Say it isn’t so!!!

Sorry all, Harry Potter arrived on Saturday, a full week earlier than I’d expected (bless Amazon.com), and I’m currently on my second reading. Last year I cried when Syrius died, but this, this is worse. I’m still in shock! I’ve never cried so hard reading one of these books. It’s all too much, I kept reading between the lines hoping for an out, hoping for a glimmer of hope that it had been a mistake, but no. It’s all I’ve really been able to do anyway, it’s just too hot to go anywhere or do anything too ambitious. ……………………….. Ok, so someone sent me this Link in response to the rabbit question, it explains everything quite clearly. …………………………

While J was in town we did a whirlwind 4 day weekend in Paris. We were finally able to visit Giverny and we also tried to take J to Versailles, but unknown to us we were there on the day of the Live 8 concert and couldn’t get within a mile of the place. We also did a quick Normandy tour and visited the American military cemetery as well as a quick visit to Mont St-Michel. So below I have a few photos of the trip. …………………………

The interior of the Musée D'Orsay, it's just a short walk from the Louvre and though only about a tenth its size, I liked it better. They house a fabulous collection of impressionist art. It's also a really cool looking building.

Monet's garden at Giverny. Looks just like the paintings doesn't it. Though the walkways that wind around the large garden are roped off making it hard to get around in the crowds of hundreds of milling tourists.

One of many photos that we took at the American Military Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. It contains the graves of over 9000 american soldiers killed in action. The cemetery overlooks Omaha Beach. There is also a wall inscribed with the names of 1557 soldiers missing in action. The cemetery is beautiful and immaculately maintained. It's quite eerie to walk among the crosses and Stars of David.

Mont St-Michel is one of the most popular tourist sites in France, so get there and tour the Abbey early before the crowds arrive or visit in early spring. The Mont receives over 3 million visitors a year and is quite the tourist trap, however, it really is a site to see and the views from the abbey are really something.

View from the cloister of Mont St-Michel. No it's not really wide open like that, thee's a Plexiglas sheet to keep people from plummeting to their deaths on the rocks below.