May 23, 2011 Monday
Got up early today (630 while on vacation) and took the train to Giverny to see Monet's garden. It was a pleasant outing and we got to see France's train system in action - which has a very good network and covers a lot of places and generally is very timely. We arrived at Giverny at about 945 and saw that the parking lot looked like the Euro Disney parking lot with lots of buses and people, so we were wondering how crowded it would be here. We got in and agreed that it was well worth the wait and the crowds. The gardens were super and reminded us of Butchart Gardens in Victoria. The water lily pond and bridges were splendid, even when enjoyed with 300 of our "best friends". The flowers were fantastic even though we missed the tulips.

Made our way back to Paris and rested up for an hour+ and then went out to find some dinner. We ended up witnessing some type of drinking festival with people dressed up in costumes of various kinds (some almost non-costumes, so to speak) which was all noisy and off-putting to Lynne, who doesn't like crowds, so we moved on to find another area to eat. We did find another restaurant row which had a busker in front of every place. We settled on one finally and were entertained by the man busking every likely looking couple coming by. He told us his life story and how he had lived in Auburn, Ca for a 6 months while his girlfriend hesitated to get married, and then came back to France where he could actually work legally. Then very quickly he said "oh here comes Jacques Chirac, I promise" and then seconds later a black Mercedes rolled by with the back windows open and inside was the man, himself. On his way to get a pizza. With his security detail in tow. Chet missed the picture because he initially didn't believe the guy. The meal was pretty below average, but the live entertainment was pretty good. At least it was inexpensive!