We did a lot of driving and not that much sightseeing on Friday. We're back in London now.
In the morning, John and I packed up. As Vicki was doing the same, we took one last walk around Honfleur. Such a pretty place!
We drove inland, past Rouen, to arrive at Giverny, the home of Claude Monet. Here we got to see those water lilies in person. They look pretty much the same as water lilies elsewhere.
I had a good time, but in retrospect I really would not go out of my way to come here. The place was absolutely packed with tourists. It was the most international crowd I have seen in France with lots of Japanese and Chinese tour groups. At points, it was hard to move in the garden. I began to wonder if there was some kind of impressionist-industrial complex working throughout the world. We had to take a lot of pictures to get shots of any of us alone, and even this picture of John in front of the Monet house was cropped to eliminate some tourist.
The house is small, but very sweet. It is absolutely packed with nineteenth century Japanese woodprints. John liked the dining room which is painted completely is a garish shade of mustard yellow - obviously I thought it was a little much. The gardens are odd. Most of them are laid out in neat rectangular rows as if the Monets were growing vegetables. Yet the flowers are tossed together higgledy-piggledy in the fashion of English country gardens.
From Giverney we drove to the Tunnel. We were a little ahead of schedule, but not enough to feel comfortable to take a detour to Le Touqet or Calais. Traffic was pretty light on Friday, so they put us on an earlier train.
