Schiffergesellschaft

Breakfast in Northern Germany looks familiar. We have chopping boards for the bread and a selection of hams, herring and liver; variety is achieved with some cheeses, butter of various fat percentages, jams and a soft boiled egg, and of course there is some mango baked cheese cake available.

We do a self-guided tour in Lubeck in the morning. Very interesting architecture and lots of churches (10 at least) in such a small town. We are told later that it is because people go to different church according to their status or profession.

Lubeck is a seafaring town with an active shipping industry to this day. It is from here that Peter Kaminsky

sailed his ship to Finland 3 times a week carrying over 2 kilometres of cars and trucks as well as approx 300 passengers. The journey would take 36 hours and they would have a 9 hour turnaround in Finland.

Lubeck is surrounded by water which provided natural fortification in older times. It suffered massive devastation by allied bombing during WWII.

After 4 hours in town we return to Pia and Peter’s home around 3 pm. Had a late lunch then get ready to go dinner at Schiffergesellschaft at 7 pm. It turns out Peter is president of Schiffergesellschaft (a group of sea captains in Lubeck) and the Nordic Society.

Schiffergesellschaft (Seamen's Guild) was acquired in 1535 by the Seaman's Guild. The old building was then demolished but later rebuilt in its current fashion. Then as now, it was used as a meeting house for seamen and sail-makers. The famous Schiffergesellschaft restaurant also considers itself to be the "oldest pub in the world." Revenues are still used to support indigent boatmen and boatmen's widows. Many memorabilia from centuries past, brought by seafarers from all over the world, create a wonderful ambience.

The restaurant has a special spring menu to celebrate the season and May 1^st is a special day for them. Tonight is a special night and Peter has to use his influence to get us four places as it is booked out for months in advance.
Kwan has the very special white asparagus while the others have fish and German potato salad (very tasty).



Dessert is served with warm cherry sauce (with whole cherries). Then people start singing all the seamen’s songs – very entertaining and noisy evening.

Sunday - Berlin - Frankfurt - Hamburg & Herring

Pack and head out to Museumsinsel (Museum Island) which is wedged between the river Spree and Kupfergraben and the Pergamon Museum which houses the famous Pergamon altar. Truckloads of tourist buses just arrived and there is a long queue. Since we only have 2 hours, we decide we will go to the next door Bode Museum instead. A newly renovated museum. On 19 October 2006, the Bode Museum was re-opened in its entirety, displaying the Sculpture Collection (much Italian and German), the Numismatic Collection and works from the Gemäldegalerie - Old Master Paintings. The museum is absolutely stunning - wonderful space.

We buy some German sausages from a street vendor for lunch before heading back to the hotel.

Crazy flight departing 3pm to Frankfurt (south of Berlin) – 1 hour flight - 1 hour transit – 1¼ hour flight to Hamburg (north of Berlin) arrive 3.5 hours later. Frustrated when we learn that we could have taken the fast train which only takes 1 ½ hours.

Pia (Danish) meets us at Hamburg airport and drives us 1 hour to their house in Bad Schwarthu (near Lubeck). Peter (German), Pia’s husband, a retired sea captain has been busy preparing dinner. He presents a spread of German and Danish foods; pickled raw herring, smoked fish are amongst the seafood; hams, liver paste, hot pork and beef, several breads and cucumber salad. More than we can eat in one session. A selection of German white wine, Chile and French reds round out the evening – and dessert is mango baked cheese cake.

Sat shops and museums WestEast

Brief look at the shops in the main street in Kurfurstendamm, the main shopping strip of the west side. A department store called Ka De We is fantastic like Galeries Lafayette, with a huge gourmet food level.

Take a U-bahn to Friedrichstr. Lunch at Lutter & Wegner. We order the signature dish, Wiener Schnitzel with potato salad. Also white asparagus is in season and almost every restaurant has asparagus specials. We conclude that nothing will taste as good as the schnitzel we had in Vienna but these ones are still very good.

We come across a street market just next to the museum. It has lots of local artists paintings and jewelry designs. We visit the Altes Museen where they have the most beautiful and famous Eygtian bust of Nefertiti and a Greek exhibition. Kwan is pleasantly surprised to see her favorite artist, Renoir, is also there.

We take a boat cruise along the Spree. It is supposed to be the one with English commentary, however it is apparent that the English is a very much abbreviated version.

Walk around the young fashion area again before heading home around 8 pm.

Snack at the hotel and early night ready for departure tomorrow to northern Germany.

