Food is the Reason for Travel

Yesterday we took our saturday on a little pilgrimage. We woke up early and took a 45 minute train to the small town of Giverny. Giverny is the home town of Claude Monet. The whole town has embraced the art of impressionism, because of him, and tourism because of him as well. When we got there, I felt as though I was coming home, well kinda. When we got out of the bus, there was a fragrance in the air that pulled me back 10 years and 10,000 miles ago. Among the trees that were planted in the town were roses. The self same roses that volunteer their blooms every spring in the green woods of Connecticut.
We walked to Monet's restored garden and traversed through it. We stopped to smell the roses more then a substantial handful of times. The main part of the garden is filled with blooming poppies and roses right now. It is at the tale end of the peonies, though the blooms that are left make up for the loss. We then walked under the road that has grown since Claude's time and finally saw the pond I imagined so many years ago back in first grade with Mrs. Mahoney. Though the bridge looks different and the edges of the water have a different contour, I could imagine a bearded man sitting in his rowboat with a paint brush. Some of the lilies were blooming and added the the image.

The garden was worth while but there was a severe age gap in the visitors. Either they were students, or they were retired americans who spent more time talking about their own gardens than looking at what was around them.

Today Mary and I fled the country. For 7 hours. We took the morning train to Brussels and spent the day there. We walked through the main tourist parts of the city and walked through the larger city parks. The best thing of the trip was the waffles. I would have to say, a single bite would have made the trip worth it. They were soft and moist with a carmelized glaze. MMmmm. So good. We also split a serving of escargot from a cart. They were good too, and very salty. The prices were better in Brussels than they are here in Paris so the shopping was good, or would have been good were it not Sunday. I suppose had it not been, I would have found the ever elusive boots I have been looking for. I did however find a nice leather dress shoe for less than 25 euro. It started raining only when we got back to Paris, so I suppose the weather held out for our trip and hopefullly will for tomorrow as well.