The plan for Friday was to go to Giverny - the home and gardens of Monet. It's about a 45 minute ride from Paris and on the way our guide, Mikael Fabre, gave us some background on Monet. The house has been restored to what it must have been when Monet was living there. Except that the walls are covered with copies of his paintings - most of the real ones are in museums. I stayed on the first floor as I thought it would be too difficult to tote my oxygen up and down the stairs. While Granny and Mikael took the second floor tour, I rested in the kitchen and watched the other tourists.
One of the main attractions of Giverny are the gardens and the flowers. At first I thought the place looked like an overgrown, mish-mash of weeds and flowers. However, as we walked I saw more and more beautiful flowers. I took so many pictures that I want to include that I will put them on a separate page - Giverny Flowers.
Meanwhile, back to the home. Here are some pictures of the tourist infested residence.
On the right is what you see as you approach the house. Sure looks like a wild, flowering weed patch.
Granny and Mikael approaching the house.
Inspecting artifacts in the entry hall.
The library with all the reproductions.
The dining room which served as my waiting room while Granny and Mikael toured upstairs.
Look at the picture of Monet in his dining room in front of the fireplace. All the objects are in the same place as they were in the photo.
The Money kitchen lined with the polished copper pans. I was intrigued with the stove. Even that was a work of art.
When we got back from Giverny, we decided that we HAD to take care of an important traveler chore - laundry! I looked online for a laundry/dry cleaner thinking that would be the best place to take our clothes. Miracle of miracles, I found one. It was located in the Marais district, not too far from the hotel. We hopped into taxi and away we go. Found the place on the corner and wouln't you know it, closed for their annual holdiay. Be back the 28th of August. Too late!. I remembered there was a laundromat not too far away so we went off in search of it. Our luck had changed. There was an elderly man in the laudromat. He seemed to be in charge and with a little bit of hand gesturing, pointing and grunting we agreed that he would put the clothes through the washer/dryer and we would pick them up before 7pm. Problem solved successfully.
Next on the schedule was DINNER. We had been told about a restaurant, Le Christine, not too far from the D'Orsay. Checked it out online and made our reservation. Dinner was quite good. First we were treated to a small "appetizer" consisting of carrot soup and a cheese ball. Granny skipped an appetizer and I had melon many ways. It was very good and refreshing. Granny followed with whiting and I had veal shoulder. Both good but not great. For dessert we shared a creme brulee. I forgot to get a picture of that.
You can't leave Giverny without seeing the Giverny chickens. Not like other chickens I've seen!
