Despite the yearning for the many places left unseen and thus saved for a future return visit to Paris, we boarded Ludo's bus early Sunday morning, bound for Giverny and Bayeux. Ludo graciously turned on to a traffic-free Champs- Elysées and drove slowly to allow us a last glance of this elegant boulevard. There's Ladurée! Visions of Macarons Fleur d'Oranger danced in my head. Under Napoleon's triumphal arch and we turned on to the A13, following the Seine River to the Mecca of Impressionism — Monet's color-splashed Giverny gardens and waterlily ponds lined with weeping willows.

After seeing the works of the Impressionists at the Musée d'Orsay, it was like being in a dream to meander along the paths of Monet's waterlily ponds and to stand on the gently curved green bridge beneath the willows. How many times have I stood in front of Monet's painting of this same bridge at New York's Metropolitan Museum and dreamed of seeing this bridge in person! Looking down from the bedroom window from which he gazed out onto the soft colors of thousands of peonies and irises, I realized anew why Impressionism is so appealing — my heart responds to the peace found in the harmony of color and light. I will never forget Giverny!

In Bayeux we visited the huge Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux, including its ancient crypt below the nave. Later, walking the length of the 70-meter Bayeux Tapestry, it was interesting to contemplate that William the "Bastard" set sail from Bayeux to become William the "Conqueror" of England, thus changing the course of Western history forever. On his deathbed, William confessed: "I tremble my friends, when I reflect on the grievous sins which burden my conscience, and now, about to be summoned before the awful tribunal of God, I know not what I ought to do. I was bred to arms from my childhood, and am stained from the rivers of blood I have shed... It is out of my power to count all the injuries which I have caused during the sixty-four years of my troubled life." Nine centuries later, Bayeux was the first city liberated after the D-Day landing and the closest city to the D-Day landing that was not destroyed.

The 58 scenes of the Bayeux Tapestry contain 623 people, more than 500 mythical and non-mythical creatures, such as birds and dragons, 202 horses, 55 dogs, 49 trees, 41 ships, and almost 2,000 Latin words (at which point Captain Jean-Luc Picard would have told Mr. Data to "stop babbling"!). In this scene, Harold , who allegedly betrayed his loyalty to William, is hacked to death, after being shot in the eye with an arrow and having it unceremoniously plucked out! There also appear to be two bodies in this segment that could be Harold, so perhaps he gave up the ghost twice, or the little old lady (man?) from Bayeux who stitched this section had a senior moment. (For a QuickTime VR view of the 70-meter Tapestry, click here. Wait for the page to fully load, then click and drag the Tapestry to view each scene.)