Maisons-Laffitte

We got up early today to make sure we had enough time to catch connecting trains to Vernon/ Giverney....we missed the 2nd train and had to wait 1hr and 20mins for the next one.....we are blaming poorly signed stations and confusing ticket machines. When we arrived at Vernon we were looking for a shuttle bus to take us to Giverney, but found a tiny train instead. It was driven by a very enthusiastic driver who had no problem navigating narrow streets, roundabouts and traffic lights as he assumed he had right of way while towing 5 carriages behind him. He took us to Giverney and we then spent 1/2 an hour looking for the gardens...again due to poor signage. The gardens were beautiful; salvias, daisys and dahlias in a riot of colours. We took the "bridge" shots then explored the rest of the gardens and house before setting off to find Monet's grave. We stopped at The Hotel Baudy for lunch - where Matt almost became vegetarian when he cut in to his steak. We all celebrated when we hopped off our last crowded, smelly, disease infested train ride home ( well at least for a little while). Dinner was an assortment of left-overs; bagette, cheese, chips, pasta, peanut butter and icecream before the not so nice job of packing was done for an early morning ride to Charles de Gaul.Read more