Friday - cool and hot Berlin

We take the Hop on Hop Off bus at 10 am and familiarize ourselves with Berlin. Berlin was over 80% destroyed during the WWII. Unification in 1989 and the reassertion of Berlin as the capital of Germany have, and is continuing to, transform Berlin. It has a mixture of post war buildings built by both the east and west, rebuilt and repaired classic buildings, some wonderful new modern architecture to house government, commerce and industry and there is some very interesting urban renewal and transformation going on in the former east sector. One can still see buildings with the pock marks of war.

Lunch at Keno café. Kwan thought she ordered a salad but ends up with satay beef and schnitzel on top of some very nice salad leaves. Still very nice.

Its by now a very hot day in the high 20s. We work out the U-Bahn (metro) and hook up with Anna, a daughter of Philip’s friend who we are going to stay with on Sunday near Hamburg, a young artist who moved to Berlin a year ago. We look at the remains of the Berlin wall briefly, then head towards the Parliament House, Museum Island and the new train station, all in East Berlin; we walk along the Spree and to the Hackesche Höfe area – it reminds us of Soho and Greenwich Village in New York; very hip. She takes us to the young designers area and check out a few gallery openings which are all very exciting. We walk past a lot of outdoor cafes and squares full of young people and lots of fun.

It is wonderful to see Berlin through the eyes of a budding young artist who tells us that this is the most exciting, and only place in Europe for creative people at this time. Not just artists, but also musicians, designers and the like. We can feel the excitement and electricity as we walk around these creative precincts with Anna.

We split around 7.45 pm totally exhausted. We have snack from the hotel club lounge and skip dinner. Early rest.

Jeudi ezy Berlin

Pack in the morning. We look into souvenir shops and find a cuckoo clock magnet for our fridge.

Lunch at a small trattoria, Locanda Ticinese, with a mama the size of a tank. 3-course set Menu only 26 Swiss Francs. This place is packed with in the know regulars and the wholesome Italian fare confirms why mamma cannot resist it.

We fly Easyjet so we arrive at the airport early not knowing what their procedures will be like and the web site booking engine has repeatedly warned that they close check-in 40 minutes before departure. They have an incredibly efficient system where you input your booking reference no or credit card into the self check in machine and it produces your boarding pass (one for the two of us) and luggage labels which we must affix ourselves. The only interaction is to pass our cases over the scales and have our passports checked - no seat allocation, but we paid an extra 10 euro for preferential boarding. We spend our remaining Swiss Francs at the duty free shop. The plane is on time all very efficient (German flight attendants).

Our hotel in Berlin, the Steigenberger, is in the centre of town. It is functional and efficient. Dinner at Moritz, recommended by our concierge, a short cab ride from the hotel and a 10 minute walk home after. We are very pleasantly surprised. Very very high quality food and exceptionally friendly and professional service. Would love to go back. Stroll back to hotel in tree-lined streets – assured by our concierge also that Berlin is very safe.

Anzac day Geneve - Wed 25th

We are awaken early courtesy of a mistaken phone call from room service at 7.30

Coffee and croissant at local patisserie. DIY walking tour of Geneve - Ile de Cité, flower clock, watch retaillers, pont Mont Blanc, private bankers everywhere.

Skeptically, on the strong recommendation of our hotel's conceriege, we take the dejeuner cruise. The food is par mal, the cruise and ambience is tres bon, commentary non existent. Overall a lovely experience on a beautiful clear sky day in Geneva.

Apres we go to the Philippe Patek Musée, one of Geneve's most famous watch makers for over 150 years. We are instructed to take the elavator to the 3rd floor and work our way down moving around each floor clockwise; how appropiate that we examine clocks clockwise.... We love this and spend over 2 hours in awe.

Dinner at Le Chat-Botté @ Hôtel Beau-Rivage We suspect it could be a Michelin star restaurant. Food is fantastic and service is attentive. Reminds us of the good old Paris restaurants.

Tuesday Geneve

B/fast at hotel. Pack up and take an express train at 12.17 pm to Geneva. Arrive 12.50 pm - on time as the trains always are in this part of the world.

Our hotel is right by the water overlooking Rive du Rhone with the famous Jet éau (jet fountain). We have a comer room on the third floor with a tourist brochure view of the jet and out to the lake. The steamers that service the Swiss and French towns along the lake are reminiscent of Agatha Christie times and we expect to see Hercule Pirot disembark at any moment.

Walk across Pont Mont Blanc to city centre for lunch at Café du Centre.

