Flipping through my Italy pictures on my Nikon today on our way back from Florence, I returned to Giverny, the home of the Impressionist artist, Monet. I realized that I had not written about this amazing day with two incredible women-- girls day out; nor my first encounter with real French cuisine the evening prior to our Saturday venture.
(August 31)
After a full day of Paris, I met up with Summer and new friends from France, Claire, Sam, and Cyril for dinner and an evening stroll through the city. Here I tasted my first escargot (snail) and canard (duck). Both I thoroughly enjoyed although I think Summer may have enjoyed watching me eat them even more. Claire, the sophisticated, beautiful, French woman (not to mention amazing :) demonstrated the eating of this French delicacy and I followed her every move drinking the last bit of garlic and butter from the shell of the creature I had just injested.
Following dinner, we took a wonderful evening walk around the city. At some point, late in the evening, we wandered into an art book shop and found ourselves admiring the work of Claude Monet. It was suggested by Claire that the following day we visit his home and gardens a few hours north of Paris. After saying goodnight, we agreed to meet the next day to take our drive out to Giverny.
(September 1)
We drove through beautiful, French countryside and arrived at the house mid-afternoon. The gardens were splendid, full of bright colors and fragrant smells. It is hard to put into words the beauty in so many varieties of plants and flowers, and standing on the Japanese bridge, it was easy to see how easily Monet was inspired. We finished the tour, snapping a few more pictures of the attendant closing up the house for the day, enjoyed tasty gelato and headed home (though not before hopping the fence and stealing a few quiet moments on the grass in the sun in another garden nearby).
We ended the day by watching Ratatouile in French-- Claire on my left and Summer on my right graciously translating so that I would understand the general plot. It seemed only appropriate to watch it in French and in Paris (though I do look forward to seeing it in English for the Pixar humor). After a full, wonderful day laughing, snapping thousand of pictures, we returned home to prepare for our trip to Italia. Maybe I will buy a rat and name it Ratatouile in honor of this day :)
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