{"id":416,"date":"2012-04-29T09:55:07","date_gmt":"2012-04-29T08:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=416"},"modified":"2025-11-23T05:15:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T05:15:20","slug":"blog-de-la-fleur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2012\/04\/29\/blog-de-la-fleur\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog De La Fleur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a second night in France, at a camp site where we couldn\u2019t find anyone to pay and thus no French stick arrived, we decided to do a cooked breakfast\u2026..well, boiled eggs and yesterday\u2019s French stick toasted to perfection\u2026.. \u00a0We 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.\u00a0 But one thing I don\u2019t 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 !!!!!<\/p>\n<p>Finally we\u00a0turned on Gertie the GPS and set it for Giverny.\u00a0 I think she took us via a rather strange\u00a0route and her French pronunciations are hilarious (even worse than Rodney\u2019s), but we got there and then couldn\u2019t find a car park that didn\u2019t have a barrier above 2m.\u00a0 The man at the coach park wouldn\u2019t let us in, but he directed us up to the village&#8217;s main street where we found plenty of space to park.\u00a0 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\u2026.!? \u00a0\u00a0We ambled up through the village and then found a rather slow queue for Claude Monet\u2019s house and gardens, so we ducked off for an early lunch instead.\u00a0 Rodney continued in French style with a ham and cheese croissant, but I had to have the sushi\u2026&#8230;\u00a0 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 !!!\u00a0 We then joined a,\u00a0now shorter,\u00a0queue at the ticket office and finally entered the beautiful home and gardens of Mr Monet.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The azaleas were just starting to come out and we took loads of photos\u2026\u2026.sorry Nick\u2026\u2026.more flowers\u2026\u2026!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_417\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-417\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-417\" title=\"Rodney at Claude Monet's house\" src=\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/P1060644-600x404.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"404\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-417\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rodney at Claude Monet&#8217;s house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_418\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-418\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-418\" title=\"Monet's garden\" src=\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/P1060649-600x398.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"398\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-418\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monet&#8217;s garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_419\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-419\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-419\" title=\"Monet's lily pond\" src=\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/P1060661-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-419\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monet&#8217;s lily pond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_420\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-420\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-420\" title=\"Azaleas in Monet's garden\" src=\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/P1060667-600x399.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-420\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Azaleas in Monet&#8217;s garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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.\u00a0 Tonight I whipped up a salmon in pesto and parmesan served with roast potatoes and veggies, followed by the usual dark chocolate and fruit.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite different cooking up a meal in such a tiny space and I\u2019m going to have to think up some more recipes that are quick and easy, but I know we won\u2019t starve, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_421\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-421\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-421\" title=\"Eileen's kitchen I don't think !!!\" src=\"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/P1060650-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-421\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eileen&#8217;s kitchen&#8230;&#8230;. I\u00a0wish !!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a second night in France, at a camp site where we couldn\u2019t find anyone to pay and thus no French stick arrived, we decided to do a cooked breakfast\u2026..well, boiled eggs and yesterday\u2019s French stick toasted to perfection\u2026.. \u00a0We followed this up with hair-washing in showers where you have to continually press a button [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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