In the afternoon we explore the Old City; its aged buildings look very well maintained. Back down the hill we take a trolley bus to Carouge – an area with Mediterranean buildings and built by a Svaoian king to rival Geneva on the trade routes. Today it is a fashionable suburb of Geneva and listed as an area of historical importance in Switzerland. Return 7 pm.

Dinner at Bistrot du Boeuf - Lyonnaise cusine specializing in steaks. Classic old French bistro décor. Kwan tries to order steak well done the old waiter gives her a frown and attitude. Philip orders the set menu. However, while we are waiting for dessert menu, we are handed the bill. Instead of offering us a dessert menu or coffee, the old Frenchman just deducted 7 euros for dessert. Kwan is not happy but Philip says it’s all part of the fun of travelling.

Lundi - Mountains snow & castle

The Lausanne Palace Hotel where we are staying provides a wonderful buffet breakfast spread.

Walk down the hill to the station and take a 20 minute train to Montreaux – famous for the Montreaux Jazz festivals. The town is very nice with a loverly lakeside promenade. It feels like a Rivera village and is much more pleasant than Lausanne on first impressions.

We catch the small cog train up the mountain to Roches de Naye. It is a small old fashion 2-carriage train slowly climbing about 2,000 metres up the mountain passing through the pretty small towns of Glion or Caux. Half way through the journey, we go through a dark tunnel and come out with an amazing snow field surrounding the train. It is an incredible sight and feeling.

At the top there are fantastic views of the surrounding French and Swiss alps. There is a Marmottes sanctuary (like groundhogs) and reindeers are to be seen. Philip swears he has taken a photo of Mont Blanc. Lunch at cafeteria as the panoramic restaurant with the views (accessed through a long pedestrian underground tunnel) is closed.

Return to Montreaux at 4.52 pm and take a bus to Château de Chillon. We were more than prepared to rush through what we thought would be just another castle but were pleasantly surprised with a well preserved 12 century castle.Very interesting and different from other castles we have seen in UK, Scotland or France.

Return to Lausanne at 7 pm. Dinner at La Suite (French).

Dimanche - Trains 'n Coats 'n pains

Packing to vacate the apartment takes quite a lot of time. We meet the agent, Anne, at apartment and hand over the keys. Our TGV train (very fast) is scheduled to leave from Gare de Lyon to Lausanne Switzerland at 1.05 pm. These trains pride themselves in being on time.

We arrive at the station with an hour spare and have lunch at station eatery, Train Blue Brasserie. Walking down the platform, we realize we have left our coats in the restaurant. 10 minutes to go and Philip has to rush back to the restaurant. In the meantime Kwan looks for the correct carriage. Kwan fails to find the carriage and has to get on to the nearest carriage and Philip returns with the coats with a minute to spare. We have to now drag our bags (you know we are known for travelling light) through 5 carriages to find our seats, only to find someone have occupied them. They vacated seats but left their moaning, whining cat on the luggage shelf above for 1 ½ hours, while they presumably continued to seat hop. After the stop at Dijon they reclaimed the cat in the box only minutes before we may have committed felineacide. – real torture.

We arrive in Lausanne at 4.55 pm. There is very pretty scenery (canola flowers fields, water views) particularly for the last hour of the journey. Our hotel is up the hill with a great view of Lake Geneva – Lac Léman to the locals – and the snow caped alps as the backdrop.

Dinner at a lakeside Italian restaurant where the staff seem to be overwhelmed by the crowds of visitors the warm weather has attracted over the week end - quite a contrast to Paris where the service is usually very professional and efficient. Kwan thinks that the waterfront area reminds her of Brighton or Bournemouth - a kind of uninspiring resort.

Our hotel is wonderful, but the other first impressions of Lausanne below par.

Samedi anniversaire à Versailles

J&J leave today at 11 am. We take them to Invalides to connect with the RER B to Antony for Orlyval (driverless express train) to Orly Airport.

Lunch at Thoumieux, an very old fashioned bistro. All waiters are over 50 years old. Food tastes good but greasy.

Pack up in the afternoon and 7 pm we take a train to Versailles for Jacques’ 70^th birthday party. Great fun. We meet up with Laurent and Frederique, Bernard and Anna. A presentation by Jacques’ children with photos and artwork on projector. Also a song specially written for Jacques for his birthday by an artist in Brittany where Jacques used to dock his boat. Annie, Jacques’ girlfriend makes a very delicious medallion of pork. Dancing at midnight. We leave around 12.30 am. G7 taxi back to Paris.

