Today, we left the hotel bound for Giverny, Monet's home and garden. Here he painted many of his infamous paintings including the water lily panels. The young ones (trippers under the age of 25) are having a harder time making the bus in the mornings. I, of course, had no problem since I took it easy last night after climbing the Sacre Coer steps (some 240 one way) twice! My legs felt like old jelly by the time I made it up the final time! I took a shower and then watched Star Wars, the first one, in French.
We got to see the Arc de Triumph as we left the city - the traffic is way too scary to try and get closer for a picture so Julie and I are not attempting it. It started raining on the way there and continued for the duration of the trip about an hour. Julie remembered her umbrella. And, by the way, mom, I've used by umbrella at least 3 times now so thanks for getting it for me!
Giverny made my entire trip worthwhile. Seeing it in person was totally awesome! The colors, textures, and flowers - it was so much more than I ever imagined. I took 5 rolls of film -- just in the garden. Julie and I never made it in the house. Irises were the most dominant flower in yellow, white, black (deeep purple), peonies were just starting to bloom and there were several varieties of climbing roses that were blooming too - some in my favorite pale yellow color. It stopped raining as we entered the gardens so the flowers all had water droplets on them to add to the beauty.
The water lilies were not blooming yet; I think they bloom in July. We entered the gardens about 10 a.m. which left room for us to move around and get the shots we wanted. By 10:30 you could barely move since the crowds were so bad.
Crowds: I cannot believe the amount of people in Paris and at Giverny. It is a sea of humanity, everywhere you look. Yet, after 7:30 at night, everything quiets down and you can enjoy walking around.
Tomorrow, Julie and I are breaking free (gasp!) of the group and going out on our own. If we can conquer the metro, we can do anything. Our agenda for tomorrow is:
Eiffel tower (Julie will take 1,000 pictures, all of them great), Notre Dame,
French knitting store, and Star Wars, the Sith movie.
Now, here's some highlights of Europe that we might have missed mentioning:
Dogs don't necessarily have leashes as their owners cruise the city streets! I've seen several dogs just trotting along behind their loved ones, right at their heels, oblivious to the traffic, noise, garbage, and throng of people.
Bathrooms - sometimes they are unisex with the urinal in plain view.
When you order coffee, it is extremely strong and you have to add lots of sugar. And, yes, I haven't always been sucessful in finding diet coke so now I drink coffee!
McDonalds sells very strong coffee, in tiny, tiny cups - like solo cups, for one Euro. Terry encouraged Julie and I to try it. You absolutely have to add 2 packages of sugar to it.
Instead of having a handle for flushing on the toilet, there is a button to flush it located on the wall above the toilet, or right on the top of the tank. And, the women's stalls, all have a very secure door with a lock, rather like a very small closet once you're inside. And, they're called WCs (water closets!)
Julie's going to make me climb those terrible steps again, so this is it for tonight's entry.
We have 4 days left and yes, I am terribly homesick! mc
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