12 Aug 2023
Tour was a mixed bag. It is split 3 hours at Giverny and then 3 hours at Versailles. On the way out, the microphone on the bus did not work, so our tour guide out to Giverny, Michelle, could not be heard in the back. Bless her heart, she kept trying, but most of us in the back could not hear anything at all. She moved back to the middle of the bus as we got near Giverny, but by then she had already gone over most of the things. I don't blame her though, I wouldn't want to stand in the middle of a bus moving on the motorway.
Giverny itself was ok. As I said, 3 hours there so you had quite a bit of time to tour the gardens/pond/house. Going to the impressionist museum could be tricky given the time, but doable (we did not). Short walk from the house/gardens to the town where there were a few shops/restaurants. We are not that big into art (we mainly took this tour for Versailles), but were looking forward to the water lily pond at the least. It wasn't as beautiful as we had hoped (although it came out much better in pictures).
Once we left Giverny and headed to Versailles, it was the middle afternoon and for nearly the first half of that journey on the bus the AC was not working. Finally driver pulled over and was able to get it to work. Wasn't working great, but manageable.
Versailles was just way too crowded. Our guide there, Carolina, was very nice and knowledgeable. She kept trying to keep the group together and out of the way, but that is just impossible. Almost impossible to really be able to take everything in and get good pictures. Again, you get 3 hours at Versailles, the first part of which is the guided tour (about an hour and a half to two hours). Once that is done, you are free until time to leave. But the hour and half/2 hours is NOWHERE near enough time to tour the gardens the right way. You can barely scratch the surface. Versailles is just so impressive in scope, I just don't think the 3 hours is enough to really enjoy it.
The best thing is it takes the guess work out planning/transportation there. But if you can get to either yourself, I would look at doing them independently as you can see them at your leisure. But if you want to take the guess work out, just be aware of the limitations.