France, Thursday, April 11, 2019

Note to all: You may eventually receive this post with pictures, but for now I am sending without photos as the various wi-fi systems in the hotels we are staying do not always transmit pictures well.  I will resend with photos when we get to good wi-fi places - i.e. Paris.

Bonjour mon Amis! We arise this morning to a much more comfortable day than yesterday. After packing up and schlepping our bags down the two flights of stairs, or across the garden, we stop for another lovely breakfast from our hosts. Today, again we had croissants, butter, jam, baguettes, coffee and egg cream - which is a cold creme brûlée without the burned crust on top - very tasty but a bit sweet.

We pack up the beast and head this morning to Mont Saint Michel, on the north coast of France, just at the edge of the region of Normandy. For those who have never heard or seen pictures of Mont St. Michel, it is an island mount some 100 yards off the coast, isolated at high tide. This is quite the tourist production now, huge parking lots some 3-4 kilometres from the attraction- you walk to the shuttle bus loading areas. Parenthetically, these shuttle buses are unlike any seen before. There is a driver’s position at either end. When the driver pulls in for pick up of a load, he steps out of the vehicle, walks around to the other end, and assumes his new position. No turning around and quite efficient.

The original purpose is as a monastery and abbey. It is still a functioning church, and we witnessed a service in progress as we wandered through. The winding streets as you make your way up to the abbey are flanked by myriads of small shops and restaurants, all catering to the throng of tourists - and throng is the only word to use. Even this early in the season, with the cold wind blowing, there're people everywhere - young children bored out of their heads, old people struggling to climb the steps, and every age in between.

We stood in line for nearly an hour to buy the tickets and enter the abbey itself. Prices of entry was €10.00 but free if you were a family of 4 with children or under the age of 26. Curious but we suppose designed to encourage education.

Once inside the huge abbey, the crowd was swallowed up and it was unusually sparse - it was a huge building. We finished our self guided tour and then out and down the hill to find a restaurant (by this time 1:30 in the afternoon) and stood in another line for 1/2 hour. The food was so-so but the problem was that half of our foursome received food, while, after 30 minutes the other half had not we finally spoke up and then received the food, although not really worth it but conveniently, touristically over priced!

We took our leave, walked down the mount and waited for shuttle buses back to our car park. Off then to the city of Bayeux, our headquarters for the next two nights.

Along the way, on the four lane highway, we discovered a McDonalds! We pulled in for a rest break. Marvellously modern and unlike any we had seen before, although, admittedly, none of us are habitue’s of the establishment. A Coke and a few chocolate sundaes later and we were back on the road.

We arrived around 5:45, and then beat feet to the tapestry museum to get that off our list. We arrived at 6:00 to view before the 6:30 closing. Unfortunately the doors close at 5:45 for clearing of the museum. Oh well, we get an “A” for effort.

We check into our abode, the Hotel Churchill, city center but again no parking lot, which means secureing a metered spot on the street. Finally a room on the first floor with a nice shower, TV and a king sized bed. We find the recommended restaurant for what we thought would be a light meal. Soup and Charcuterie/cheese board with a bottle wine. We received all off this, but we arrived at 7:00 PM and finally took our leave at 9:15 PM. Speedy service is a foreign concept to the French, as is an early bedtime. We were exhausted, but agreed that it again was a good day.

France, Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Bonjour and Happy Birthday to Lee. As we step down to the breakfast table this morning, we are beginning to catch up on our body time changes. Wonderful croissants, coffee, baguette, juice, yogurt and butter. We lift a proverbial glass to Lee and threaten to sing Happy Birthday, but, with protests from the surrounding guests, decide to leave it at best wishes.

This morning the weather is raining/drizzling and cool so we head out to the historic city of St. Malo, some 30 kilometres up the road. St. Malo is an ancient city that eventually displaced Dinan, on the river Rance, from its economic power - St. Malo is at the mouth of the Rance and boasts a much deeper harbor. Again, this was originally a walled city and is now surrounded by suburbs. However the original city and its walls (ramparts) are still intact and it has become much the tourist destination.

Small winding streets are, due to the inclement weather, rather uncrowded this morning. We wander the streets, looking in all the shop windows and reading the historical signs around and about. Around noon, we spot a creperie restaurant up on the rampart wall boasting a sea view. As the classic food in Breton is a crepe filled with either savoury or sweet fillings, we head up and secure four places at one of the communal tables. As we survey the menu, the youngest member of the threesome at our table suddenly stops her french discussion with the waiter, and addresses us in perfect American English.

We find out that she is an American from Louisiana here in France teaching English. She is today accompanying her aunt and uncle from Indianapolis and suddenly we seven Americans are chattering away about basketball, travel and luckily for us, the menu and what to order. We find that hard cider rather than wine, is the drink of Breton and order a pitcher of this 2% alcoholic beverage to go with our sausage, chicken and andouille galettes. We end with some coffee and a sugary crepe with whipped cream for dessert. A wonderful and native lunch in a bit of a touristy restaurant with a marvellous view of the sea (although cloudy and rainy, so much is left to our imagination, view wise.)

