BONJOUR! Day One- French adventure 2024

I’m not sure where to begin. I have not traveled for fun my entire life. It has always been to see family- or go where family wants to go- or spring break with teenage stepchildren, or for work and art shows. Going purely because I want to go- and completely unplugging for two weeks was all new.
And it was WONDERFUL.

My dear friend Jennifer York and I went to France in July of this year. We landed in Paris at 6 am and immediately took an Uber out of the city to the small village of Limetz. Many of Monet’s paintings feature this little town that felt right out of another century. It was so quaint and quiet. We landed at our little airbnb… and our host Annick greeted us an allowed us to rent the space for the morning so we could get settled before our first adventure.

Jena was snoring soundly in the little loft bedroom before I could even ask her what she wanted to do for the day! So we both got some rest… and in the afternoon our host sweetly served as our taxi and took us to the nearest town of Vernon so we could rent bikes. We rode our bicycles all around- stopping in front of a fancy patisserie… and parking for a moment to walk. We wandered into a grocery and both decided we wanted Bonne Maman Chocolate pudding as our first French snack. Which we proceeded to eat in front of the windows of the fancy Patisserie with all of their homemade treats. LOL

The first amazing thing we learned about France is that there are so many hours of daylight this time of year. So even though we did not rent our bikes until late afternoon- we were able to ride and explore until almost 11 pm because there was still daylight. We passed through Giverny ( where we will return tomorrow for a tour of the gardens and house of Monet!) and took the country roads back to our airbnb. In the field close to Limetz we spotted a deer - and spooked a beautiful male pheasant! The first time I have seen one in the wild… he was beautiful.