Today Ammon was feeling really sick. He sweat a lot at night and had a fever in the morning. He was also extremely lethargic. Lily and I realized that he must have gotten heat exhaustion from the Versailles day (which was very hot) or a bug or both. Lily decided to stay home with Ammon while I took the girls to Giverny to see Monet’s home and gardens.
The way to and from Giverny was a CRAZY adventure. It has been such a gift to have Lily all the time on this trip. She is great with languages and even though she isn’t fluent in French, she knows some key words and can stumble through almost any interaction that we need. I on the other had was completely at a loss at the ticket machine in the train station. I did my best to look for Vernon which is the train stop I was supposed to go to. I couldn’t find it for the life of me, so knowing the train was leaving soon, I just picked a random destination and bought my adult ticket. Then I did the same for the kids tickets, but the machine only let me buy a booklet of kids passes, so I ended up buying about 10 kids passes. All in all, I paid 12.5 Euros. We jumped on the train and I was a bit worried that someone would stop to check our tickets (as happened yesterday on the way to Versailles), but I just figured I could look up with a puzzled look on my face, and display my 11 tickets for the wrong train and to the wrong destination and just hope they’d understand I was a very confused tourist and that they would have pity on me.
The way back was even more dramatic. Our bus was late, but we still got to the station two minutes before our train departed. We skipped buying tickets, ran strait on the train, and sat down with a good 90 seconds to spare before the doors closed. The next train left 2-3 hours later so we really wanted to make sure we caught this train. Again, if we got caught, I was hoping that displaying my abundance of tickets would solve the matter, lol. No one ever asked for our tickets, so I then started worrying that I underpaid for our journey. When we arrived in Paris, I tried to figure out again what tickets I was supposed to buy (now that there was no time pressure), but I still couldn’t figure anything out, so I just let it alone. What a crazy day of travel. But enough about the logistics! Let’s dive into our time at Monet’s house and gardens!
The garden was perhaps the most beautiful I have ever seen. And it gave me such an understanding into the inspiration behind so many of Monet’s paintings. Lily laughed when I told her over the phone that I didn’t realize that Monet was just hanging out in his own garden the whole time he was painting. I think the kids loved it too. Lydia did the flower close-ups (as well as the below rooster video). Didn’t she do a great job capturing the exquisite beauty of the flowers, and the um….the fascinating..uh…goofiness(?) of the roosters?
The inside of the house was so charming as well and it had so many of the beautiful colors from Monet’s paintings and garden.
After the house and flower garden, we toured the lily pond. We were on a time schedule because we wanted to catch our train. We moved through it pretty quickly, but it still made a huge impression (no pun intended) on me, and I assume on Lydia and Mary as well. Also, it was insanely crowded the whole time (I don’t even think it was peak time for crowds!), but that honestly didn’t really take away from just seeing what the place was like. It was incredible!
Here is Clarissa again breaking my back in the most adorable way possible, lol. The bus was late, so I stood like this for about 30 minutes. The girls got icecream at a nearby ice-cream truck. Lydia was startled by a bee and dropped her ice-cream off her cone, and the man was nice and gave her another scoop of ice-cream. Lydia returned the favor by tipping him. It was sweet.
As mentioned before, we barely caught the train without buying any tickets. Here’s me probably thinking about what will happen if they stop and ask us for tickets.
Here is Mary zonked out.
Here is Lydia zonked out.
And here is our silly mystery photographer looking as smug as ever. Lol, I love this picture.
Then we walked back to the apartment where we were staying.
We stopped at a park on the way and Lydia sat with me while the others played.
While I was in Giverny with the girls, Lily was resting, reading and taking care of our sweet Ammon. They also made it out for lunch, but he mostly sat there as he had very little appetite.
After arriving at home, we all went out for delicious Empanadas.
After Empanadas, I went home with Ammon who was still feeling sick, and Lily went around town with the girls. As soon as I got to the apartment with Ammon, he started throwing up majorly in the toilet on the main floor. He was such a champ about it. He just did it without any fuss or crying. Poor guy was really sick today.
I had such a fun daddy daughter day today. I love my family so much. Each person is so special to me. Off to more adventures tomorrow!