Monet's garden - Giverney...

A couple of weeks ago, I found I had a free weekend... the only one before October, which, while something to enjoy, I also found frustrating that I have let work take over to the degree that I cannot be away from here for more than a few days at a time... And I am beginning to get itchy feet and thinking about moving south. I want somewhere without 6 or 7 months of winter to pay for each year. 2 or 3 months of heating bills will be quite enough.

And ground work needs to be done... where to move to, and how much could we muster?

Nevertheless, I left home at 2.45pm one Friday towards the end of June and got to Mrs. Pondlife's office at 4pm, and off we went. After seething in a traffic jam on the auroroute in the Jura for an hour we pushed the pedal to the metal and drove north towards Paris and Normandie picking up two speeding tickets on the way (they arrived chez nous two days after we did), and eventually found our way to our humble tumble down medieval B&B.

The following day Monet's garden awaited.

I had wanted to visit this place for a good many years; it was just never that high up on the list.

It was however, magical.