Part 5 – 40th Anniversary Adventure

July 9, 2009

Today we began the second part of our vacation, a tour through Normandy. Our strategy for seeing the sights in Paris had been fairly simple. We planned one major museum per day, scheduled first thing in the morning and we left the rest of the day open. We would add in visits to this or that other attraction as they came up. This worked really well and as you can see from the previous accounts we got to see quite a bit.

With our trip through Normandy however, we needed to plan things more carefully because we had to get to four specific places, one every day. We planned those stops because usually there was a major attraction in each place. We also planned to stop a couple times a day and see other interesting things along the way. This required that I do quite a bit of planning, not only to determine which sites we would see, but to make sure that we allowed enough time in between those sites to get to where we wanted to go.

We left the Hotel Bretagne and had breakfast in a little café near the hotel. We had croissants, juice and coffee. We picked up the car at 9:30. The woman at the desk kindly entered phone numbers for Europcar into our phone, both Rennes, our starting point, and Rouen, where we would drop the car off at the end. We had wanted to rent a Smart car but this agency didn’t use them. They indicated we would have a Renault Twingo, but when we picked the car up it was a Toyota Aygo. It was small, comfortable and brand-new.

Our trip into Paris when we first arrived had been a white knuckle affair. I suspected that would be the case and I was determined not to drive anywhere near Paris. That’s one reason why we took the bullet train to Rennes and why we would take another train back to Paris when we returned there. When we had figured out the sites we wanted to see in Normandy, I planned a route between the cities with Google maps. I picked small and medium sized roads to make sure that the traffic would be as friendly as possible. Then I ran out an atlas of our entire route with each page covering about 10 miles of driving. This was a small enough scale to show every road in the surrounding area and yet covered enough area that we didn’t have to turn the page every minute or two. Also, Karen could usually see it with her old bifocal-ed eyes! This scale also allowed us to keep on our way if we made a wrong turn or two.

We got out of town smoothly despite the fact that we had to alter our route slightly because of one-way streets and where we got out of the parking lot. I picked small back roads that were narrow, and wound through the countryside. Roads are paved very smoothly so driving was comfortable. We saw many picturesque villages, farms, and beautiful flowers everywhere. It seemed like everyone has glorious blue, purple and pink hydrangeas, also lots of geraniums.

We arrived at Mont St. Michel about 10:30 a.m. We parked fairly close and walked about two blocks to the entrance. First order of business was toilets, .40€ a go. There was no line at the men’s but of course it took Karen about 20 minutes to get through the line. Then we started up the cobbled street to the Abbey. There were lots of small souvenir shops and restaurants. We sampled some cookies at a biscuitier and decided to buy three boxes. Also bought a small model of the island and a mug.

The street was steeply sloped and pretty crowded but nothing compared to the crowds on the way down. We timed our visit perfectly to miss the worst of the crowds. The Abbey was simple, but beautiful. The views from every window and terrace were astounding. This was quite a sight and one of our favorites so far.

We stopped in Villedieu-les-Poêles which is famous for shops with copperware. We walked around to shop and look at the sights. The town had some really ancient sections. We planned to have lunch there but most restaurants were closed because we were late, two o’clock or so. We bought a small copper colander with a handle.

After we left Villedieu-les-Poêles we got a little mixed up but finally got on our way to the American cemetery and Omaha Beach. We stopped in the visitor center first which had very emotional displays about the “people” who were there as soldiers. By hearing about their personalities and a little about their lives, the tragedy of so many young lives lost was even greater. One display said there were 9000 American soldiers killed in the assault but there were 18,000 civilian lives lost during the battle! The cemetery was closing so we saw taps and the flag lowered at the monument. Also saw a view of Omaha Beach and the thousands of graves.

We really got turned around as we left for Bayeux. We went round and round several times before we got on the right road. We saw an old church that had been bombed or shelled in the war and restored. Bayeux was a hopping tourist spot when we arrived. We drove right by our hotel on the narrow streets but missed it. When we found it, it was our most charming place of all, Hotel Riene Mathilde, very old. Our room was very large, nice, and had a new bathroom. Our view overlooked a charming river with a brick cobbled path along the bank with beautiful flowers and plants. There were old buildings all around.

