Giverny and Vernon

The coutryside is so beautiful!  I'm sitting on the top deck of the boat right now, and here is my view....pretty huh??

This morning we went to see Monet's garden.  Shannon, you could spend days there and still not see all of the flowers.  Reviewing my notes (lol!), there are over 4,000 different kinds of flowers.  I didn't even know there were that many types of flowers!! 

I won't post all of the pictures of flowers that I took because I think it's about 100!!   I told one of the people working there that if they needed another person who is passionate and knowledgable about flowers and gardening, I happen to know someone (wink wink Shannon)!  We also saw the famous water lilly pond and the Japanese bridge.  It's kind of surreal, and everyone is whispering because it evokes that kind of feeling. 

Monet's house.  over 600,000 people visit the massive gardens every year.  Some trivia I learned is that his real name is Oscar and in his early works, which were primarily caractachers, you will see them signed as Oscar Monet.  

Vernon is a small town, I would probably call it a village.  The streets are one car width, and they are all cobblestone.  There are cafes, bakeries, brasseries and banks on every street.  I needed some chewing gum...try asking where you can buy chewing gum to someone that doesn't speak English.  I went to three pharmacys....they don't sell gum OR candy, not even at the check-out!

I did go into a bakery, which smelled like butter and bread and everything good, but while I was salivating over the wonderful goodness that I was about to have in my mouth, I saw a lot of huge flies and bees in the display case.  I said, "merci, au revior" and got the heck out of there.  I guess that was my sign that I didn't really need any scrumptousness in my mouth anyway.

After the garden tour we came back to the boat for a free day.  I shopped in, and walked all through the town, then I relaxed on the sun deck.  The weather has been perfect.

We're having a special cocktail hour tonight with the captain before dinner.  It's for repeat customers.  I know that there are a lot of us on this trip.  With only 180 people on board, you really get to know everyone and I have interaction with them all at some point.

I'll leave you with the last picture of the day, a photograph that, on a river cruise, you will see often. 

Barges going down the Seine.

Thanks for putting up with my blog posts from my phone.  It's really not an easy thing to do, and the wifi is so bad that I have to log on and off several times...so I'm not proofing...sorry Cam!!

Toodles, and talk to you later.

Love you all, 

Mom/Cyn