Friday at the Louvre

Jez et Jeremy visit the Louvre in the morning and meet up with Philip et Kwan for a quick lunch at Galleries Lafayette. Jez and Kwan attend a fashion parade at 3pm and continue retail therapy while Philip and Jeremy check out the latest technology in FNAC.

Dinner at Le Violon d'Ingres at 7eme. Dessert from Pierre Hermé at home.

Thursday 19th - Big Day Out

Jez has a makeover at Carita while Kwan gets to tag along and has her hair done too.

Looking million dollars, both Jez and Kwan stride to lunch at Hotel Meurice. Very grand like Les Ambassadeurs. Both Jez and Jeremy really enjoy the whole experience. It is such a long lunch that by the time we finish, J&J decide to delay their visit to Musee del'Orangerie and the Louvre and opt for a lazy siesta.

J&J head out at 7.30 pm for a sunset stroll along the Seine and catch the moon glitz Tour Eiffel.

Kwan and Philip eat at home. Philip has his monthly meeting.

Mercredi - Ballet a Opera National de Paris

Much cooler day. Breakfast at Cafe de Flore where Jez and Kwan have hot chocolate and croissant all round. Then to Richart - chocolate shop - to buy presents for Jacques for his birthday party Saturday and our friends in Germany, Pia and Peter.

Jez and Jeremy go on to Musée d'Orsay. Kwan and Philip have lunch at Au Pied de Fouet (a very popular place with locals, which lives up to its reviews) on the way back home. Philip prepares itinerary for our 2 weeks away from the apartment in Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.

7.30 pm for Ballet at the Palais Garnier at Opera House. The venue is absolutely stunning. The show "Cendrillon" by Rudolf Noureev which is loosely based upon the story of Cinderella, set in Hollywood, is fantastic. Philip doesn’t fall asleep – must have been special.

Supper at Le Grand Colbert at 10.45 pm. Waiter gives Jeremy a rolling eye when he orders his steak well done and another sniff when we order ketchup with our frites. All part of the fun.

Mardi - Marais et plus

Jez and Jerry go early to ascend the Eiffel Tower followed by Musées Quai Branly and Palais de Tokyo in the morning.

Kwan goes fruit shopping and Philip goes into the Garnier Opera to buy tickets for ballet at the Opera House for tomorrow night (Wednesday).

Dejeuner chez Kwan - pate soupe avec ongnion et pancetta.

J&J return around 4 pm and we explore and Marais district. Both Kwan and Jez get some Parisienne shoes.

Dinner at La Passage des Casmagnoles at 11eme. More Lebanese influence and portion is very small for the price. Kwan likes Blanchette de veau (Stewed Veal in a cream sauce). Jeremy makes a language gaff with the proprietor and gets a lecture about never put ice on his red wine.

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Monday 16 Avril - Jessamine and Jeremy

Philip goes to St Germain to buy mixed roses at Au Nom de la Rose. Kwan gets baguette avec jambon et fromage pour dejeuner.

Jez and Jeremy arrive around 3.30 pm. We stroll to Eiffel Tower, walk along the Seine and back home.

Early dinner at Au Bon Accueil 7eme. Food is great but service a bit slow. If you sit outside you get the view of Eiffel Tower.

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Dimanche - Philip and Kwan alone

Philip and Kwan head to local market called Grenelle, below the elevated Metro running from Duplex to Motte Piquet – Grenelle. Cheaper fruit and vegetables, some knick knacks, cloths etc Brittany would have enjoyed this one.

Then off to another market at Bastille. It is of a much grander scale with fresh produce (some direct from the farmers). We find a vendor with copies of Murano (Venice) rings which we think might interest Jez.

Lunch at Chez Janou at rue Roger Verlomme 3eme. Food is hearty and by the time we leave, the place is jumping. Lots of locals – put this one on the recommend list.

Walking through Place de Voyges we stumble across and go into the Maison de Victor Hugo (free admission). Fascinating to see how a middle class person lived in the 19 century and to contrast this with the Jaquamart Andre of a week earlier – they were really well off.

We try to go to another market but it is closed by the time we arrive. On the way home, we walk past a jewelry shop "Skalli" and Kwan gets a matching silver necklace and bracelet - very chic. We take some passport photos at the local cyber cafe and get our weekly Carte Orange which cost 16 euros (Mon-Sun).

Lazy evening and dinner at Home.

Samedi - Au revoir Beeb

Beeb and Philip catch the Metro to St Germain; Breakfast at Les Deux Margot.

