Friendly Faces From Home

We are finishing up our second week in Paris. Last Thursday, my friend Joan and her husband Remy came to stay with us. They are starting a 3-week stay in France, heading off to Provence on Thursday. Then Chris's sister Lisa and her husband Jan will stay with us few days.

I've been slowly recuperating from what turned out to be campylobacter bacteria infection. I received an alarmed email from the doctor who treated me to switch from the antibiotic I was taking to azithromycin. She prescribed a 1000-mg blast to deal with it. I had totally lost my appetite, so as I slowly increased my repertoire of food, I started to feel better. 

On Saturday, the four of us decided to hop a Big Red Bus and get the overview tour of Paris. It was helpful for me to do something relatively low impact. It turned out to take longer than we thought, as we ended up in some serious traffic tieups around rush hour. 

Here's a picture of the Eiffel Tower from the bus:


That evening we attended an immersive luminescence show with an orchestra at St. Eustache Church here in Paris. It started out with actors portraying figures from the history of Paris and the church. But the real show was the sound and light projected onto the structure of the church, which was massive and quite impressive. This YouTube video might give you a good sense of what it was like.


It was very cool, but it started at 10:30 p.m., which is a little late in the day for us older folks. I was pretty wiped out at the end of the day and was happy to take it easy on Sunday.

Yesterday (Monday), we went to Giverny, the town in Normandy where Claude Monet had his country estate. It took about an hour plus to get there. It actually took us a bit longer, as we boarded the local train to Giverny rather than the express. But at least we got there!

I'm sure many of you have seen the iconic picture of the bridge over the pond at Giverny. Here's my version - including all my fellow tourists!


We enjoyed taking in the gardens and the house, although, it was quite chilly, and we should have bundled up a bit more than we did. The house is full of art - Monet's and others'. Chris and I will definitely go out there again - in warmer weather.

I really like this picture with the reflections on the pond and the two ancient rowboats.


I'm not sure what we'll do or where we'll go next. So stay tuned.

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