Hotel de la Cathedrale Rouen

... kitty sniffing around and Chris gave it a little bowl of milk. I guess it liked the milk since the next day there were paw prints going up our windshield and then a butt print of it sliding down again. I guess it was looking for a way in. We haven't found a cat in the van yet so I guess there was none!

Well it was back to Paris the next day with one last stop off in Versailles. There is always something else to see!

It was a rainy morning and neither of us were keen to get out of bed so it was a late start leaving Etretat. It is a relatively short drive today anyway as we are off to Rouen about 60km away. Of course we are taking the scenic route so it will take a bit longer. Etretat is just north of the mouth of the River Seine and winds inland to Rouen before ...

... is not a traditional church because it is built in a way that is supposed to remind you of how she died, it looks very modern.
I also booked my train ticket for the next trip which was interesting because she couldn't speak english, however I had written down what I wanted and it was sipmple enough although I had to catch a train later than I wanted for my eurrail pass to be valid. It is more difficult to travel in France; firstly because you MUST ...

... br>
Day two we woke up and hopped the train to Vernon about half an hour from Rouen to get to Giverney. We went to the house and gardens of Claude Monet. Neither of us were expecting such a huge garden. We just thought it was some dudes backyard with a pond and some lillypads but the place is pretty big. We had to wait for the bus to get us back to Vernon so we went and ate crepes sitting at a restaurant outside where we had to move our tables umbrella out of ...

... hues of reds, pinks, blues, oranges, and how they played off of each other was amazing. Our professor pointed out to us however that the gardens were not a representation of the way they were when Monet had painted them but I still think they were breath taking. The shade garden was actually located across the street from the sun garden and after passing through an underground tunnel to cross the street I thought I was in a completely different place.

The shade garden ...

... we drive down to Giverny in Normandy! It was about an hours drive through the countryside! I do love seeing cows! We decided to visit Claude Monets famous gardens! If you dont know him, he is a pretty well known artist who painted beautiful landscapes of his huge gardens and the countryside! The first nice thing of the day was that parking was free!! The gardens were beyond amazing. So many types of flowers and plants. It was another sunny day so ...

... as other towns along the Seine but did have some nice features. Tonight is the gala farewell party ... the food has been unbelievable and can not image what they have planned tonight! The German crew are nice enough but not really the passengers!

... we are going to down. Our windows are always open. We have no air conditioning. We hear pigeons and seagulls chirp endlessly throughout the day and night. They perch on the roof, inches above us...someday soon, I think one might casually step onto the ledge and into our place. I couldn't sleep the first night....with that same fear...and also because I didn't have a pillow, so I tried desperately to use my arm as one. Doesn't work. Now I have a pillow and a sound mind ...

... this is where Joan of arc was executed". We all agreed that they could do a little better than that. Since we succeeded in finding Joanīs site of death, we sat and had a drink together. The entire time in our wanderings we had been seeing people in weird costumes selling baked goods off of plates. And as we sat down for our drink we noticed that they all seemed to be congregating in the square, as were a group of younger teenagers. The teenagers started having a dance ...

... While I am advocating this card I should also mention that even without it anyone in the same age group could always save 25%. 2 hours later we arrived in Bayeux at the start of a gorgeous sunset. We had no idea how to get our hostel but we did know that it was less than a mile away so there was no need to take the bus. Luckily there was a map in the train station of Bayeux along with a nice tourist guide with maps and so about a 10 minute ...