Walk to Richart - our favourite chocolate shop in Paris - and get some chocs for Beeb to take home.

Walk back via rue de Rennes. The southern part of de Rennnes, towards Montparnasse, looks like a good shopping district as recommended to us by Jane (Vincent's girlfriend).

Lunch at Le Violon d'Ingres . We think this might become a regular haunt - modern, food fantastic and close to the apartment.

After Brittany finishes packing, showers and changes we head off to CDG via Gare de Nord and the RER B. The train we catch is not air conditioned, stinking hot and is not an express. We still arrive in about 35 minutes. BB check in and we say au revoir.

I decide to try catching the Bus back to Montparnasse. BIG mistake. Packed, slow – very very slow After over an hour and a half we arrive at the intermediate stop of Gare de Lyon. I decide to get out here and make my way home via Metro. Mistakenly I walk to Bastille to catch the 8 line direct train..... enough detail... Having left Beeb at the airport at 5.45 I get home at 9.00pm. It's the train for me at peak traffic times from now on.

Friday 13th

Musee d'Orsay in the morning - our favorite museum. Kwan likes Renoir, Beeb likes Manet and Philip's favorites Monet, Van Gough et le ambience de la Musée.

Lunch at the museum restaurant. Food is good and service friendly. Beeb does not feel like wine for lunch but the young waitress insists she should try and tells us that French parents give wine to their children very young (like 3) to try to teach them enjoy the culture of wine.

Major shopping therapy for Beeb in the afternoon in the 1st and 6th.

Dinner at a local restaurant, Le Maupertu , with a view of Les Invalides After we go to Le Champ de Mars to see ET sparkle à onze heures.

Thursday with Beeb

We have an easy morning and Kwan and Beeb get all dressed up for our fancy lunch at Les Ambassadeurs at the Crillion Hotel. It is absolutely fantastic, be it food, service, ambience. They even picked fresh leaves from the garden for our herbal teas!

Beeb goes out in the evening on her own and we take it easy and have a simple vegetable stir fry dinner.






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Mercredi au revoir Clare

This is Clare's last day.

We have coffee and croissants at Cafe de la Paix before exploring Galleries Lafayette. Last minute shopping for Clare and major excursion on Brittany's Parisian calendar. Success all round.

Philip reserves surprise lunch which means two Metros back to the left bank to Bouillon Racine, an establishment which is near to impossible to get into in the evenings but dejeuner is not so difficult.

Apres we travel out to La Défense. A must, to see another side of Paris - the business quarter.

Back home Clare does a quick pack and Philip escorts her to Opera from which she catches the CDG bus for her evening flight back to Oz.

Dinner at home.

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Mardi rive gauche

Clare spends the day with her friend Bridie.

Kwan, Beeb and Philip walk to St Germain and have hot chocolate at Café de Flore. Retail therapy until lunch at Le Comptoir. This is a very nice brasserie. No reservations.

Kwan and Beeb continue at Le Bon Marche and philip walks home.

In the evening we have Chinese dinner with Jacques, Annie, Vincent and Jane at Mirama.

Lundi marche de la Seine

We decide today to visit the Grand Palais - which everyone is telling us is stunning after its renovation. It's a nice 20 minute stroll down Esplanade des Invalides from our place on a sunny spring morning. The mandatory 30 minutes queue is in progress for security and to let those bright sparks who reserved in advance pull rank on us. It turns out we have been queuing for The Golden Age of Classical India - The Gupta Empire. The other one is the queue around the corner. So we stay. It's OK but we are really here to see the magnificent building. We see a staircase - no glass roof or the wonderful construction built for the 1900 Exposition. After the Indian antiquities we circumnavigate the building looking for the entrance to the magnificence. It must be closed, given today is a public holiday. Let's get set for lunch before it gets too crowded.

Across the Champs Elysees is the Pavilion Elysee Lenotre - surely we will not get in here on such a magnificent sunny public holiday in spring. - The gods are smiling on us - "no outside table Monsieur but a nice one inside", parfait. Apres dejeuner we walk through the gardens up to the Louvre and then along the Seine with the cyclists, roller bladers and other amblers to Ile St Louis and through both Iles before catching a Metro home.

A classic Parisian day in the parks and along the Seine.

Dinner at the local Italian joint.

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Brittany et Vivaldi

Clare heads out after our coffee and croissant at the local - this has become a ritual now - to explore the left bank.

