Greetings from Giverny, France

Oh boy where do we begin...........
The flight was very nice (business class). Landed in Paris at 7:30am. After retrieving our luggage we had the good fortune to be stopped by a Customs Officer (Sylvie) Once she decided that we were harmless she proceeded to help us find a place where we could assemble our bikes, a place for us to dispose of the boxes, add provided us with a hand drawn map that would guide us on the least dangerous route out of the airport. Syvie has small children and we gave her one of our cards so we hope they see this post and will give their ,other a BIG hug for us.

We cycled 30 miles to St Leu Desserent; A lovely little town outside of Paris situqted right on the Seine River. We stayed at a campgroud just outside of town that had a beautiful swimming pool. The weather could not be any nicer. It has been in the low 90's with beautiful blue skies; So yes we layed by the pool. It was a very long day for us as we were awake for over 24hrs. We fell into the tent at around 8:30pm and were both sound asleep by 8:35pm.

We slept so soundly that we did not hear the Scum Bags that stole the B.O.B. bag during the night! The bulk of Sherry's riding clothes; all of her rain gear etc and worst of all the COMPUTER!!!!! Very very upsetting!!!!!! I suppose we got all the bad luck items out of the way and should have smooth riding ahead.

Even though bad things happen someone usually comes along to restore your faith in mankind. The woman at the Local Toursit Office was very helpful in giving us access to the internet to change passwords etc and while we were there another French woman heard our story and offered to let us stay in her house for a few days until we could get things sorted out: It was a very generous offer but we chose to lick our wounds and cycle on...........

Wednesday we cycled 30 miles to Auvers S Oise. This is where Van Gogh spent his final years. We walked the town this morning and visited many of the places where he did his most famous paintings. It was very cool: They had copies of the paintings on signs right next to the object or view of that particular painting.

We got on the road around 12:00 and made it 50 miles to Giverny. This is the town of Claude Monet. It is so beautiful and quaint we decided to treat ourselves to a B & B. Tomorrow we will visit/tour Monet's gardens.

The weather continues to be beautiful although at one point today the thermometer on the bike registered 103 degrees! But since all of Sherry's rain gear was stolen by the Scum Bags we are not comlaining.

So all is well and we are settling into a pattern. Not sure where we will be tomorrow or when we will be able to post again. Congratulations to Sherry who is now the Grandmother of Ava Nicloe Ashby who we are pretty sure was born today at around 7:30am.

Thank you to everyone who has sent us posts. It is really nice to hear from everyone.
Keeping the rubber side down,
Bob & Sherry