It's August

Jim and Sam arrived Friday, am, we did Arc de Triomphe, etc, dropped the ties to Dr Cl. They crashed and we went home. The next we did Orsay and kids did Eiffel, met Caleigh and Dad for dinner at La Closerie de Lilas.

 The next The 31^st we checked out of the apartment and moved to Hotel de France, fine. Did the Invalides but hen after a planned 2 hr->3->4 hr tour, we went to Notre Dame. Did the inside loop, mostly for Sam who hadn’t seen it, and looped outside. We made a tour to see the buttresses, and found the fatigue uniformed men with fambas, machine gun look a like in hand. Sam explained the difference. We tried to eat local, but too touristic. Metroed back, gratuie, as per the local, to our hotel area. I tried to touch down at a restaurant I had admired, but all canard, and not likely to Sam’s liking, so we walked farther, with Jim at the jetlag wall. To Pasco that the hotelier had rec’d.

Delicious and with a little nourishment, all of us were reborn.

We sleep one night there. Sam arose early to search for his gameworks shoppe. We had spied it on the walk in St Mich.

In the am we packed up, ate at Rue Cler, and took off for Giverny. The sun, which has been elusive is out in full force and I realize what we had was not all bad. If the sun had been this brilliant all of July, it would have been hard to tolerate the heat.
Giverny was incredible.  It was hot, but I also think it would have been hard to enjoy in the rain. We saw his gardens, the house and the Japanese water garden. There were rows and rows of flowers, just like the paintings, his studio with reproductions of his work hanging as if we has there still working on them, there were chickens in cages, as if Mme Monet would be out to gather eggs. The dining room was immense, as was the kitchen. The house was furnished with his collection of Japanese prints, probably reproductions.

Studio with reproductions

The water lilies

Kids s'amusant

I think Jim is using his new camera well!!.

Maison Monet

We spent several hours then did a musee visit with the touring art collection from Williamstown, MA!! Ha! And then a back roads, non highway route to Rouen. We made appoint to stop at Les Andelys, where there was a 13^th century castle built by Richard the Lionhearted. And these cliffs of chalky white limestone, like “Dover,” but on the Seine.  We continued on our rural route to Rouen, which worked well and was quite scenic. We arrived, and Sam and all of us, but more so him, nearly out of gas, needed refreshment. Ate in the Vieux marche, was k-ok. Sam had a “lamb pie” but it looked way-better, Erin on the other hand tried the veal head stew and was challenged. Luckily there was plenty of cheese and pain for all. Short walk home and I am typing to “keep up. ”