We head back out with the intent of walking the rampart around to our starting point. Soon, the wind and cold drive us off the wall and back down to the city lanes. We retrieve our car from yet another underground car park and head south back towards Dinan. We take the scenic route through the old port city of Dinan, gazing at these wonderful stone homes clinging to the cliffs overlooking the river Rance and its journey towards the sea. The scenery is very reminiscent of Cornwall and its rugged sea coast and small villages. It is easy to see that this was once a British colony and how the citizens of Breton cling to their Celtic heritage and ways.

We return to our hotel around 3:00, secure a parking lot stall and repair to our rooms for some rest and reading time. We reconvene at 6:00 and head to our restaurant of choice in the old city; Les 3 Lunes - The three Moons - is our restaurant of choice. A gourmet menu establishment owned and operated by Chef Thierry Teffaine and his wife Magali. (The third moon is their child who was not in attendance.) Our choices for the evening were lamb, pork loin and steak. The amuse bouche was a gelatin of salmon with small tomatoes topped by creme fraise. Vegetable on offer was asparagus accompanied by a creamy buttery sauce with a poached egg submerged. We dipped and spread the sauce over the properly cooked white asparagus! We selected a Loire Valley Pinot Noir as our wine and ended the evening with three desserts - a blanc manger fraisboise (raspberry), a baked Alaska and a selection of cheeses. A long and leisurely dinner.

We sauntered back to the hotel and were tucked in by 10:30. A relatively easy but interesting and educational day.

France, Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Bonjour! We waken today to sunshine and moderate temperatures. It rained a little over night but the day looks to be mild and liveable. We pack and make multiple trips down the mountainous stairway with our luggage and then are treated to some tea accompanied by toasted croissants and brioche prepared by our hostess Madame Auvary.

Following our long goodbyes, we begin the trudge back to the underground car park with our luggage in tow. Two blocks along, here comes Madame Aubrey, chasing after us. A confused conversation in French (ours not good) we come to understand that she believes we may have made off with her cell phone as she can’t find it. She had been showing us pictures and thinks one of us may have picked it up by mistake. We show her our phones and eventually she seems assured that it must still be in her kitchen where we were all sipping our tea and scarfing our croissants. A quick adieu and we are off again.

We navigate out from the car park and head north and west toward the city of Chartres. We eventually arrive and again find an underground car park, this one adjacent to the famous Cathedral, which is our goal this morning. This massive structure was originally built in the 8th century. A major fire in 1076 destroyed half of the cathedral, bringing down one of its two spires. A 30 year process of rebuilding (amazingly short time considering the size of the structure and the technology available) it was rebuilt but the newer spire in a Gothic manner, hence the two different looking spires as noted in the picture attached.

Although the interior is stunning with over 975 stained glass windows soaring above us, the real piece de resistance (at least in the minds of the church) is a silk veil reputed to belong to the Virgin Mary. This treasure was saved from the fire and can be traced to this church from at least the 5th century. According to the information given in the church, the silk threads can be scientifically dated to the 1st century. Evidently the church believes in some science!

After our church meanderings, we step across the square and find a Rick Steves recommended cafe - Le Serpentine. Here we lunch on omelettes, croquet monsieur/madame sandwiches, frites and some passable Bordeaux wine. By 2:00 we are back in the rolling beast with Howie at the wheel and Lee in the navigator’s seat heading again northwest towards our destination city of Dinan in Breton, our home for the next two days.

This is a long drive of nearly 4 hours, accompanied by sunshine, and sometimes heavy rain showers. We arrive safely and by 6:00 have located our next inn, the La Villa Cote Cour Hotel. No parking lot again, but Deb and the landlady secure a parking spot on the street out front of the hotel as Howie and Mark circle the block, eventually, to pull in. Once more a charming old home, this one converted to a hotel. Howie and Lee are assigned a ground floor room with a patio and outside hot tub/jacuzzi. Mark and Deb get to climb again to the third floor for a sumptuous suite overlooking the town, although with an ensuite tub, not shower.

After a short unpack, we convene in Deb and Marks aerie for some rose wine we had picked up along the way and a bottle of champagne donated by the landlady. Also Mark sliced up the first of the two salami sausages we had scored a few nights earlier at the Antidotes bar in Orleans. We talked over the day and discussed the rest of the trip.

We soon head out for a dinner, finding a restaurant within a few blocks. Plat du Jour on offer was baked Dourade (white fish) over vegetables, an accompanying salad (quite good) and a dreadful “bland manger ala biscuit” for dessert. Not our best french meal. We troupe back to our rooms and fall into bed again exhausted, around 10:00.