Sunday - the best

As we had planned not to have a car in Paris but there were places outside of town that we wanted to see we had booked a tour for the Sunday - Giverny (Monet's house & garden) in the morning followed by Versailles in the afternoon.  We didn't know what to expect - a tour bus of 50 people??  not sure.

We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Agnes - driving a minivan with a capacity of 8 people.  So, with 2 other Australians & 4 from the US we set off.  The driver/guide was delightful - great driver, very knowledgable & good English.  Because it was Sunday & the roads were quite empty we made really good time & got to Giverny quite early.  

And on the drive out the weather cleared to have a few clouds but nothing looking like rain. The gardens had about 50 people in them when we got there - it was amazing.  We were able to enjoy the garden's tranquility & beauty with a sense of personal space. The garden seems to invoke an awe that meant that most people were really quiet.  For me it was certainly more of a spiritual experience than I'd had in any of the churches we'd visited.  And the pond was 100% still giving perfect reflections. Obviously we're past the height of summer in terms of garden beauty, but there was still so much there in bloom.  And some of the trees are just turning autumnal colours so that added to the site.  

We did the rest of Monet's gardens around the house as well as the house itself - beautiful.  Then I wanted to go back to the gardens while Rhonda headed over to a museum called musee des impressionists nearby. While going back to the garden was lovely by this time the crowds had thickened up & it was not quite the same as having it almost to ourselves. But it reinforced how fortunate we had been to have an almost private tour!

So I left the gardens & joined Rhonda in the musee - great artwork & beautiful layout.

All of this was the best few hours of the whole tour for me.  People often say, "What was the best thing?" And I usually can't single out one thing - but after almost 4 weeks of seeing some of the wonders of the world I now have 1 single "best thing".

Below are a few of our Giverny photos.

We left Giverny and went via some spectacular scenery to a village where we had lunch. It is a real tourist spot with hundreds of people fed there every day.  But they seemed to do it really well, with quite good "mass catering" food & the setting was beautiful.

Lunch spot is just behind this mill

Then off to Versailles.  Agnes told us that over 11M people visit it every year & Sundays are most popular as it is the one day of the week that the fountains are all turned on at 3pm.  We went through the Palace - packed in.  It was not as bad as the Vatican, but almost!

In the Hall of Mirrors

The audio guide helped us make sense of it all.  The wealth & splendour of the place!!  No wonder the people rioted only 30 years after it was finished & abolished their monarchy. It took 50 years to build and with up to 30,000 workers on site at a time.  The cost!!  In fact the history of the place as told by our guide filled in bits of information I did not know - like the king shifting to Versailles (out of the Louvre) after a riot in Paris forced him and his mother to flee.  He always then saw Paris as dangerous - so decided to build this Versailles on the site of his father's hunting lodge in the country.

The gardens are spectacular.  I had seen paintings of people standing on the terrace & the boating lake in the background looking about 1 km away and the lake almost disappearing into the distance.  I had assumed that this was artistic license to give a sense of grandeur. No - the place really is that big!

Anyway - sensational to see & I could spend a day in the gardens - next time perhaps.

On the way back into town the freeways were full - worse than our peak hour.  Agnes telling us that many Parisians have places in the country where they escape for the weekend & then all come flooding back late on Sunday afternoons.

Agnes was great is telling people her favourite restaurants close to where they were staying.  And as we were the last to be dropped off & she had recommended a restaurant straight over the road she hopped out and talked about a few of the dishes with us - so nice.

So we went to this restaurant.  Amazingly large, busy and cheap.  We were all sardined in. We sat next to (almost on top of) a young couple - he is Irish & she French.  So we had a bit of a chat.  He had studied architecture in Paris, gone home, couldn't get a job, came back to Paris on a short term contract & while this is precarious he is happy.  He talked about all of his contemporaries who have moved out of Ireland for work.  He has a mate who is a carpenter working in Adelaide.

The meal was great, though we struggled with the menu a bit.  The waitress wrote down what we ordered and the price onto the paper tablecloth & at the end of the night added it all up & voila!

So - a long, filled and fulfilling day - who knows what the rest of the week will hold weather-wise, but today was just sensational.