Catching up with Monet and Van Gogh

Sacre Couer (from my cellphone)

I went back up to Sacre Couer last night with the group to listen to the music but apparently they weren't holding mass until 10:30. Most of the group wanted to go to dinner back by the hotel. Michelle left to go with them and I stayed up at Montmartre with Lee, Joanne, Larry and Nancy. We had chocolatyest chocolate crepes ever at a tiny cafe in the shopping district. They were very good.

I ran into one of the artists we met earlier in the day, we exchanged greetings. David wasn't there. C est la vie.

It took me quite a while to fall asleep with lingering thoughts of a lovely first day.

We took a bus to Giverney this morning. For those of you who don't know, Giverney, Monet's gardens, were the inspiration for several of his works.

The Paris country side along the way to the gardens is filled with green fields and farms with tiny houses and farm animals sprinkled throughout. This is the first time we've seen people driving larger cars, they still seem to prefer the itty bitty cars though. It was 14 degrees C (We all still have no clue how to translate C back to F), and it rained a bit in the morning. Michelle was worried that it might make for bad pictures, but actually they turned out great. Water droplets on all the petals made the flowers look lovely. Seeing the lily pads and bridge was great.

We had a four course meal at Le Havre for lunch. It started with salad (one lettuce leaf, corn, tomato, beets, boiled egg, all in separate piles), followed by chicken and rice, then Brie with bread and finished off with an apple tart. I've never eaten so well in all my life as I have on this trip. Wait till you see the pictures. A lot of care goes into presentation, even at the cheap cafes. The don't call it the art of eating for nothing.

We stopped off in Auver sur Oise, the town of Van Gogh's final resting place. We saw the church from one of his paintings and visited his grave. The houses there all had the cute painted shutters with flower boxes on the windowsills. I took a ton of pictures. I'll post them up as soon as I can.

I'm dragging Michelle back up to the steps of Sacre Couer so that we can go to Montmartre and I can buy the scarf that I wanted to buy yesterday but didn't. I'll have to bribe her forgiveness with a yummy chocolate crepe.

Au Revoir!