Last day in Paris

Didn’t get a good sleep and up fairly early for our 8 am departure for the optional tour to Giverny to visit Monet’s garden There are only 9 of us doing the tour with Laura so you think as a little group it would be very easy to manage but you haven’t factored in Henry and Ann. Forecast about 21 today. Perfect blue clear skies. Due to our early departure from the city we make good time so are at the venue’s car park a bit before 9. We want to be amongst the first there as it gets super crowded and it is the weekend. Anyway we all have our headsets and recorders so that we can hear Laura as she leads us at a slow pace across the bus car park, across a little flat bridge, through the underground tunnel to the other side of the road and then onto the footpath which about 500 metres further along the straight road is the entrance to the gardens. Well, we amble along towards the entrance, all listening to Laura tell us when Monet moved to the area and how long he lived there, etc, etc but as we approach the entrance and she does a head count, there are 7 of us, but Ann is about 300 metres behind us, coming along the footpath. She finally reaches us and asks us where f***ing Henry is as she was in a world of her own and has no idea when she lost track of him. So we wait, and we wait and she decides to go looking for him, which I know right away was not going to end well. So we wait, and we wait and after what has now been a good 20 minutes, With neither of these two numpties in sight, Laura says that she will go and get the tickets for all of us. So I decide to go back and check the footpath in time to see H walking half way along the long stretch, but heading in the opposite direction! WTF? I yell out his name at the top of my lungs, he turns towards me and I do some unladylike hand movements that he finally understands means “I had better walk towards that woman, as she seems to mean business!”
I then return him to the fold, but he hadn’t seen A in his wandering, at the same time that Laura gets a phone call from Ramzi to say that A has returned to the coach. Give me strength and refrain me from king hitting both of them! So Laura leads us into the garden to have a look around as she goes back to recover A. I have worked out that by putting their initials together I get AH and I realize I’ve used that term quite a bit under my breath towards them... what added considerable insult to injury was the the big prick never apologised!!!
However tweedle dee and tweedle dumber are not going to spoil my morning as we get to wander through the most glorious gardens and the water features. It didn’t matter what direction I looked the colours were magnificent. I’m only going to give you a mere taste of how fabulous Monet’s gardens are. You simply have to see them for yourself and I know that depending on the time of year you visit, the whole th8ng will be different, but equally spectacular.

We also get to go into Monet’s house and there are copies of his paintings everywhere. There is even a Renoir.

The view from one of the upstairs bedroom was just beautiful.

The kitchen was absolutely a dream and I would so love to have something similar.

A visit to the gift shop and a couple of minor purchases and time for a coffee in a nearby cafe. Some lovely scenes on the way back to the hotel, and then we hit the Paris traffic, but thankfully it was not too bad for us heading into the city. Can’t say the same for the extra heavy traffic heading out. Bumper to bumper and very slow.

More to add for today but it is now almost midnight and it’s time for lights out.
Check back later.

We arrive back at the hotel but only have about an hour befor our last group exercise where we are to go for a foodie walk through a market, so J and I head across the road to the Convention Centre (which is directly across the road from our hotel)And in the basement complex locate a Paul bakery where we both grab a chicken and salad multi grain bread roll and back to our room to wash it down with the last of the Malbec.
The foodie tour we are about to do is a first, so how it is meant to roll out is untested. Unfortunately a major protest was occurring near the venue planned for our walking tour, so instead we head to the 6th Arrondissement to a trendy upmarket artisan market. Unfortunately though it was early afternoon and typical of the French a number of the stalls were closed for their long lunches. However our group of 24 is broken into two groups (I make it my mission to avoid The AH duo) and our group sets off with Florent our local guide. Chaos then ensued. We wandered about somewhat aimlessly until Florent decided to plonk us near a chartucerie stall where we sampled pork and jambon but I didn’t have any as the previous two occasions I ate the highly prized jambon in Spain I projectile vomited - clearly something to do with the meat drying process involving sulphur, anyhow we then are at a seafood stall where we are able to sample a fresh oyster which was excellent. More wandering aimlessly until we purchase a couple of different cheese and then to a boulangerie for crusty bread.

We then walk to a park (no grass just lots of cement and a big fountain with a few seats under trees around the perimeter.Florent then dishes out some crusty bread to each of us and slivers of the different cheeses as we stand or perch on a couple vacant seats in the shade.

We are then offered a piece of a chocolate eclair which was the creamiest, richest eclair ever. Time for a quick wander into the nearby cathedral, 2nd biggest in Paris. Wander back to the coach and then back to the hotel we only have an hour before we are heading out to our optional cabaret show.
On the way to the hotel we pass the entrance to the tunnel in which Diana died in the car crash, however the gold flame statue that is erected at the entrance has nothing to do with her death, but in fact is a replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty, however it has since become somewhat of a shrine to her.

There is quite a saga about going to this show or not for some of our tour group, particularly those of us who are going on to do the next tour and their ‘demanding’ to go to the welcome dinner for the new tour group which is on at the same time. Suffice to say J and I were not part of the ‘we are entitled’ group.
As this was our last chance to see Betty and David we spent a few minutes with them saying our goodbyes, and promises to keep in touch. Back to our room for a quick change and then we are off to Nouvelle Eve with Anna (on the walking stick and deaf as a post) and Laura. We have a big coach to ourselves! We are greeted by the owner upon arrival and chat with 2 of the performers who are only too happy to have their photo taken with us (I have to wait for Laura to send it to me as it was taken on her phone) and then we get what we believe are the best seats in the house! Laura isn’t able to sit with us but makes sure we settled in and our last night in Paris is underway.

The wine is free flowing and the food truly was the best full meal I’ve had on the tour, even though we’ve also had some great Individual course meals. I had a salmon terrine with cocktail dressing starter followed by Chateaubriand fillet steak (cooked to perfection) with home made Bernadine sauce, fondant Charlotte potatoes cooked in Normandy butter which I couldn’t fit in as I filled up on the meat and her roasted tri-coloured carrots. A small cheese platter followed, then Two scoops of ice cream gourmand Madagascan vanilla and toffee, but I begged off dessert as I couldn’t eat another thing.

I’m currently updating the blog on the coach so once again you are going to have to check back later for photos and a couple more gems about our evening.
The show had commenced and what a show it was. Not allowed to take photos during the show, but imagine colour, great music, fabulous costumes albeit very skimpy, and great dancing. Great guest acts in between the dancing too. We have had a great night, although I ended up with a sore throat straining to repeat everything twice that I said to Anna. The show finishes and our coach is waiting right out the front of the theatre for us, even though it was meant to wait 2 blocks away. So our coach holds up traffic in the street for the four of us to get on and back to our hotel we go. We pass the Moulin Rouge on the way back to our hotel it certainly has a very eye catching facade, but I doubt I could have enjoyed their show any more than I did this one, plus it’s the best full meal I’ve had in France! Finally have lights out after a lovely day (could have done without the foodie tour) with alarm set for 6.30 am. Sigh...