Today was my first excursion outside of Paris and it could not have made me more excited to travel! The people in my program and I were taken on a one day trip to Rouen and Giverny, which were both absolutely beautiful in their own different ways.
Rouen is the city where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. A lot of it was destroyed during the bombings of WWII, but a section of the old town still remains. It is as pictoresque as you would imagine it to be. Narrow, cobblestoned streets, lots of flowers, tiny little apartment buildings and houses. Here are just a few of the photos I took:
Rouen's cathedral
conveniently named the Notre Dame
A side street in Rouen
In Giverny, we visited Claude Monet's home and gardens. No place has ever made me fall in love like this place did. It was beautiful beyond words. Unfortunately, my camera battery died just after I got there. But, one of my high school English teachers used to say that a translated book is like a broken pot that has been glued back together - it looks the same, but it will never hold water. I feel the same way about the few pictures I did take at Giverny. They just could not do it justice. The colors were so vibrant. The house was breaktaking. Even the air felt different. I cannot imagine living in a place like that. To wake up every morning and open the big french windows of every room and look out onto the gardens must have been incredible. Unfortunately the house isn't for sale, so now I can be jealous of Monet for more than just his artistic talent.
I may not know what I'll be doing two years from now, but at least now I have a plan for my life in 50 years: I will be a carefree old woman living in the French countryside tending to my gardens.
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