Summer is finally here

I've mentioned before that, lacking any sort of private outdoor space, we use the city as our backyard.  This weekend it looked like everyone else had the same idea.  The weather has warmed up and it finally feels like summer.

We were up near the Canal St-Martin for dinner on Saturday and the canal area was so crowded with people that they spilled over from the banks of the canal, covering the stairs of the bridges and the little pieces of land that you can only access by hopping a fence!

We had a picnic dinner in one of our favorite spots along the Seine on Sunday and the river banks were almost as crowded as the canal had been the night before.  There were even several areas where people were congregating for different types of dancing.  We did not join in the dancing, but we were serenaded by a group of musicians (three guitarists and someone playing a soprano saxophone) hanging out nearby.

Giverny

We had been talking about taking an overnight trip to somewhere close to Paris for a while when I read this article about Giverny in the New York Times.  We decided to take the train up to Vernon (a neighboring town) and spend the night in Giverny before heading to the Maison de Claude Monet, where the painter lived from 1883 to 1926.

While we were excited about seeing the gardens that inspired so many of the paintings that we love, we did not expect to be so charmed by Giverny.  It is a very small town and was filled with color from the flowers lining the sides of the roads and spilling out of gardens around every corner.

(this house was for sale, but we resisted the temptation to buy it)

After spending a peaceful night in Giverny, we enjoyed breakfast outside on our room's patio before heading over to Monet's gardens.  

Though we walked right in when we arrived, the garden was already fairly crowded.  We spent a few hours wandering around the garden and found a long line of people waiting to get in when we left shortly after noon.  Giverny is an easy day trip from Paris, so it is not surprising that the middle of the day is the peak time for visitors.      

We walked up and down the main street of the town, looking at restaurant menus to find a place to have lunch before returning to Paris.  We ended up at Hôtel Baudy, where our lunches were very good, but the rose garden behind the restaurant was spectacular.  We were a little jaded after Monet's garden but this garden was almost empty, which was a pleasant counterpoint to our experience earlier in the day.

Monet's Garden in Giverny

Scenes from the weekend

Now that the days are (finally) warmer and the sun is setting later, it feels like we can fit just a little more into each weekend.

Like watching a dog politely sit in the booth next to his owner at a restaurant. . .

Finding a peaceful oasis in the middle of the crowded Marais neighborhood. . .

Walking along the Canal Saint-Martin in the evening. . .

And enjoying a gorgeous sunset at 10:30 at night.

Chicago

We were back in Chicago for a short visit last week.  I was able to spend some time playing tourist, something I did not do nearly enough during twelve years of living there.