Monet's Garden and the Seine at Night

Bonjour!

Do you remember in the Musée Rodin post that I told you the weather was really nice in Paris last weekend? Friday we did Museée Rodin, and Saturday we decided to venture out to Monet's Gardens. I had wanted to stay in and do some work, but I knew that this was probably going to be the last weekend of warmth before the flowers started to die. (I was right, it is now in the high 40s).

To get to Monet's Gardens from Paris requires taking a train to Vernon and then a bus to Giverny. A lot of times at home I find myself planning all the excursions that I do with friends. I usually find out how to get there and I look up ticket prices and all of that stuff. So far in France others have been planning things and I either get invited or I tag along. It's a bit of a relief because everything doesn't fall on my shoulders, and if something goes wrong it isn't my fault. However, I usually do pretty well figuring out how to get to places and looking up ticket information and everything. I like to have it all figured out before I leave so that I'm not standing around with no clue what to do next. Relying on others can be frustrating when we get to a station and the person who planned the trip has no idea what our next step is. And since I didn't plan it, I can't help and I start to doubt where my instincts are telling me to go.

This has happened a few times in France, and it sort of happened on our way to Monet's Gardens. It wasn't a big deal, but we ended up waiting in the wrong line for about 20 minutes because our trip planner didn't know where to go, only to find out when we got to the cashier that we needed to go up the staircase to the right and into the main terminal. (The staircase that I thought we should go up but didn't say anything about because I didn't want to be wrong since I didn't plan this).

We eventually got our tickets and waited for the monitor to assign a platform to our train. We had half an hour before our train was scheduled to leave, so I strode off in search of platform 9 and 3/4 (the Paris stop, of course). I found platform 11, and I found platform 9, but there was not platform 10! I'm not kidding! In this picture platform 9 is clearly labeled, but the platform to the right, which one would assume should be number 10, is not marked! Every other platform was labeled. We figured the Beauxbaton witches probably take platform 10 to get to school.

The train was pretty cool looking, the seats in second class were purple and pretty comfortable. I looked over my shoulder at first class and saw this guy through the door. He was watching something on his laptop. It was anime. There was a close-up on the cartoon girl and her transparent white top and lacy black bra! I kept looking and the screen flashed to an anime boy fighting with another boy, and then it went back to the girl. She was talking, but the screen only showed her cleavage! Why would you watch this in such a public place? Part of me was disturbed but part of me thought it was really funny.

After the hour long train ride we caught a 20 minute bus to the Giverny stop.

The stop wasn't directly at the Garden entrance, it was a few blocks away. We didn't really know where we were going but we followed all the other tourists down the highway and eventually found the gate that lead to the village that held Monet's house and gardens.

Once we reached the garden entrance we had to wait in a short line to pay our entrance fee. At the register the woman said something to me that ended in "Brasilienne." We learned this word in class, it is the feminine form of "Brazilian." I gave her a confused face and asked my friend in the intermediate french class to figure out what she wanted. Then in english the lady said;

"Are you Brazilian?"

"No," I said, "..I'm from the states.."

Then, she took my money and gave me my ticket. I thought maybe she was asking so that she would know what language to give me an information pamphlet in, but I didn't get an information pamphlet and neither did anyone else. This is like the 3rd or 4th time someone has assumed I was Brazilian. I must say, I think it's pretty cool! It's more fun than being assumed American, thats for sure.

The next several pictures are from the garden:

Monet's house peeks out behind the wall of yellow flowers:

The boat pictured in many of Monet's paintings:

After seeing the gardens and walking around the house (no photos allowed in the house), we grabbed lunch in the village before walking back to catch our bus. I had a chicken, ratatouille, and cheese crêpe. It was really good! There was a group of 3 older women sitting behind us. They were from Arizona and asked us why we were in Paris and then about our study abroad program. It was cute.

When the train pulled up to our very crowded stop in Vernon, every seat was taken. We all piled on and stood in the aisles. I had no intention of standing for an hour, so I found a way to sit on the ground. One of my friends got onto another car and said that her aisle was so packed, they had to take turns sitting down!

It felt really great getting back into Paris after being on that supremely uncomfortable train ride- I was out in the open air and I could breathe!

I was really exhausted from walking around all day. When we got back to the dorm around 7:30 I immediately got into my PJs and plopped down at my desk. I opened my e-mail and there was a group invite for that night to go on a Seine boat tour. I sighed and contemplated skipping it. I knew that this would be one of the last warm nights we had left. After a few persuasive words from Hira, my neighbor, I decided to pull on some pants and go.

This was another one of those times where I found myself tagging along in a group with someone else who had planned the trip. We had meant to get on the 10 O'clock boat tour but people were late so we had to plan on making the 10:30 train, the last of the night. We waited outside the Metro stop in the Latin Quarter for the last person meeting us. She had gotten on the wrong train and was running very late. We decided we couldn't wait anymore and at 10:10 we went off to wait for her at the boat's dock.

The girl who planned this had written down the address from the website, but she wasn't exactly sure how to get there. We walked around for awhile and went back and forth across the Seine and down to the river a couple of times. At some point the other girl met up with us and we ended up finding the right bridge, running down the steps, and boarding the boat at 10:27.

The boat tour was really beautiful! I don't plan on doing it again unless I'm here in the summer because up on top the top deck sitting in the wind it was freezing!! Eventually I had to go down with a few others and sit underneath in the enclosed section of the boat.

Wow, this post had a ton of pictures! So that was my Saturday. I'm back from Rennes and the temperature seems to have plummeted in the few days we've been gone. The dorm has turned on the heat, and I find myself with a little cold. I have a lot of work to do this weekend, so my plan is to take a nap, relax a bit tonight and try to ward off this cold, and then do work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I have midterms next week, my second and final sitting of the GRE, and then Friday I leave for Portugal!

I'll update again soon!

Love,

Hillary