Giverny

I've always wanted to visit Giverny, and given that it's only an hour away from Paris, we decided to hop in the car this past weekend and go. (Though it did take us more than hour to get there....and not due to traffic lol).

Even though it wasn't the sunniest day of the summer, the gardens were still beautiful and I thought both the entrance price and the gift shop were really reasonable for once.The next day was spent exploring the nearby town of Vernon. We had sort of a funny experience at the tourist office (on the right in the photo below) - the woman working there said "You were at Giverny yesterday, weren't you?" We were surprised but said yes, and she said that she remembered us for some reason despite the hundreds of people she'd seen the day before. We also came across a fairly big brocante, and had a good time exploring things - I'd been looking for a boite à thé for some time now and I finally found one that didn't cost 30€. There were also several other activities in the area, including a couple châteaux and a base nautique where you could rent canoes, kayaks and jetskis. Anyways, it was a good weekend and a trip I'd definitely recommend, especially given it's proximity to Paris and the fact that you don't necessarily need a car in order to go.

Though I had to laugh when we got back to C's that night and he flopped down on the bed and said with a long sigh "Whew, I need to get laid". Apparently my trying to explain the difference "laid-back" and "lay down" has only served to confuse him further because now he confuses them all even more. I tell ya, "English Sundays" never fail to be a source of amusement for me.