Settled in & Monet's Garden

Well we're settled into our very modest Air BnB right in the historic part of Paris. It's a five minute walk to the Louvre so we stretched our legs yesterday afternoon with a long walk along both banks of the river with a stop off at one of the many quaint cafe's that you would swear were used in the set of Allo Allo. The one we taste tested had a narrow spiral staircase that was only one grade better than a fireman's pole. I'm sure Grandma would have been in bed upstairs. Around our accommodation there are dozens of these indoor/outdoor cafes serving food and drink all day long. I suppose 27 degrees has that effect on our French mates.

The trip over was long as it always is. It was 26 hours from door to door with a couple of hours stopover in Doha. The 14+ hour Melbourne- Doha leg was on a full A380 with 531 passengers over the 2 levels. It's not only scary to think of the size of the plane to carry that many people but the consequences if one of them falls from the sky. How the hell does it get off the ground with all that luggage, fuel and passengers?

Unfortunately, we shared the cabin with 2 undesirables; the first was about 18 months old and squawked most of the way. The second was Chemical Ali who obviously had something rotting in his gut and thought the best way to cure it was to share it around. No way he would have a pulse; He smelt like he died a week ago!

The second leg was on a 2/3 empty plane giving us room to lie down across the row of 4 seats.

Finally, before I get going about Monet's gardens, I'll tell you about Taxi drivers in Paris. At the airport there are warnings everywhere about getting ripped off by unscrupulous private car operators. They advise to only hop in a taxi with a taxi light on the roof and expect to pay €50 to get to one side of the river or €55 to the other. Sure enough, the minute you exit the terminal you are confronted with a wall of con artists with more moves than rattle snakes trying to entice you away from the official taxi area and into their clutches where they'll happily try and screw anywhere from €75 - €90. Tell 'em they're dreamin! We took the €50 deal and all ended well.

Today we visited the village of Giverny and the house and gardens of Claude Monet. Beings somewhat of a philistine when it comes to art, the biggest private collection in the world didn't exactly float my boat but the gardens were certainly worth the trip out there. We booked the tour online from Melbourne and arranged pickup from our Air BnB. We shared a mini bus with a couple of South Africans and 4 Yanks. Our tour guide for the day was Andre and he was a well seasoned professional. He knew exactly what he needed to do to ensure a good return of tips at the end of the day. He was genuinely a good operator.

Monet's gardens were something to behold. We are about a month too early for the water lilies but there were some that had opened early. The lakes must be impressive when they're in full bloom. The rest of the gardens are superb. Although they're French gardens, there are lots of what I'd just call English garden plants. Plenty of giant Poppies, Rhododendrons, Roses and hundreds of other species. The house was in good repair and impressive. It was a bit of a Fawlty Towers design though with lots of ups and downs (not unlike Shakespear's joint)

The trip home was about 2 hours as traffic was pretty hectic. It was only about 80 Km from central Paris.

So tomorrow we join the bike trip. The temperature is forecast to be 29 degrees but there is a chance of a shower most days for the next week.

We'll let you know how we get on.

Enjoy the photos.