We saw What???

The drive to Roeun

We decided that what trip to Paris would be complete without really exploring points drivable in the Red Mini Coop?

Paul wanted to see the impressionists' show in Roeun, advertised all over the subway in Paris, and I agreed. Mainly because on the way is Giverny. Yes, the actual home and gardens of Claude Monet which were donated to France by Monet's son in 1965 and the French have passionately preserved the entire estate.

Monet is one of my favorite Impressionists, so the sadness by the dismissal of the French family by my cat, Grazers (I'm sure Grazers feels we abandoned her first, and she did not abandon us, she abandoned the French invaders...something the French have not been accused of in hundreds of years, only to meet Grazers), well and a few things that happened to Paul. We were yesterday saved by the visit to Monet's house and gardens.

I can not tell you all  how beautiful it was there. So completely do I understand that he left Paris for this peaceful place. His dining room seated 12, and judging by the size of the kitchen they entertained a lot.

We saw the room where he painted. We saw the gardens which were so beautiful, incredibly lovely smells. We thought we had seen it all when we encountered the tunnel to the lily ponds.

Suffice it to say I have replaced Grazers picture on my home page of my iphone with a picture of the lily ponds. And expect something like Monet's ponds on our Xmas card.

Victoria's life picked up at Monet's garden. She actually used her camera quite  a bit. We met a family from Connecticut there who were on their way to Paris. I asked the daughter, about 17, how she was enjoying Paris in August. She gave me one of those, I-am-in-the-most-beautiful-places-ever-and-I-cannot-wait-to-tell-my-friends look, and said, it is "awesome here". I said, the rain isn't bothering you? She just looked at me like I was speaking Russian. And then asked to take a picture of us with our camera. Lovely people everywhere.

That is the exact moment that Victoria realized she was in a very special place. Well, a couple of time the food impressed her. This was the first time a HOUSE, or JARDIN of someone historically significant impressed her.

If you need to understand Monet's historical significance, hmmmm.....you should visit his house. Or yard.  Victoria wants a lily pond.

Onto Roeun

Got out of Giverny. Note to future travelers: spend the night in Giverny. It is cuter than Viroflay and the buildings seem to be older. The narrow roads suggest they were built for horses, not cars. Excellent food, not expensive. It's France, so they have wine. The town is romantic as all and even traveling with the girl, we would have loved to invested an extra night there. Just the feel of the place, and the smells of the garden. It was very thought provoking. Not what I'm thinking. It was true peace. I could have spent the night thinking of nothing but the colors I wanted to paint, and never checking my iphone for stock market prices.

Roeun

Paul wanted to see this exhibit. Roeun is a decent sized town, about 1 hour north of Viroflay, which the Impressionists' flocked to, to paint the town, the quay's, the boats, the rooftops et al. 

At the Art Musee, they had about 130 impressionist pieces. Many were the same artists painting a similiar subject, and the impressionists generally did not paint in bright colors. Victoria was immediately bored. It took 20 minutes for me to become bored, and Paul was  never bored. He is still regretting not purchasing the book on the show, even though it was only published in French, the girl at checkout confirmed you can not buy it online (as if this is to believed...there is amazon and Craigslist).

The town of Rouen is on  the River Seine, which I thought winded around Paris. In fact, it winds around the whole country of France. Driving to Girverny and the Rouen, we crossed the Seine many times. Think it would be very fun to take a power boat on that river (I would say sail boat, but not under those bridges, 37 in Paris).

Ended the day with dinner in Versailles, yes again and again at the first restaurant from the first night. We got the same colorful waiter, and let me tell what he did this time!

Remember he broke a corkscrew that first night and the whole restaurant was amused?

This evening,, I ordered what looked like a good red wine. Actually it was his suggestion. A Pinot Noir. Would you think that wine would arrive chilled? Me, neither.

So it arrived chilled, I could see the bottle wet and then felt it. No good, I am drinking red wines in France and they must be served at room temperature.

So, I am sending the wine back. He takes it back (we figure out his name is Samy- do not know how reliable that is because he thinks my name is Souza.)

So he asks me, do I want a wine that is, here my description is better in person: that is: he holds his arm up to his side, flexes his bicep, and makes his shoulders big somehow, and looks at me and gives me the signal: . Full bodied, but still able to get through the door.  Assertive but not aggressive, a full bodied wine. It was great, and he was funny. Next time you see me, I will show you exactly what he did.

All in a look. So, I took the bait. It was one terrific bottle of heavy red, like a big deal Cabernet. I was happy!

Back to the Lourve tomorrow, but can anything ruin this vacation now? I think not, I have been to Claude Monet's house and garden and I have pictures of the lily pond. You can not wreck this trip for me.

Let me know if you want actual photos of Monets garden, We have 'em and are printing 'em .

Au Revoir.

Maia, Paul and V, finally using camera. Hating Museum's and loving Monet

Thursday we hit the Eiffel Tower, more later