We started off quietly today as yesterday was so busy. After breakfast, and when Heather had completed her diary, we went for an explore around Jardin du Luxembourg. It is a lovely garden that is divided into sections. We wandered past the playground which was 99% quieter than Sunday, past the tennis courts, past people doing tai chi, then into the wide open space that looks out to the palace.
The palace area has lots of flowers, a duck pond where on weekends you can sail model boats, and has garden chairs scattered about to contemplate and watch the world go by. There are wide avenues with large trees and sculptures on large lawn areas. The only thing about the grass is you are not allowed to walk on it which is the same for most Parisian parks and it is heavily patrolled to catch any offenders. After our explore we headed back to our apartment for a quick lunch and I then left Neil and the kids for the afternoon and joined a coach tour to Giverny, home of Claude Monet. It was an hour drive out of Paris where on the way we were given a talk on the history of Monet. On arrival at the gardens and house we were given a quick tour of where everything was then let loose for a couple of hours. It was a stunning garden, with a flower garden and house, then on the other side of a railway line (connected by a post-Monet tunnel) the water/Japanese garden.
It was a very overcast day but the reflections in the pond were fantastic. Also a majority of the water lilies were in flower which added something special. The flower garden was arranged in rows of colours varying in heights and managed to look untidy but orderly at the same time, with a large walkway down the middle who's surface was covered in nasturtiums.
I then wandered through the house which had walls covered in Japanese prints. One room was covered floor to ceiling in Monet's paintings and looked onto the garden on two sides. It was a lovely bright room and you could just imagine him sitting there thinking about what to paint.
The departure time of 5pm loomed so, after another quick trip around the flower garden, and a couple of purchases from the shop, it was back onto the bus. It was a great trip and when I got home the family had just finished dinner and were getting ready for dessert. They had visited the local patisserie on the way home from their afternoon activity (four hours in the Jardin du Luxembourg playground) and had purchased some amazing pastries. Dinner and dessert was served to me once the kids were in bed, a lovely end to a wonderful day.
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