Kwan and I head off to the Organic Market on Boulevard Raspail. Some good some very ordinary all more expensive because it's organic. We have an early lunch at Le Nemrod in rue du Cherche Midi, not far from Bon Marche. Food is nice and a happy experience.

I head off on train to CDG to pick up Brittany who is scheduled to arrive at 2.20pm - she's early, I'm late.

In the meantime Clare has spotted a Vivaldi, Four Seasons recital at St Jullien le Pauvre at 5pm. Kwan is sceptical and Beeb is humouring us. While no doubt targeted at tourists the musicians turn out to be excellent as is the venue and the whole experience. Kwan is also impressed - Beeb is tired.

We look for places to eat - but we are a stone's throw from Notre Dame which seems to be the tourist capital of Paris these days. All the restaurants seem to be there solely for extracting money from visitors wallets. I remember a wine bar in the back blocks of Ile de la Cité and we go there. one of only 2 tables at 7pm. La Colombe - Atmosphere is great, food is simple - mission accomplished.

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Samedi Murphy at work

We set out to go to Jeu de Paume and arrive to find it has just closed as of 1st April for work. No probalem we had planned to follow this with a visit to Musée de L'Orangerie nearby; so we walk across the Tilleries to find it does not open for another hour and a half. No probalem we shall use the time to visit Madeleine, somewhere none of us have previously been. We still have a little time after to browse the food delicacy shops in the surrounding square.

Returning at 12:30 (the opening time) to Orangerie we find ourselves in what turns out to be a 40 minute queue - mostly caused by the security screening. No probalem once inside we find the most amazing exhibition of Monet paintings together with Renoir, Cézanne, Derain, Picasso and Matisse. This is definitely a Musée to put on the must do Paris list. Kwan discovers a female French painter, Marie Laurencin, to her liking.

Now after 2:30 we head off to the the third part of our schedule where we are planning to have lunch in the restored 19 century dining area at Musee Jacquemart-Andre before exploring. It's quite a walk Boulevard Hussmann and by the time we get there the staff are putting out the sign telling us that only afternoon tea is now being served. "No salad?", we enquire - "non". No probalem we will find something nearby. The local brasserie says the kitchen is closed and the nearest will be Champs Elysées. We stumble across a patisserie much closer and are well satisfied with a baguette - jambon et fromage et poulet et crudités we share.

Back at Jacquemart-Andre we partake in afternoon tea avec gateau et tarte - we are happy. The house and gallery prove very rewarding. Musee Jacquemart-Andre is a private museum in a mansion. The design of the mansion is really something (apparently it’s the architect who didn’t get to design the Opera House so poured his heart over this mansion instead). There are lots of Italian religious collections that are much better preserved than the ones we saw in Italian national museums. All of us were pleasantly surprised by this little museum and enjoyed our little tea in the salon which was part of the mansion with original tapestry and high ceiling.

We luck out with a last minute reservation at Brasserie Gallopin in the 2eme. This place is great - another good find; nice surrounding, good food, reasonable prices and waiters who treat you well.
- No probalem. So notwithstanding a day of many hiccups we are well satisfied in the end.

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Vendredi Monet's Jardin

We cross the Seine to Gare St Lazare. Monet's garden is in Giverny which is 75 kilometres to North of Paris, in Normandy, by the Rouen train to Vernon followed by a 15 minute bus ride. Our DIY tour goes to plan and we arrive at the ticket office of Monet's house and garden shortly after 1pm. While it is early in the season, the garden is very beautiful with lots of flowers showing off a stunning display on what has turned out to be quite a warm day of 20+C. The house has been preserved in its early 20 century state, colourful rooms many full of Japanese art, which he collected, as well a huge gallery with many reproductions of his famous works which are now spread across the museums and galleries of the world. The yellow dining room and blue kitchen are most memorable. The water garden lives up to its reputation as a gorgeous garden and not withstanding the many visitors is a most tranquil place. The lilies are not out yet, but colours and beauty still exceptional. We have lunch in a local eatery - salade, une bouteille de vin rosé et un morceau de tarte sitting in the sun. Far from gourmet food but we are thoroughly content and satisfied. A visit to the local church is equally beautiful and calm. The grounds have a memorial to the soldiers of the Commonwealth which incorporates part of the propeller of an allied plane which was shot down nearby. Adjacent is the Monet family plot and we overhear a guide say that there are no surviving descendants notwithstanding his having 8 children. Our return bus and train journey is crowded and goes to plan arriving back in Paris around 7pm. Dinner at our local favourite - Bistro 7eme. 9k