I will Triumph!

A fabulous day out in Paris has to include one of the below:
Good weather
Good food
Good company

This day just happened to include all three! After an awful night of sleep, I met up with Aubrey and we climbed the Arc de Triomph! I wasn't quite expecting how nice of a view it had plus it was free and we had gone early enough that we beat the crowds!

The stairs were a nice kick in the rear too. In the end, pleasantly surprised!

 Also my first time seeing The Grande Arch at La Defense not from under it!

Then as we headed out to find Aubrey some lunch, we decided on Creperie Genia- the best crepe place in Paris! To my utter surprise and overjoyed excitement, across the street at Creperie Suzette, they have gluten free crepes!!!!!!!!!
My life has been made! Paris, je t'aime!!!

So ya, obviously I had a crepe and we dined in and finished off our day strolling along the Seine. We came across a big white tent in front of Notre Dame and guess what we found inside! Une Fête de pain!!! A bread party!! I'm such a foodie, I can't help it. Bread has always been my love and even though I can't eat it anymore, I'm still in love with it. This tent not only had fresh the freshest pastries and baguettes in the city, it had the most heavenly smell ever to exist on this planet.

I talked a bit in French to a cute old man making some fresh pain au chocolat and watched some pretzel making, some baguette baking, and we even took a selfie with a giant honkin' piece of pain. (It's pronounced 'Pa-n' not 'pay-n') :)

Pompidou...Pompidon't

Ever since our "museum Sunday" tradition began, the Pompidou has been a dreaded place for Aubrey and I. First of all- the building is so ridiculously ugly, I cannot imagine who on earth approved the plans to put it in beautiful Paris. Second of all- it's a MODERN art museum. What even is modern art?! A bunch of bogus, that's what. Thirdly- Rick Steve's even hates the place so now what does that say about the museum. To quote Mr. Steves, "after running up the down-escalator, I've had enough of that place".

Mmhmm.

It was a horridly rainy Sunday in Paris so we needed a place to be inside and we just needed to rip this place off like a bandaid. I will admit, some art was better than I imagined. Yes; there was a gallery dedicated to white canvases with a randomly placed black square. And yes, there was a plain canvas the size of a car that had a red "splat" in the corner which could've just been a giant fly that was swatted by the BFG. And yes, there was the crunched up car that was called "art". And the paper mache figure that could've been made by a 5-year old from a Nightmare Before Christmas. And the tower of light bulbs. And the deconstructed school chair glued to a wall. And a painted blue canvas. (I'm serious. Just plain blue.)

Okay I'm not making a good case for this museum.

The view from the top was decent. Nothing amazing, to be honest. While the inside of the museum is quite cool (minus all the "art") I'm just glad it was free and it's checked off my list.

Montmartre

Macaron Phonies

Vernon-Giverny

Thankfully Delphine had suggested this as a great day trip because I don't know if I would have ever realized it was 1) so close to Paris, 2) the home of Monet, and 3) so gosh darn beautiful.

I woke up early this morning and took the local train out to Mantes la Jolie with my Navigo. From there, I bought a 4 euro ticket to Vernon. Cheapest and BEST day trip ever!! At the gare in Vernon, I saw that the bus to Giverny wasn't coming back around for another hour and a half so I decided to forgo the 14 euro bike rental and to walk. They had a nice path lined out and it looked simple enough on the map.

I started out and with one turn, I was already off in the wrong direction. Thanks to my French and a wonderfully cute, little, old French lady, I was pointed in the right direction of the bridge. Vernon is cute in it's own little way. The buildings were all the 'Old-Normandy' style that look pretty Bavarian with the criss-crossed beams against a white house, often times the second story coming out further than the main floor. They had Saturday markets going on and the city itself was nestled into a fluffy, green "valley" if you will. It's more like random little hills....and a river. Ya know.

The Seine was a million times more beautiful out there than it is in Paris and on my way back through town, I sat and ate ice cream in the hot hot hotness and 20 swans came and watched me while I watched them. I almost shed a tear to how magnificent this day was. But now I've skipped the best part. Let's rewind a bit.

As I crossed the bridge, a chateau came into view and the inner French girl inside me started doing her happy dance. Live is unbearable when chateaus do not make an appearance regularly. This one was tiny and cute and perfect and had a river front view of sailboats and green-- green trees everywhere! Absolutely marvelous. And the church on the north side of the Seine was literally tucked into the fluffy green trees of the hill. No wonder Monet chose this town as his home. It is literally perfect. And on the south side of the Seine was Vernon's own Notre Dame so I mean it really can't get much better than that. I was just beside myself.

The trek, I mean path, to Giverny (aka Monet land) ran directly parallel with the Seine so it was easy enough to follow. Except I didn't actually find the path until halfway through when there was an intersection. Instead, I was stumbling through weeds alongside the high way while admiring the wild poppies. The path, it turns out, is nicely paved and flowery and is just behind the houses I was in front of. When the houses of Vernon start to fade, then the land of B&B's begins to take shape. Just picture yourself in a romantic and picturesque B&B in France amidst green trees and flowers and swans on the Seine....does life get any better than that!?

I made it to Giverny a sweaty hot mess and starting to feel the face sunburn, but I was so thrilled to be where Claude Monet and is family shaped their own part of France and lived out their lives. I wandered down Rue Claude Monet and read some history of some of the beautiful homes/hotels and then I came across the church and adjoining cemetery where the Monet family is buried. Closest I'll ever get to a picture with Monet I suppose...

Further down the road, past the artist shops and bakeries and cafes with bunnies in the lawn, you'll find a long line of people which, you guessed it, is for Monet's home and garden! I reluctantly got in line and continued the profuse sweating when all of a sudden (!!!) one of the workers started calling out for people to follow him. I didn't hesitate following right on his tail because I knew he was leading us to a second entrance. Viola! I was right. And I was second in line. Boom.

Monet's garden was designed by Claude Monet, himself, and it was utterly magnificent. His house overlooks the large flower garden with rows upon rows of colorful beauties and then under ground through a small tunnel, you come out into his water garden where the famous Waterlily pond is. Literally, flowers cover every possible surface! The bridges are draped in purple lilacs and the paths are lined with so many flowers and I won't even attempt to name them. Just take my word on it- it's incredible!

I did one lap around the main garden, the water garden, and then through his house while I snapped hundreds upon hundreds of photos with my Nikon. Then I did a lap (or a few) through the gift shop where I most certainly did not come out empty handed...