house and garden are about the size of the King's vegetable patch in Versailles. Very pretty, but small and quickly seen. The trip to get out there is much longer.

Hi

Google for info on the covered passages but here's some egs.

http://www.parisbestlodge.com/passages.html

http://www.betterparisphotos.com/par...sages-of-paris

We have taken some great photos at night in Paris when it was raining. The lights bounce off of the wet pavement and make it shine like silver and gold.

We've also enjoyed walking along The Seine at night in the rain----now I'm talking about a light drizzle and warm temperature, not a cold downpour.

Also we're fans of the Carnavalet Museum in The Marais.

Sharonat555 -- the thunder & lightening the past 2 nights have been amazing, n'est-ce pas?

If you love Monet and haven't yet been, do try to get to the Musee marmottan in the 16th. It's a very special place.

Love the Marmottan! If you're a Monet fan, you will love it.

Some video of a few of the covered passages or shopping galleries in Paris:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ZqLj6gD_8

The video only shows a couple of these passages, but there are many, many such passages throughout Paris. Some are very interesting (such as the Passage Jouffroy, seen in the video), others are rather dull, being little more than a long hallway.

They are all covered, so they are safe from the rain. The only problem is that, in most cases, they aren't adjacent, so you still have to walk outside to get from one to another. They were the 19th-century version of a shopping mall.