Third time's the charm: Paris...now without Julie: Day 6

Julie managed to defeat the Metro gates (the first time she got stuck with her luggage) and she was off to CDG to fly back home. I also took an early metro to St. Lazare to catch the train to Vernon to visit Claude Monet's house and gardens. I was there early enough that I walked down the street in search of a bakery. There was a tiny shop with some regulars standing at the kiosk chitchatting so I figured it must be good. I was right! The croissants had just come out of the oven and I had a warm buttery croissant before getting on the train.

The journey was about an hour and then I had to find the rental bike place so I could bike the 30 minutes to Giverny. Unfortunately, I happened to get the crappiest rental bike ever with gears that would slip and made it very difficult to keep up a rhythm. I made it to the house and gardens just as they were opening so I got in before the huge crowds.

My 14 year-old self would have been ecstatic to be there, but somehow the place even almost empty seemed too filled with tourists and small. It was fun to see and I stayed for a hour, but even then I kept having to move from bench to bench because I would "get in people's shots" as they took picture after picture. Funny enough, the pictures I took look better then reality.

I laboriously cycled back, thinking I'd go around Vernon for a few hours, but it was too crowded and generally uninteresting. I returned the bike, hopped on the first train to Paris and took a nap in the apartment.

That afternoon I also caught up on some blogging and researched ice cream places. The famous food blogger David Lebovitz had a list of his favorite ice cream places and Pozzetto's was his top one. I was sold. I got a pistachio and hazelnut combination and it was nutty heaven! I walked along the Seine then crossed halfway the Pont des Arts bridge and watched the foggy sunset.

Then made my way to the inner courtyard of the Louvre where the mood lighting had already kicked in. I sat on a bench and finished my Donna Leon mystery before being gently kicked out by the Louvre's security guards when it hit 10PM. Back home for Easter tomorrow!