Giverny & Rouen

On our third day of adventures we headed to Giverny, which has Claude Monet's house and gardens. We had read reviews on the gardens and it sounded like it was worth the extra 90 minutes of driving. Let's just say, it didn't measure up. Maybe it would have been better a different time of year, but we still made the most of our visit to the gardens. One of our biggest complaints was that 90% of the paths you couldn't walk down, so you weren't able to get very close to many of the flowers. It's probably like that for a reason... Obviously I understand why they gated off this path:
Anyone familiar with Claude Monet's paintings can appreciate the lily pond:

We thought we would try to get a cute picture of Audrey sitting on the ground, but all she wanted to do was play with the pebbles. She even threw a fit when Andy picked her up when we were ready to move on.

We were able to coax a cheesy smile out of Rachel and in return she got to take a picture of each of us:

Andy in front of Claude Monet's house:

Cute picture of the girls - too bad there's so many shadows:

From Giverny we headed to Rouen, which was our final destination of our trip. Rouen is the historical capital of Normandy and most known for being where Joan of Arc was executed. We were expecting a small French town, but quickly found out that was not so. Once we got there we went on a search for some dinner. Along the way we found some cool architecture and an astronomical clock.

The underpass of the clock:

A memorial and the modern church of Saint Joan of Arc:

Now there's a genuine smile:
After walking around for awhile we finally resorted to getting Rachel a happy meal from McDonald's. We found several French cafes, but none of them would serve us until 8, so we just grabbed baguette sandwiches at a little stand. And just in case you were wondering Audrey enjoyed the sites of Rouen in the Beco:

We stayed in Rouen that night and then headed home the next day. So, that concludes our adventures in the Province of Normandy. We enjoyed the opportunity we had to see some more of Europe. The girls did really well considering the amount of time we spent in the car every day and the lack of good, quality naps. Our traveling is going to slow down now that cooler weather is coming. It's tricky to travel with two little ones and it's almost torture to travel with two little ones in the cold. So, who knows when our next adventure will be...