We decided the easiest way to get to Giverny from my apartment in the center of Paris was via car. We planned this adventure on a Saturday, to avoid the fun morning rush hour traffic of Paris. As there were five of us, we decided to rent something a bit bigger, a bit more American, to comfortably fit three adults and two children. The drive out of Paris was, surprisingly, quite simple on this summer’s morning.

As we approached the French countryside, we saw some of the morning dew turn to fog and burn off of the fields. I was in my normal, “let’s get there mode”, whereas my friends, who had never taken a car ride in Europe before, were definitely stopping to appreciate the scenery. As I had become used to driving around Europe, I thought nothing of it. Once it dawned on me that I was rushing through sites they had never seen before, I decided to turn off thee GPS and we all enjoyed the scenic route to Monet’s house.

The drive was just about two hours. Once parked, we entered the grounds to be greeted by the oh so typical line to enter a tourist attraction. Inside the grounds, the gardens were lush, the willow trees were beautiful, and the sun started to shine through the grey clouds.

Once we had our fill at Monet’s house, toured his gardens, toured his home, and spent some time in the gift shop (as all good tourists must do), we searched for some castle ruins nearby and decided to take a random route home.

We found what we learned was Château Gaillard, a medieval Château which lay in ruins, 300 ft above the commune of Les Andelys overlooking the River Seine. The day had turned quite dark and grey by this point but we were determined not to let this ruin our fun. We parked in the visitor parking, hiked through the woods and up the hill on a late humid summer afternoon, and managed to get to the gates with just enough time to enter before closing. We paid some Euro’s to get in, and from there roamed around the Chateau imagining what life must have been like within those walls when it was built sometime around 1196.

Once the castle closed up for the evening, we meandered back to the car and headed back to the city of lights for a nice Parisian Saturday Dinner.