Saturday, May 18, 2013

Where Do I Start

Ah yes, where do I start.  There has been and is so much going on, I don't know where to begin.  So I'll begin with the fun part.

Last month, I took a geographical expedition to Brittany and a riverboat cruise along the Seine.  The trip to Brittany was very informative and surprising.  I got a clear understanding of the geography of the area.  Now I know where Brittany is.  Despite its name, it clearly is in France.  I was also surprised to see palm trees growing there in the north of France and bordering on the English Channel.

One of the main reasons for the trip to Brittany was to see Mont Ste Michelle.  This is a town and monastery on what, at times, seems to be an island.  When the tide is low, you could walk to the town and in the past at high tide, the town was surrounded by water.   The streets are very narrow and almost always uphill.
 
 
I tried to go all the way up to the monastery, but got only about 3/4 of the way.  I guess I'm very out of shape.
 
Thanks to the zoom feature of my camera, I did get a good shot though.

 
A few days after we started cruising, we stopped at Giverney.  The gardens there are just lovely.



Even though it was early in the season, most of the flowers were in bloom.  Unfortunately, it was a little too early for the water lillies.

 
Of course, I saw the famous bridge.  Trust me, it's there in the distance.



 
There was a line for the house, but it moved quickly.  Monet's home was filled with his collection of Japanese prints and of course, copies of his works.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the interior.  The dining room was yellow, yellow walls, yellow table covering and yellow dishes.  The kitchen walls were covered in blue delft tiles and there was a lot of blue delft.  I thought it was too much, but what do I know.

 
It was a good two weeks and I saw a lot more, but I don't want to be one of those people who MUST show you ALL of my vacation pictures in one sitting.  I'll save the others for another time.  I took over 800 pictures, love my digital camera.  Don't worry, I won't bore you with all of them.
 

No comments: