Wednesday AM, Giverny at last

Wednesday AM. Giverny day at last. Up early, had my alarm set for 06:15. into the shower, getting dressed and mom observes that it is 07:05! Darn Palm Pilot POS lost more than a half hour not being synced up to the phone network. Time to hurry to get to our 08:15 train. Down to the #24 bus, off to Gare St Lazare. Made it to the station in time to get the tickets, buy a cup of coffee and OJ and a couple of apple custard torts. Onto the train where we ate on the way. Pretty cool morning so glad we bundled up and carried extra sweater in backpack. Nice 45 min.ride to Veron w/ only 1 stop, the difference between the 08:15 and the 09:00, which takes about 1 hr 45 min. @ Giverny the bus is 1/2 block from the train station. About a 30 minute bus ride through the french countryside takes you to the parking area, across the road from the town. A walk under the road leads to another parking area and the first opportunity to9 spend you money on a little guide book w/ a map and small explanation of the features of the town. Of course we fall for it. A short walk dow the street to the Maison et jardins Claude Monet. We borrowed another wheel chair and began the tour of the gardens. They are so much nicer than when I last saw them in April of '04. Lots and lots of beautiful blooms, many rather unique. We got a short cut back across the road to the water lily gardens and bridges. We walked every square inch, taking many pictures. Great bamboo garden on an island in the stream. One way to contain the bamboo. The little boat in so many of Moet's paintings was there, being used by a gardener to scoop out weeds from the ponds. After we thoroughly covered the ponds, lily pads, streams etc, we went back across the road via the special gate to the house side. Back up the hill to the house for the tour. You enter and go left, down a few steps into the studio/sitting area. Lots of original furniture, reproductions of many of the paintings done in the area and photographs of Claude, his family and visitors. Then upstairs to the bedrooms and dressing rooms. Downstairs to the kitchen. Japanese prints everywhere. After a tour of the gift shop we were ready for the return bus/train. It was either leave now and get back to Paris by 14:00 or wait and not get back till 16:00. We wanted to get one more visit in Paris in today.