Amboise to Giverny

We set off after breakfast and thought we would stop at the Chauteau de Chaumont-Sur-Loire but it wasn't open so we only got to see it from the bridge, but we got the gist. We drove on to Giverny and for a while along the way we followed the beautiful Loire river.

We arrived at Giverny and headed to Monet's garden after a quick ham and cheese baguette for the girls and hot dog for the boys. We spent an hour or so strolling through the beautiful garden which in full spring bloom and again we have blue sky's to set it all off. The water garden is of course the best part and we spent most of our time here enjoying the scerenity Of the garden even with lots of other people around. We also went through the house and saw his studio full of paintings. We left via the shop and 'eraser success'.

We walked through the medieval part of town down rue Claude Monet eating icecream to the church where Claude Monet is burried. There is also a memorial here for 7 British Airmen who crashed their Lancaster bommer saving the village during the Battle of Britten.

We leave Giverny and head to our B&B which is not too far away in the next village Boise-Jerome which is through a forest. The B&B is and old farm and our host Maria speaks really good English, her husband Carl is South African and they met in London. They have 2 kids, one is only 7 months old but they live in the studio oposit the B&B.

Tonight we had dinner at the Old Hotel Baudy in the Giverny Village which has a beautiful rose garden for dinner. Our host Carl works there so it comes highly recommended. When Monet lived here it was a simple small 'epicerie buvette' and offered a simple meal. When it was discovered Monet lived and worked but a stone throw away an increase in demand saw the hotel at the village centre. The garden followed the trend where everyone wanted a garden and it's proximity to Monet's garden added to it's creation. Artists used to set up their easels From May to June amongst the ocean of roses. Today the garden retains it's enchanting abandon and you can imagine the ladies in crinolines standing here a century ago. Dinner was wonderful, we all had the 3 course French style dinner and we where full and happy when we left. I had the salmon and the others had the turkey for main. The meals where a good size and the service excellent.

Another great day in France. It's still hard to believe we are a actually here doing all the things we talked about.

Last night we ate French also, we had the snails in pastry with this amazing garlic sauce for entree then Kathy had salmon, Richard duck and I had a Casanova salad. Noel was boring and had a pasta cabonara. We finished it off with a crepe for dessert. The resturant is at the base of the castle and we sat at a table outside which was just great.