We checked in and had a small adventure with our car, the key, and parking. After check-in I returned to the car to move it to the free hotel parking lot. Try as I may, I could not get the key to turn in the ignition. Eventually we got ahold of Europcar tech support and he asked me if I had turned the steering wheel slightly when I tried it. I knew that, drat. I told him, “Thanks, you are Superman!” He had a little chuckle over that.

Dinner at the restaurant featuring Normandy dishes. We both had fish. Karen, red mullet in cream sauce. Butch, trout. I had escargot for entrée while Karen had salad with pickled salmon and trout. In France the entrée is the appetizer. We both had Crème brûlée for dessert. We were dog tired and stiff from all the stair climbing. Asleep by 11:30 p.m.

July 10, 2009

We slept in today, 7:00 a.m. We had breakfast at the hotel then off to the Tapestry Museum. €7.80 each with a guided commentary included. The tapestry was a marvel of detail and artistry. Particularly beautiful where the horses and the battle scenes. There were details along the bottom that added to the context of the story. The commentary was perfectly paced, informative, and funny. It was totally amazing. We got a postcard for Linda (see above), a great large format book, and a mug.

We were on the road out of Bayeux at 10:15 a.m. It was a beautiful curvy road, we saw picturesque villages, and colorful golden crops (maybe rape?). We passed through Putot-en-Auge but our first stop was listed as an “unspoiled village” in our guidebook, Beuvron-en-Auge. They were absolutely right. Every building was half timbered and painted beautifully. There was a main square with many shops, restaurants, and the manor house. But they knew what they had and everything was a bit pricey.

We had a glass of cider and did a little browsing. We bought some caramels for Karen’s office friends in a tin box decorated to look like the shop where we bought it. Lunch prices were very expensive so we each had one caramel and went on.

The next stop was the Château de CrèvecÅ“ur. It was a very well preserved and restored medieval Lord’s moated and fortified manor. There was a program video about how half timber buildings were originally built and also how they were restored and maintained. The grounds were beautiful and included a barn, a dove cote, a chapel, and a farmhouse/stable. Of particular interest to me was a display of early musical instruments in the chapel, but when we went to see them, another exhibit was there because the instruments had been lent to another museum. Rats.

Back in the car by 2:30 p.m. and on the way to Honfleur. We took a scenic drive along the coast road through Deauville and other small villages. Honfleur is very busy and very touristy. We had a hairy time getting to the parking lot of our motel and using a parking machine for the first time, but otherwise everything went well. Everything we have seen is utterly charming and wonderful on the roads we have traveled.

We checked into our hotel in Honfleur. Strange place, rents rooms from a machine for 24 hours at a time. It was inexpensive, €47. When we got upstairs we found a large, new clean room. It had a queen size bed with a single bunk bed over the top. It had a desk and a sink in the main room with separate shower and toilet compartments. We were given an entry code instead of a key.

We set out for St. Catherine’s Church which is an all wooden cathedral. Very beautiful, big old oaken beams, black with age. The ceiling looks like the inside hull of a wooden ship, upside down.

After visiting the church we strolled along the square harbor. It was very picturesque with all kinds of boats and old buildings. We chose a restaurant and picked the prix fixe menu for €21.50. Karen had mussels marinated in butter garlic broth and fish soup for the entrée, chocolate mousse for dessert. I had prawns for entrée, “Two Fish with Normandie Sauce” for the main course and three cheeses for dessert. Karen’s mussels were great, the rest so so. My whole meal was adequate but not great. We stopped on the way back to our hotel and bought some port at a grocery store. We would have to get up at midnight to feed the meter for our car since parking in this tourist town was 24 hours a day and we could not afford to deal with a Denver boot, something we saw quite a bit of. An early night for us, we were both tired.

Yep, we did get up at midnight but instead of feeding the meter we backed the car length of the parking lot and parked it in a hotel free space. The car in front of us was encroaching into the space but I worked and worked and got our little car in. Karen: A truly masterful job of close maneuvering after only a few hours’ sleep and a half bottle of port!