Giverny, Waterlillies, Claude Monet, Bicycles, and No Rain

Life was good today! Giverny is where Claude Monet chose to live out the last half of his life, and "We Were There" to paraphrase Walter Cronkite.

As luck would have it, we enjoyed a nearly perfect day on our bikes. We sprang from our hotel this morning at 8:00, and as we made our way along St Germain de Pres we spied, a Starbucks! The clouds parted with a glorious chorus of angels as we entered into Nirvana. (Ok, Ok, maybe overstated a wee bit, but it was nice to have a mocha after almost a month.)

Duly fortified, we set off for Gare Saint Lazare, one of five huge train stations here in Paris. We decided to walk there from our hotel, no surprise, eh, a 5 kilometer hike.



The bike tour to Giverny, began with a train trip to Vernon, which is only a few miles from where Arnie lived in the early to mid 1960's. It was almost a homecoming. There bright banners flying and everything! Oh wait, that was for Bastille Day on Saturday. Never mind.







This old mill balances on what is left of a crumbling bridge. It was built in the 1600's and was a very successful business supplying ground corn and wheat up and done the Seine and beyond.




Tourelles castle was built in 1205 to defend Normandy from the English.




Monet's garden and home were lovely, and we found some flowers we really would like to add to our garden, if we can find them when we get back, but was too overcrowded with people to suit Arnie.




After a full day on our bikes we were back on the train by 6:40. A highlight for Arnie was figuring out the bus route to the hotel. We found our bus, after a bit of fretting, and after a leisurely, and uncrowded ride from the station, we were delivered to within a couple paces of our hotel! Arnie was beside himself with this traveling success.
As it was by now raining once again,we decided to spend the evening in the hotel restaurant. What we did not know was our hotel has an excellent one. We relaxed and shared bites of Eggplant Parmigiana and Spinach Ravioli, and topped it off with a great Tiramisu.
I think it is safe to say that we had a gloriously successful day!
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Location:Rue Saint-Séverin,Paris,France

Another video that I like about cycling in Amsterdam. A little Dutch rap to help it along.

This is a fascinating video from the Netherlands about their cycling infrastructure.

One of the reasons I like the Netherlands so much is exhibited in this video. Cyclists everywhere from 8 to 80 and only one person in lycra on a racing bike. They don't have much of a weight issue either it would appear. Click the lower right four corner box to go full screen.

Dateline: Zagreb I love it when I find a picture of a guy that bicycles to work and does it in style!

Source: copenhagencyclechic.com via Arnie on Pinterest

Cycle Train in Amsterdam

This is absolutely awesome. Look at those kids. By Amsterdamized - Marc van Woudenberg

The Dutch Have it Right!

Anybody who knows me, knows that I am nuts for bicycles.  And, traveling to the Netherlands a few years ago convinced me of that even more.  Now, my online reading often consists of visiting Dutch and Danish cycling sites including Amsterdamize.com.

The following is an absolutely fabulous video about cycling in the Netherlands and how they have created an education foundation because they are always being asked for information on how other countries can make the same changes the Dutch have.

Watch the short 7 minute video and see what I mean.

Cycling For Everyone from Dutch Cycling Embassy on Vimeo.

Copenhagenize.com - Bicycle Culture by Design: Bicycle Infrastructure 'n Stuff in Paris & Bordeaux

Copenhagenize.com - Bicycle Culture by Design: Bicycle Infrastructure 'n Stuff in Paris & Bordeaux

Two of my favorite topics. France and cycling. More to the point bike infrastructure and how the French are adding more and more bike lanes to go along with their city wide cycle sharing programs. The bikes, in some cases are allowed to travel two ways on one way streets, and cars are required follow an even lower speed limit.

It's interesting to note that the larger the vehicle the more responsibility that the driver has to take care of smaller vehicles and pedestrians. Seems we have that a bit backward here.

Many of the cities in France, throughout Europe actually are adopting bike share programs. When we were in Rouen, France we were able to see theirs up close and personal.  Really doesn't work to well for me as the bikes, like most, don't adjust well enough to fit my frame.