An early morning rise, well early morning for the magnolias, all but Sara R. The group met ready for the day at 8:45 to grab a quick coffee and pastry to catch the train to Giverny at 10:15. Sara R. still exhausted from the driving and having been to Giverny before elected to stay behind for more of a leisure day. After sleeping in, taking a long hot bath and catching up a bit on things she headed to a cafe on the Rue Cler with wifi and enjoyed coffee, eggs Benedict and then, of course, vin to catch up on the blog postings and enjoy a little people watching all the while. There is hustle and bustle on the street with folks going to the various markets, work, cafes, etc.. Paris and all of France actually is very dog (chien) friendly. People take their dogs everywhere, large and small, to the markets, to see the sites, even to restaurants. I must say even the dogs in France are cultured. Small children accompany their parents on bicycles and scooters. It is quite refreshing and enjoyable to watch.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Magnolias headed to Giverny, the final home of Claude Monet. Our trip to the gare via metro was much smoother. We are in the Parisian groove; however, our weather report was not accurate. We hate to let you Mississipians know we are cold and need sweaters or jackets. The people here are dressed like it's the dead of winter, but it's not THAT cold but definitely chilly. We huddled at the bus stop for the final part of the trip to Giverny, but being Magnolias, we grabbed the first cab that showed up -- a Mercedes, no less.
The gardens are breathtaking and just like the pictures. They are not formal, but are full of colors and textures. You can see why he painted what he did. It is very much worth the trip. We also visited the Impressionists museum there. We were on a tight schedule to catch the next train back to Paris. Not being able to find a taxi quickly, we decided to take the bus back to Giverny. However, it began to rain enough that we took shelter at the visitor/info building and tried to get a cab, but none were to be found. So in the sprinkles we head to the bus and were glad to learn that we would make the 3:00 train, as we needed to get back to Paris to meet our intrepid leader Sara R.
Once we arrived back in Paris, we took the metro to the Bon Marche, a French SAKs department store, to meet Sara R. We sipped water, wine and even a beer in one of the store cafes and snacked on bread and cheese, then shopped a bit and headed to another building for the Bon Marche gourmet food market. What an absolute treat!!! We loaded up on what items we could easily tote and pack but longed for the fresh perishables we had to leave behind.
Unfortunately, another Magnolia leaves us tomorrow as Gina too has wedding festivities to attend. She leaves early for Chicago to join family and attend the rehearsal dinner after such a long flight. She has packed two dresses and sent them with family, one with no room for error and another more flowing number. We are eager to hear which one she chooses! Anyway, we are more selective in our brasserie, café, restaurant choices for our farewell to Gina dinner. We go from one to another before deciding on what we think looks like a good spot. Although you may think all food is good in France and especially Paris, this is not the case. Fortunately it seems we made a good enough choice and enjoyed our meals -- filet of fish, boeuf, tartar de boeuf, duck and snails -- and, of course, the vin. Although, the food is not always wonderful, we have not found that to be the case with the vin, even the cheap stuff is good!
We return to the hotel and bid our farewells to Gina as she will leave before we wake. We will miss her and especially her writing talents. Gina has been the storyteller on this trip and she has done a marvelous job. She has been quite observant and has accurately captured the essence of this journey very cleverly. I, Sara R, will do my best to complete the rest of this tale, but I’m afraid it will not be as interesting and entertaining as it has been thus far.
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