Tuesday, May 25
Today we head out of Paris again, but just for the day.  We're heading for Giverny, home of Monet and his garden in which he painted so many pictures.  We take the metro to Gare St. Lazare (stopping en route to buy lunch supplies), and find that the next train to Vernon (near Giverny) is over an hour away.  So we get our tickets, and head to the shopping district nearby.  We split up from the girls and meet back in about an hour.  Mandy made a purchase, and we head back for the train station and catch the train.  Not much to see until we near Vernon, where the scenery gets rather hilly and scenic.  Small wonder why Monet chose this area in which to live.

We arrive in Vernon, and wait in a long line for a bus.  We miss the first pair of buses, but get the 3rd, and take the short ride to Giverny.  We walk towards his house, and find a nice bench in which to have our picnic lunch, which tastes great after so many restaurant meals.  We get our tickets, and start through his house.  Interesting, but not great.   I get kicked out of the kitchen for no apparent reason (other than keep the patrons moving).  We spend a bit of time in the gardens outside his house, which have a profusion of flowers, and then go across the street to the "real" gardens.  It's full of tourists, but it's great.  We take hundreds of pictures of every possible combination of our group on the Japanese bridge, and slowly walk the trails in the garden, which isn't all that big.  It's a beautiful day, and very magical in the gardens.  Eventually we head back to the house, and spend quite a bit of time in the gift shop, where we buy gifts (what else?).

After a bit of a wait, we catch a bus back to Vernon, where we have to wait another hour for the next train.  We pass the time away in an outdoor cafe across the street, where a couple is practicing their music.  Very pleasant.  Back at the train station, we run into some people who used to live in Longmont, and another couple from Illinois.  Take the crowded train back to Paris, and back to the hotel.  Tonight we eat supper at a pizzeria, then head towards the Eiffel Tower.  We decide to go to the top, but Mandy spends only a few moments there after a harrowing elevator ride.  Back to the hotel for the evening; this was a great day in France.
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