Brit'Hotel Versan Rouen

... around enjoying the fresh air and the city until we got hungry and needed to stop for a snack. We got some pastries and sat by the River enjoying our meal. We noticed a pretty little peninsula under the bridge and decided to check it out where we took a bunch of pictures.

We spent most of the evening looking for campsites and failing. We ended up finding a Formula 1 hotel which is cheap and efficient. The best ...

... a lovely (and cheap) bottle of the local cider.

We didn't venture out into Rouen deciding to leave it for the morning.

When we did we saw where Joan of arc was burnt at the stake, and the tower where she was locked pending her trial.

The old town was full of tudor style buildings, but the highlight was the ancient one handed town clock.

... your place on the fast trains; secondly because the machines won't accept my cards so I can't avoid trying to communicate with the staff; and thirdly it is hard to understand French (more so than German) when they announce the platforms and because they don't have information to show what the next town is. I have been lucky enough to choose popular or end stations, and on direct trains (which is lovely), so I haven't needed to worry about missing my platform.

We flew into Paris Beauvis Airport and took a shuttle bus the rest of the way into the city. Onto the metro to connect with the main line trains. The metro is awesome and very easy to use. It would be totally idiot proof if I spoke a bit more French and had a better idea as to how the city is layed out, but we will save that for a later post.

I will not be using any contactions in this post because I am typing on a French keyboard and can not seem to find ...

... the foothills as a backdrop. Maybe it doesn't take much to impress me but the parking lot was really awesome.

Monet's house and gardens were only a short walk from the bus and we entered into the sun garden first. The sun garden can best be described as a flower garden. Beds are intersected with thin paths for one to two people in some areas and in others by large promenades, like the one from the gate to the front of the house. The colors were so pretty, just the many ...

... I dont know much about it all but I find it pretty! Chris took all the pictures of the building from the outside. It was a great day and the sun was shining making for sum beautiful pictures. The streets are fun to walk around in the area because its the fabric district and there were fun tourist shops all over. We walked through Place du Tertre which is an area for artists to paint for the tourists and sell their work. We even walked ...

... give or take.  We were trying out our new Garmin that we had "given" each other Christmas 2007 but never bought until a week ago.  In England, the lady in the machine tells you when not to take an exit, which was mildly annoying.  We had booked the 4:30 ferry and the trip took us about two hours and fifteen minutes, so we arrived with little room to spare.  We pulled up to passport control and the people thought about checking our passports but it seemed they ...

... think our "2 in 1" shampoo/conditioner is actually just conditioner. Size matters. Everything here is about a third of the size compared to the US. For instance, my (roll-on) deodorant stands about 3 inches tall-and that's normal. It also smells like coconuts, which may or may not be normal. Wine bottles are normal sized, but you know that. Trash cans are annoyingly small, the one in our kitchen doesn't even make it up to my knee. Our supply of clean ...

... inventions, he was so intelligent beyond his time, its incredible! We struggled to find somewhere to park... and eventually found a nice piece of grass only to start making dinner and a French man came and yelled at us and shooed us off what must have been his land! Can't blame us for trying! We ended up in a small pullover off a tiny road with a great view so all was good! The next stop was the largest sand dune in Europe, Dune de pyla was quite impressive and quite a ...

... it all three of us were pushing and shoving our way down the aisle, trying to haul three suitcases to a non-smoking car. The dream of this car was soon shattered and we were looking for seats of any kind. The train began to move and we were still stuck between dozens of disgruntled French passengers. We finally ended up standing in a luggage area for 90 minutes and met two French teenagers who were happy to converse and commiserate with Americans. Grandma was ...