Our last day in Paris was supposed to be super chill. Greg even promised Jake lots of sitting today.

The plans for the day consisted of taking the train to Giverny to visit Monet’s Gardens. We have such fond memories of our last trip when Logan had a kids bike with a Timothy license plate from California and we had the best lunch near Monet’s house at an outdoor cafe.

We had planned to leave the apartment at 9:15 to make a short walk to where we had planned to store our luggage.

First, Greg, Brooks and I decided to take a quick morning walk. First to Starbucks and then just around the city since it’s our last chance.

We left our apartment to find our neighbor’s apartment (rented through the same property management company) wide open. This isn’t the first time this has happened. It’s really strange.

We made it to Starbucks and grabbed our lattes. Their cups are so flimsy over here it’s crazy. I mean definitely more environmentally friendly but not sturdy.

It was a beautiful day with the sun shining.

I’d been looking for a patisserie to stop in to grab some choices for breakfast and the only ones I saw had giant lines. We ran into a Carrefour grocery store for some baked goods.

We made it back to the apartment with just enough time to grab our Norvega cheese, finish our last minute packing and head to drop our bags. We had a very small cushion built in between bag drop, subway catching and the eventual train departure of 10:11am.

And we ran into our first issue of the day. When Greg booked our bags via the Bounce app the location showed as open. The Bounce app lies.

Logan sprang into action and found another location in the Bounce app that looked to be in the subway station.

Once we made it in the terminal we realized the store wasn’t in the terminal. Back up we went and Logan made his way to the tiniest grocery store ever to store our bags. Maddie is not convinced they will still be there when we return tonight but Logan assures us we have 10k coverage via Bounce.

After a mad dash to buy subway tickets and a super fast walk borderline run we made it on the train in the nick of time. We tightly packed so thankfully it’s only a few stops.

We made it to the train station and again borderline ran to find the correct platform.

This additional time afforded Greg to run to the restroom and Maddie, Jake and Logan a trip to McDonalds despite me stopping for breakfast at Carrefour. Apparently they didn’t have time to eat much and I didn’t bring the food with me. It was left in our bags at the sketchy store.

I seriously thought that they were going to have to leave the food they paid for. It was taking so long and Brooks and Greg had boarded the train. Greg called and said we’d better run.

Somehow Maddie got hers and Logan’s food (Jake already had his) and we ran to the train. Which at the time felt like such a relief.

We made the 51 min trip to Vernon-Giverny where we departed the train and looked for the bike rental place. Money’s garden is 3km from the station. Many people were getting on a jam packed bus. We chose bikes.

At first we headed the wrong direction off the platform (my bad) until Logan took the map and realized we needed to go down and cross over.

As we were waiting in line we began to discuss the various bike options. Maddie wanted an ebike and was willing to pay the difference. Greg offered to get Jake and Maddie a tandem bike and Jake said he wasn’t interested in riding a tandem bike with Maddie. So, regular bikes for all was the end result.

First stop was back to the train station for a quick bathroom break.

The ride there was fairly uneventful aside from not making it onto the bike path where we were supposed to enter. We had a backtrack a tiny bit to access it.

The ride really is a pretty one along the path and into Giverny with only a few small hills.

After 30 mins or so we arrived at Hotel Baudy our long anticipated lunch spot.

What we didn’t recall about Hotel Baudy was how weird the menu was. It makes me want to go back to see what we ordered.

Jake and Brooks opted for salads.

Maddie and Jake went exploring to find a warm spot in the sun after they ate as well as maybe a restroom. They uncovered the prettiest gardens behind Hotel Baudy where the restrooms were.

Logan took Greg’s credit card to pay the bill and swapped it with his when our waiter came to close out our check. So lucky to be treated to lunch here by Logan.

Now to make the short ride to Monet’s Garden.

We found the bike racks and began to lock up our bikes with the lock and keys that came with the bikes in the basket. Maddie shared that her lock didn’t have a key with it. Greg said he tried his key in her lock and it worked so he locked her bike to Jake’s bike with the helmets intertwined.

