Rain, rain, go away...

Well, even if it doesn't and it doesn't look like it will, Paris, Giverny and the medieval city of Vernon are nothing short of charming. The tour leaders are apologizing profusely for what they call their "extended winter."  Imagine, I have been kvetching about winter in New England for the past several months, and I understand it's quite lovely in North Kingstown. Hopefully there will be enough rain to coax the seedlings to do what Claude Monet taught his Nasturtiums to do: they are planted on either side of a pebbled lane, and grow toward each other until they meet in the middle and appear to be a moving river of flowers.
They say this weather is good for your skin...then they say it makes the grass happy, the cows happy..the human beings, not so happy. But Kevin and I are very happy!  Monet's gardens at Giverny  are breathtaking, even the drooping tulips...they resemble a sad woman in a painting; an ancient church in Vernon anchors lines of houses built from local white stone and oak...six hundred years old and  leaning into each other like drunks on the way home from a wild party.
Now we are having a lecture on the French food culture. Presented by a Young German woman who would do well in a Woody Allen movie...maybe Midnight in Berlin.  She claims croissants came  from Austria ... and in the morning you should eat it dunked in hot chocolate.
Well, maybe tomorrow, in Rouen, we'll try that. Au revoir!