Day 132: or The Day We Went To Giverny

After our attempt last weekend to visit Monet's gardens, we knew we needed to head out at a decent hour to beat the crowds. We headed West a little after 9:30 and stopped at a small road side hotel for coffee. Had this been a longer trip, I would have liked to pick places like this to stay spur of the moment. But when your trip needs to be efficient, planning seems more necessary. We made it to Giverny and found a short line and available parking. Mission accomplished.

I came here when I was 15, but my memory was beginning to get hazy. Walking into the place though, and I remembered it all again. The flowers were beautiful and the weather was nice. It was a little chilly, but in the sun, it was perfect. It's not a huge piece of property, but you can spend a decent amount of time walking up and down the rows of flowers. We walked through the house and workshop and the out into the gardens. It's less than an hour from my house but you definitely feel much farther from the city.

We grabbed a sandwich from the take away window. While there, the woman in front of me was having a slight disagreement with the server. She was asking for coffee with milk and the server said we only have cafe au lait. I guess she thought she meant coffee and milk. The customer was being a little ridiculous so I just ordered for her. Then when she complained about there being no sugar, I pointed to the fairly sizable basket of sugar cubes sitting 4 inches from her elbow. I'm not quite sure why she was in a huff, but I felt good about at getting her out of the server's face.


After a couple of hours in the village, we drove back home. Took a little siesta before heading to school to fetch the Kid. We decided tonight would be Mexican night. I had thought I would use the good tortillas from home that my Mom brought, but when I told Zoe that last night, she looked at me like I was crazy for sharing. I used the normal tortillas with the taco seasoning from home. The kids all commented on the "spiciness". I told them to hush and that they were crazy. No more wusses in this house.