We started the day with breakfast at the hotel, during which I ventured to eat a small baguette with honey (happy to report a non-allergy experience). The breakfast is served buffet style, with the usual suspects. One that really stood out, though, was sliced kiwi… en mass… in a bowl on the buffet spread. And let me tell you, kiwi is especially good when you don’t have to slice it up yourself.
We then headed off to the train station for a good hour of people watching before we met up with the bike tour group. Everyone says that people dress well in Paris, and it makes you feel like you have to wear fancy pants when you would normally wear three-day dirty pants that don’t quite fit well anymore because, hey, you’re on vacation. This isn’t true. Well, it is true that people dress nice here, but it’s more of an “I’m going to work / I live in a city / I own a mirror” way of dressing. There are some people that have a “Yes, my designer purse is the most expensive thing I own” style, or like the two women we passed on our bike ride from Vernon to Giverney, an “I’m walking and it’s warm outside, so I’ve taken off my pants, drapped them around my shoulders and am walking in my underwear with my friend” way of dressing. To each his, or her, own… but we decided to keep our pants on.
During this time, you might say that we “got our train legs” as we feel substantially more comfortable with public transit in Paris than before this people watching session, and now plan to take the train by ourselves to Fontainebleau on Monday for our balloon ride extravaganza.
But back to Day 2… We rode the train to Vernon, a small town that is a 40-minute train ride outside Paris. Here, we had 45 minutes to stock up on picnic supplies. Two quiches, one shrimp salad, one avocado, six quite ripe figs, one demi baguette, a peach tart and five deliciously chocolate covered cherries later, we were mounting our bikes and headed to our picnic destination alongside the Seine.
Afterwards, it was off to Giverney and Monet’s Gardens. Mom’s favorite part was the water lilies garden, so we spent lots of time there and took several pictures that look very similar while standing next to other people that were taking the same pictures. You can see these peoples’ delightful elbows in some of our photos at the link at the top of the blog.
After leaving the Garden, we had an hour to kill in a very small town (Giverney) before our rendezvous with the tour group. While walking aimlessly, we were drawn into another garden that only featured white flowers. It was the garden of another Museum, showcasing art by American artists, whom our tour guide informed us found Girverney there years after Monet had built his house there, but still claimed to have “discovered” the town. *I feel I should note here that our tour guide, Jackson, was from somewhere like Wisconsin, but tried very hard to seem like he was from France by discussing advanced art, historical pod casts, French pronunciation and classical music. As it was starting to rain, we ducked under the green, ivy canopy over the patio of the museum café for coffee and iced tea and then, as it was still raining, we found our way to this museum’s gift shop and proceeded to purchase every scarf on the rack. What we did not do was actually go to this museum of American art. How very American… I hope you had your baseball glove up for that irony ball I just threw you.
I’ll end the details here, as everything else we did afterwards consisted of riding our bikes in the rain (with free ponchos) and returning to the hotel. However, I am reminded of something funny. There was a girl that purchased a bottle of wine for the picnic. She didn’t finish it, so she took the open bottle of wine, in her purse, to the Monet Gardens, which was a two mile bike ride away, and drank from it while walking around looking at flowers. The next time we paid any attention to her, she was getting off the train, carrying the same bottle of wine and drinking from it while walking through the train station. I can only guess that she was from San Diego, as she was obviously keeping it classy.
I will, however, share the funny moments from dinner tonight.
Our server was well aware of my food allergies and was very helpful in suggesting menu items. You can have the fish, he said. You can have the steak. You can share this salad with your mother.
I had the fish. It was good. But the mashed potatoes, which we had replaced with green beans because they were made with a little bit of milk (which means lots of butter, my mom informed me; she ate them), were still on my plate while the green beans were a side dish. I was fine; I can eat around. But when the server realized, he was throughly disgusted. We're talking classic french snarl.
Afterwards, he placed the dessert menu in my hands. It had all sorts of delicious sounding words on it. Creme Brulee, Tieramisu, Chocolat... The server looked over the menu, over my shoulder, and said, "For you... only strawberries." And then he walked away very quickly, smiling, because my mom and I had just erupted in laughter.
When his helper stopped by to take our order, he must have not known about the food allergies because our server walked up and they got in a fight about what I could order. When I finally was able to tell them I only wanted coffee, everything was okay.
We ended the night with a drive by of the Arc de Triumph.
And the coffee here... oh my gosh, it's so good. They must have some kind of coffee here that tastes like heaven.
4 comments:
- Erica said...
- Sounds awesome. Pretty, pretty pictures! I didn't buy a single scarf in Paris because I never came across any that I fell in love with. I guess there will just have to be a next time...
- August 16, 2010 7:56 AM
- Anonymous said...
- Loved the bike ride, the train ride and shopping in Vernon -- not to mention the Monet gardens and tea in the other museum garden. What a great time.
- August 22, 2010 8:52 AM
- Anonymous said...
- Hi there Great share, thanks for your time
- December 4, 2010 10:21 PM
- Anonymous said...
- Great post, I am almost 100% in agreement with you
- December 6, 2010 11:50 AM
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