Bayeux and Giverny

After the D-Day tour, we needed something a bit brighter.  And although it was raining, this lovely little vignette in Bayeux momentarily did the trick.

Here's half of the Bayeux Tapestry, winding its way around the dark recesses of the small museum.  (Nobody told me I couldn't take a picture, and nobody hauled me off to the local prison when I did take a picture, so I guess it was okay.)  The tapestry was amazing.  Spoiler Alert!  William the Conqueror wins the Battle of Hastings at the end.

C and E enjoy the view inside Bayeux Cathedral.  Now that I think about it some more, I'm not sure they were enjoying it, because moments after this was snapped they both indulged in one of their exceedingly rare (but in this case very ill-timed) fits of being simultaneous stinking rotters and utter pills.  One at a time we can handle.  But both at the same time...  Thank God (literally) that it happens so rarely I can count them on the fingers of one hand.  They are marvelous girls, and these episodes are mercifully short-lived.  All was forgiven before we exited back into the rain.

And on to Giverny where, in the pouring rain, we walked through Claude Monet's gardens and house.  Yes, those are the very water-lilies (or at least descendents of them) that he painted over and over again.  It was uncanny how the gardens and the paintings seemed to unite in this experience.  In the rain, the gardens seemed impressionistic themselves, and the paintings seemed even more realistic. 

One of the Japanese bridges in Monet's garden at Giverny.  See?  It looks just like it does in the painting!  Magic.

Who doesn't love a weeping willow?

Monet's house.  C has spent the last three days imaging she was Claude Monet's daughter and inherited this house as-is, where she lives in early 20th-century splendor, donning sumptuous floor-length dresses day after day and painting to her heart's content while servants and maids take care of her every need.  We must be a colossal disappointment to C, given that we own no magical mansions in France and have not provided her with even a single servant to do her chores for her.  Living in Orem and having to make your own bed is SOOOO declasse.