Ignorance is bliss and we had no clue how crazy the day was going to get so we peacefully made our way down the narrow path to the opening of the gardens.

We had bought our tickets in advance on the train and was able to skip the giant line outside of people waiting to buy their tickets. We felt so lucky to have the garden’s with not a ton of people despite our entry time being 1:30 on a gorgeous day.

We sat on a bench taking in the view. Well most of us did. Brooks and Logan stood because Logan didn’t like the bench. Jake was probably questioning why he said yes to this trip. If not at this point then definitely later.

Back across the street we went (via tunnel) to the gardens behind his house. The smells were unbelievable. And the flowers were all gorgeous.

Time to tour the house.

So this is where it all goes to shit. We get back to the bikes to find out…guess what…that we don’t have a key that will unlock Maddie’s lock from Jake’s bike. After trying every single key we have including one we found on the ground the decision was made that the boys would ride back to town to try to get a master key and I would stay with Jake and Maddie. They had decided to try and walk the bikes.

So we began walking our bikes….

And then I decided to ride slowly because I now have shin splints from all the walking we have done in Paris.

It didn’t take long for them to decide they would try to ride.

Greg called to say Logan was headed back on an e-bike with a key they thought would work. For us to stay on the path and he would find us. He also said that they had their chains come off multiple times on the way back, once causing him to crash in the middle of the street which caused a glass water bottle from his basket to shatter on the road. He fell in front of a police officer who stopped to see if he was ok. (He was minus maybe a pulled groin muscle.)

I kept thinking we would see Logan but we didn’t. I decided to ride ahead on my bike in hopes I’d find him. When I got to the end of the path without seeing him I got nervous. I called Greg thinking he would have given Logan one of his phones. He. Did. Not.

I started riding back to find Maddie and Jake to see if they had seen him. They had made it almost all the way back too and hadn’t. I told them to keep walking and I was going to ride toward Giverny to find him.

All of this was happening while we were trying to catch a train that left at 3:41pm. Also, a complicating factor was that there was an ambulance near the path with police blocking off part of a road. Logan was unable to access the path and had no idea that they had even gotten their bikes to move much less was riding them so he thought there was no way he’d miss us. In his hurry to get to us with what turned out to be a crappy e-bike this chain also broke which caused him to be thrown off his bike. The result was a scraped knee and road rash on his back along with holes in his shorts and cuts on his arm.

He ended up turning on his cellular and called me in not so good of a mood asking where we were. Logan and I rode until we met each other. He offered me the e-bike but I declined. Once we got to the city center where the slight hills were he insisted that I take the e-bike. We traded and he rode a bit until his chain fell off. In a huff he fixed it. (His hands were black.) We rode a bit more and his came off basically immediately for a second time. At this point I said let me run with it (pushing it.) He said he would run. As he ran, the helmet in his basket popped up and fell to the ground. A lady walking picked it up for me. Greg and Brooks were searching for us and walked up to us about this time.

Jake and Maddie had made it back to the bike shop with their bikes still chained together. Logan and Greg had both fallen. The chain came off the bikes at least 11 times on the way back on Greg, Brooks and Logan.

Once we got all the bikes back Greg tried the key Logan had in Maddie’s lock and it didn’t unlock it. All of that for seriously nothing.

We went to the train station and basically bought junk to drown our feelings while we waited for a later train. We had definitely missed the early train.

Jake also realized his AirPods had fallen out while we were at the train station the first time. The location showed they were there but he couldn’t find them. That nice man who was there earlier helping people was all but gone. Jake asked a lady who said no one had turned them in. Maddie asked at lost and found too and they didn’t have them.

As we were waiting with about 20 mins to spare Maddie realized she had gotten something on her pants. She asked if I could try to find a store with her to get a new pair so she didn’t have to walk around with a stain. We literally ran to a store in town, bought a pair of pants so fast and ran back with minutes to spare.

Finally the train pulled into the station not a minute too soon. We are ready for this chill, mostly sitting day to be done.