France – Day 10 – 4/7/2018

We woke after a fairly good night’s sleep in Giverny at Le Rouge Gorge. We had a real queen-size bed—finally. When we showered, we discovered one of the maintenance issues of the house. Most of the water came out of the seam where the sprayer should have screwed onto the mounting piece. It came out in all directions. Even though there was a shower curtain, because of the force of the water hitting it from all angles, the curtain could not keep it inside the shower. I stepped out into about a half inch of water on the floor. The bathmat was soaked, and I used my towel to try to sop up some of the overflow. Fortunately, the heating was accomplished with radiators, so I draped the towel and bathmat over the radiators to dry.

We had brought the coffee and sugar we had bought while at the timeshare, so we made coffee.

The day before, we scheduled breakfast for 8:30 a.m. We walked to our landlord’s place to eat. The breakfast room is shown on the right below.

The owner, Eric, wasn’t there when we arrived at 8:30, so we checked out their garden.

About 8:45, Eric showed up. He started a pot of coffee, but said he had to go into town to get bread. He asked us to come back in half an hour. So, we went back to the cottage, watched a bit of TV and had another cup of coffee.

We returned just as Eric arrived with the bread. Breakfast consisted of containers of yogurt, fruit, and slices of baguette with coffee—a continental breakfast.

We had hoped to get to the garden when it opened, but our delayed breakfast kept us from arriving when the gates opened. Fortunately, we had been able to get our tickets online before we left home.

We started out toward the house. It began to drizzle. We hadn’t brought our umbrellas with us, and the rain increased. Bernie’s jacket had a hood, and Bob wore a hat. So did Larry, but I had nothing to cover my head. We sent Bob and Bernie on ahead. I waited under cover while Larry went back to the cottage. He returned about twenty minutes later. He had about a seven-minute walk back and then had to hunt for the umbrellas.

This was the only day when we actually had rain most of the day.

When we arrived at the garden, we found Bob and Bernie and gave them their umbrella. They continued through the garden while we toured the house again. (We had seen the garden four years earlier, and very little was in bloom.)

I remembered entering the house for the first time and being surprised that most of the artwork on the walls were Japanese prints. We were somewhat familiar with most of them from living in Japan and seeing others in the museum the day before.

I still loved the delft tiles in the kitchen.

When we were there before, we were told the paintings hung in Monet’s studio were reproductions of the ones left there when he died.

As we entered the kitchen, we spotted Bob and Bernie outside. Larry went out and discovered they hadn’t gone through the tunnel to the lily pond, so he showed them where to find it.

Then we went to the gift shop. While I looked around, Larry found a sofa and watched a video of Monet painting at the pond and in the studio. I got a t-shirt, and Larry picked out one for himself. We picked up a couple of gifts, too.

While at the Monet Museum in Paris, I spotted a children’s book in a kids’ area, but when we got to the gift shop there, I could not find it. However, at the shop in Giverny, I found it and bought it for our great-grandniece, who will be seventeen months at Christmas. I had also gotten her a coloring book at San Chappelle. So I had one Christmas gift taken care of.

When we finished our shopping, we decided to find Bob and Bernie to tell them we were going to lunch. We found them nearly through with their visit. So, before we left, we took a few pictures of them on the bridge and in front of the boats on the pond. (They have rebuilt the bridge. When we were there the last time, it had been made of wood. It has been replaced with a metal one, but it still looks the same.

 

The rain continued as we walked back to the hotel where we had eaten the day before. We liked the food and wanted to try something else. We had just ordered when Bob and Bernie arrived. So, we enjoyed a leisurely late lunch.

We walked back to the cottage and lay down for a nap.

Bob had made reservations the evening before at the Baudy Restaurant, since it was the place where the artists had eaten when they came to visit Monet. The reservations were a bit late for us, and we weren’t very hungry.

We went out a bit ahead of them. The rain had let up, so we stopped at the local bakery for coffee and croissants.

We ate outdoors. We were nearly finished when Bob and Bernie went by on their way to the Baudy. We enjoyed our dessert and coffee, and they later reported their dinner was good.

We packed and went to bed early since we would be on the road again the next day.

Next time: Rouen