Day 1
We got on the bus and headed out, I think going north out of Paris. We arrived on Bastille Day, so not much was going on. I’m told there were fireworks in Caen (where we stayed) last night, but I did not hear them. Most of us didn’t.
Anyway, our first stop was Monet’s home in Giverny. Monet, as you may know, was an impressionist painter most famous for his picture called Water Lilies. The garden he painted is at his Giverny home, so we got to walk around the lily pond, taking pictures of all the flowers. I walked with Larry Smith and Tom and Jeanne Gee, and they are very knowledgable about the flowers. We went through the house, seeing Monet’s first studio and some of the Japanese prints he collected. Looking at the gardens from the upstairs windows was lovely and peaceful. I could imagine getting up in the morning and seeing the flowers.
I was wearing my CIT t-shirt (because it was comfortable to travel in), and in the gift shop a couple came up to me and said they were 1973 graduates of Concordia. We agreed that it is a small world.
On the way from Giverny to Caen, we stopped at Pegasus Bridge. The site was where glider units landed after D-Day. They landed about 50 feet from the bridge, which was among the first sites liberated. The original bridge is at the museum across the street, but the bridge over the river was replaced with a copy. It was neat to see both.
We finished the day at Caen where we’re staying for the next few days. We had dinner at the hotel and then crashed - big time.
