Our big day out in France

Thursday - 10/05/2012 - Wow, what a day.  After two days of wandering around Paris we decided that we would like to get out a bit further and have a look at two more famous sights France is known for.  I had always wanted to see Monet's garden at Giverny and the Palace of Versailles.  We decided that winging it ourselves might not be possible in the one day we had left so we booked a tour and this morning we were up early to meet our bus.  

Our Metro lessons from yesterday worked well and at 7.45 we were on our first train and soon after changed to our second.  We reached our destination with 10 mins to spare.  How good was that, almost true locals!

Once on the bus, top deck by the window, we left Paris for Giverny, seeing some lovely scenery along the way.  Once we got out of the city obviously.  At the bus car park in the other side of the village we were given our instructions and followed our guide, a very cute little French boy with a closed red umbrella that he like to embellish important points with, under the road and to the entrance of the garden.

  From here we had about 2 hours in which we could wander at leisure in the gardens, house and village.  We started in the house having a quick walk through and loved it.  Monet lived in the village for half his life and raised his family of 8 children here. 

 It certainly was an artist's home with many of the rooms painted in vivid colours that I imagine would have been quite unusual then.  From the windows upstairs he would have looked over the extensive gardens and today they have replanted as they were then.  Being here in springtime meant that we saw lots of flowers and colour.  

We then crossed the road to see his famous Water gardens.  While the other garden was lovely this was the one I was wanting to see and it didn't disappoint.  I still can't believe I have seen it and stood on the bridge seen in so many pictures.  It was lovely! 

 Of course there were many people there as we were only one of many more tour buses both large and small but it was still beautiful and we even managed to get a couple of pictures without too many people in them.  Bill did well.  After we left the garden we had a wander up the very small main street of the village stopping at a little cafe for a coffee before getting back on the bus.  

Our next stop was for lunch at Le Moulin de Fourges.  An 18th century watermill is the setting for this lovely restaurant which serves traditional French cuisines.  It was a lovely spring day and a local artist had set up his impressionist canvasses for sale  on the lawn so you could get a real feel for how it might have been in Monet's time.  A nice little extra touch and he did sell some though not to us.  And lunch was very nice and the glass of red, while lovely had us all dozing on the bus for our next leg.  Perhaps that was the idea.  But not before we drove through some wonderful scenery and little villages before joining the major roads for our trip to Versailles.  But first an unexpected stop.

Our very large bus decided to try to pass a parked car in a very tiny street only big enough for 2 small cars to pass.  He was doing very well when we heard a scrape and discovered that the top of the bus had hit one of the street lights. They had a little ornate ball on the bottom of them and this had caught on the trim on the bus and pulled it off.  So after a short while we proceeded on down the road with this trim hanging and blowing in the breeze until we came across some road workers with a large front end loader.  

Our bus stopped and the driver got out and had a chat to the other driver and the next minute he is in the bucket and being lifted up to the top of the bus where he proceeded to fix the strip back in place.  This had to be done in a few positions but it made great photo opportunities and I'm sure some one will already have it on YouTube!  Of course he got a huge applause before setting off again to our next stop.  A real unexpected adventure in France.

We arrived at Versailles soon after and once again followed our red umbrella to our starting point.  Our first sight of this amazing place just takes your breath away.  I knew it was big but until you actually see it you can not imagine the sheer size and opulence of this place.  We followed our leader on a tour of the Palace and saw the Kings grand apartments, the Kings chamber, the Queens grand apartments, and of course the famous Hall of Mirrors.

The sheer size of this place is overwhelming and a one hour walk though does it no justice at all but that is all the time we had and I'm glad we did it.  The history of the palace was very interesting but far too much for me to relate here other than to say that it was his father's hunting lodge before Louis 14th  enlarged it to a palace!  Some renovation eh!  

We then spent about an hour looking over the gardens but our little bus adventure had cut our time short so we could not even begin to wander through them.  No matter I think you would need a week to see it all properly and really what we did see was wonderful so no complaints at all.  

I can now leave Paris happy after experiencing the two 'want to see' places I have always thought about and I have walked along the Seine River with Bill.  See it doesn't really take much to make me happy.

Once back in Paris we said goodbye to our tour guides and hit the streets for one last walk home.  We passed the Louvre and Notre Dame again before jumping on the Metro for a quick ride home.  A little later we walked down the road for our dinner of cheese and wine before taking a train back to Trocadero for one last look at the Eiffel Tower at Midnight.  From there we said goodnight to Paris and walked home to bed.  Tomorrow we are off to Nancy for another adventure.  Can't wait.

See you all soon