Blog De La Fleur

After a second night in France, at a camp site where we couldn’t find anyone to pay and thus no French stick arrived, we decided to do a cooked breakfast…..well, boiled eggs and yesterday’s French stick toasted to perfection…..  We followed this up with hair-washing in showers where you have to continually press a button to keep the hot water flowing; not such great fun, but you get into a rhythm with it.  But one thing I don’t get is the lack of seats on French toilets, though as Rodney has pointed out, it is better than hole-in-the-ground squat toilets !!!!!

Finally we turned on Gertie the GPS and set it for Giverny.  I think she took us via a rather strange route and her French pronunciations are hilarious (even worse than Rodney’s), but we got there and then couldn’t find a car park that didn’t have a barrier above 2m.  The man at the coach park wouldn’t let us in, but he directed us up to the village’s main street where we found plenty of space to park.  This seems a rather strange set up, when I would have thought it preferable to put small cars up in the narrow streets and put campervans in car parks….!?   We ambled up through the village and then found a rather slow queue for Claude Monet’s house and gardens, so we ducked off for an early lunch instead.  Rodney continued in French style with a ham and cheese croissant, but I had to have the sushi……  Maxime, you can get sushi in France, and despite being miles from the sea, it was really fresh and melted in the mouth, tres delicieux !!!  We then joined a, now shorter, queue at the ticket office and finally entered the beautiful home and gardens of Mr Monet.  The water lilies are not in flower until July and August, but there must have been thousands of tulips, daffodils and hyacinths, plus masses more plants in flower.  The azaleas were just starting to come out and we took loads of photos…….sorry Nick…….more flowers……!

On the way back to the campsite we stopped off at McDonalds for coffee and wi-fi, followed by our first visit to a Carrefoure supermarket for our daily dinner shopping.  Tonight I whipped up a salmon in pesto and parmesan served with roast potatoes and veggies, followed by the usual dark chocolate and fruit.  It’s quite different cooking up a meal in such a tiny space and I’m going to have to think up some more recipes that are quick and easy, but I know we won’t starve, that’s for sure.