Giverny

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

I cleverly did not sleep last night. At all. What? I know. We went to bed at midnight, because the sun was up so late it was fooling us. Keith fell immediately asleep. I didn’t. I even had taken a melatonin pill to help me sleep. I was just awake. I don’t remember ever having a time that I just did not sleep. I didn’t like it. Zero Stars. Do not recommend.

We had a lovely breakfast buffet (we both had French toast. Why not just toast?) at the hotel, but I couldn’t eat much. I was worried that we wouldn’t get on the shuttle to the airport and that the band would be waiting for us. The shuttle went every half hour, but they said to be there early to get a seat. There were no reservations. I had us down there at 8:35. We were supposed to meet up with everyone and be off on the bus at 10:30. When the shuttle came, we were first in line and first inside. The driver piled in six more people, none of whom had any luggage. What is that about? We were all going to the airport. Airport! There is packing light, and then there is I am going down with the plane, so I don’t need any luggage. These are things that go through my mind. As far as I have heard, no planes out of Paris went down today, so it’s okay. They packed LIGHT.

After a hearty walk – following signs from terminal 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D toward 2F and 2G – we found arrivals terminal 2E. Why wasn’t there a single sign that said 2E in that entire 20-minute walk? That’s weird. C’mon, France.

The band was there! We were not late! YAY! There were several missing (and expected) people, but Todd (Todd!) and his crew had departed quite late. They said they were trying to figure out how to get them to our hotel in Bayeux tonight, or that we would have to skip our stop in Giverny to see Monet’s house. We stood around (and I mean stood around. Standing is a drag. Everyone was very tired and that made standing worse) for a couple hours, then loaded the bus. Sitting! We sat for about half an hour and Todd, Angie, and Judy arrived, and we went to Giverny. I don’t know how that all worked out, but yay!

Giverny is lovely. When we were here the first time 10 years ago, I think I took a picture of each individual flower. I reigned it in today. Just before leaving the airport we were told it would be busy at Giverny and we would have to find lunch at one of the restaurants on the main street during our visiting time. After all that standing around time, we had not discussed the plan. This plan seemed poorly thought out, so I quickly dispatched Keith to a stand to buy a ham sandwich (I feel I am now known for taking a sandwich wherever I go). It turned out we were the only ones that got anything for lunch.

I put that leaf in there because I thought he looked like the Grinch.

I slept on the bus to Giverny and then to Bayeux. So did almost everyone else. We had a group dinner of onion soup (not French Onion soup), beef Bourguignon, and that good stuff with the crunchy sugar on top that I can’t think of the name. Creme Brulee! The specialty liquor of the area is cider. I tasted Steve’s and it was AWFUL. His wife also tasted it and said it probably wouldn’t taste so bad if it didn’t smell so bad. Fair assessment.

I am so tired. It’s 11pm already and we have to be up and out at 8:30. I must have breakfast, because what if they have something really good?

Oh! Here’s the result of my new thing. When people are just standing around waiting, I run up and yell SMILE.