Day 8- Monet's Garden

Day 8 was our last day in Paris before leaving the next day to start the bus tour.  Because it was the last day--we went to Giverny in Normandy!  But let me start with the beginning of the day.  We started out with the tour group and went on a short bus tour of Paris--most of which we had seen before.  The tour stopped at Notre Dame, and boy were we glad we had done it earlier ourselves because the tour group rushed through it. 

There was on thing that Katherine and I hadn't seen yet that the bus made a stop at:

This is the Eglise du Dome, built between 1679 and 1706, which is located at the Hotel des Invalids (the military museum I shared on Day 6).  This church holds the tomb of Napoleon.

Sadly we didn't go in the church, which was built in the baroque style (which I haven't seen yet), for which domes are typical.

The bus tour ended at the Eiffel tower, where we took the elevator up to the second level to take pictures of Paris. 

It was really nice up there, but I preferred the Notre Dame pictures, and Arc de Triomphe pictures Katherine and I did on our own--the Eiffel Tower was in those! 

(Arc de Triomphe)

(Sacre Coeur in the distance)

(the gold topped building is Napoleon's tomb)

(view of the elevator shaft of on the way down)

After that we split from the group (it was only about 11:15 at this point) and headed for the St. Lazare gare (train station).  I had been a little nervous about taking a day trip again after what happened in Provins, but everything worked like it was supposed to.  We had a couple of tense moments with getting our train tickets (there weren't many running and we were aiming for the 12:20--we had to metro to the station and then there was a line of people waiting to get tickets.  We got ours with only 15 minutes to spar-but we got them!)

 From here we bought tickets to Vernon in Normandy, so we could catch a shuttle bus to Giverny.  Giverny is where Claude Monet lived, and his house and gardens are now a museum. 

I'm so glad we went, because Monet's Gardens in Giverny were gorgeous!  There were flowering trees, bulbs of all types and colors blooming.   Unfortunately, it was raining, so the pictures don't do it justice, but it was lovely, and such a relaxing end to the schedule Katherine and I had set for ourselves.

We headed over to the house first, hoping that the rain might stop while we were in there.  Monet's house was the cutest most colorful thing! 

(Monet's Studio)

(Can you imagine having this view?)

After touring the house we went to the water lily pond--which was beautiful and so serene!

(frogs and lily pads!)

Monet drew inspiration for his art from his gardens, and the main bridge in the lily pond looked very familiar.

The rain was still going, but was still light enough that we decided to head back and finish viewing the gardens near the house.

The rain was so strong at this point that we went into the gift shop and looked around for a bit to see if it would stop so we could try the lily pond again (we were afraid that our pictures wouldn't come out at all.  I was thankful they came out as much as they did...I kept having to whip off the lense!)  We saw some pretty demitasse cups decorated with Monet's artwork:



We didn't want to stay in the gift shop any longer but the rain was still going on, so instead we left the garden to head over to a nearby café we saw on the way in.  We sat outside under an overhang and had tea and hot chocolate and delicious desserts at a small café nearby. 

(Mine was chocolate and apple and scrumptious!) 

Our return train tickets weren't until 6:50, so we even had time to wander a bit through Giverny itself,

 including the graveyard where Monet is buried. 

This graveyard belongs to Eglise Sainte Radegonde, which was built in the 11th to 12th century--and you could really tell!   It was added onto in the 16th century in the flamboyant gothic style (see the three windows below), but you could still see part of the original church in the Romanesque style (which we hadn't seen yet--this was the pre-Gothic style).

 

The semi-circular part of the building to the right of the picture is the oldest part of the church. 

You can see the inside in the picture below--it is on the other side of the altar:

A small street nearby had houses originally built in the middle ages, so we wandered down to see them as well.

While at the train station waiting for the return train, a bullet train passed by--those things fly! Ours was just a regular speed one-which was fast enough for me!  When we got back to Paris we headed to the Champs Elysees one more time for dinner at Laudree. 

Laudree is a famous tea salon with many locations in Paris--we had been talking about eating there pretty much all week.  It was really fancy.

Since we were splurging here, we went ahead and ordered dinner.  I was in a tea salon though, so I made sure to order a tea with my dinner from this menu:

I tried the Melange Special Laudree (their house blend) which was delicious!  I know the menu isn't that clear, so just in case, this was a black tea with fruit, flowers, and vanilla flavor. 

I'd seen duck a lot on menus here, so I finally tried it here.  I got duck breast with rubarb and potatoes (delicious),

and a fancy huge macarron dessert with roses and rasberries.  Laudree is known for its macaroons, so I knew my dessert choice would be macaroon related.

 

I'm sharing this post on the tea parties below.  If you enjoyed visiting Monet's Garden with me, this is day 8 of a whole series of posts about my trip to France.  This day was a little over the half way point in the trip. 

 

Tea Cup Tuesday ~ http://www.marthasfavorites.com/
Tuesday Cuppa Tea~ http://www.antiquesandteacups.info/

Bernideen's Friends Sharing Tea 

Rose Chintz Cottage's Tea Time Tuesday