Bluey Blog - Official Blog of Robert B. Bluey

A Day Trip to Giverny: Photos From Our Fifth Day

The day started early and turned out to be one of the best yet. We jumped on a train headed 50 miles west of Paris to Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny. The trip took about 90 minutes, including a four-mile bike ride from the train station though the town of Vernon to his house. It was great to get a bike ride in on the vacation, and even better because it served a very useful purpose.

We spent several hours there admiring the beautiful gardens and water lilies. Temperatures were in the topped out in the 70s today, which made for wonderful weather in the French countryside. After an excellent ham-and-cheese sandwich along a dirt road in Giverny, we headed back to town and caught the train to Paris.

Upon arriving back in the big city, we headed to the Opera House. We opted not to go in, but just the outside was well worth the view. Just a few blocks away was the hotel where I stayed during my last visit 11 years ago. I even found the great crêperie where we often ate.

From there it was off to see the best view of the Eiffel Tower in Trocadéro. We snapped several pictures and made our way underneath the tower, past Ecole Militaire, down the famous Rue Cler, and finally to Les Invalides. We ate dinner at a great place called Coffee Parisian recommended by Missy’s co-worker Jen.