I'm going to admit that I held my breath that nothing would go wrong all the way until the time we handed the keys back over to Europcar. 2 weeks of car renting in a foreign land and a stick shift and only one driver and about 20+ cities to see and 3500km to travel almost guarantees it. But lucky day! All went well, thanks to Becky's amazing cool-as-a-cucumber driving prowess and everyone else's chillness and assistance. We assumed different roles to help out.
Becky - better than a bus driver
Me - the compass
Julia, Beth, and Veronica - the back-seat kitchen.
Proof:
We car-picnicked a lot and had more than a few laughs about our crumb accumulation and ever-so-precious and many-times-reused plastic silverware.ROUEN
Normandy was the first of our 5 regions we visited. To kick off our trip, Beth, Becky, Veronica and I all headed up to Rouen just after church on Easter Sunday.
The crew minus me at Place de Jean d'Arc (where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake).
Eglise Jean D'Arc is shaped like a ship's hull and fish, not sure why, but it had a rad wood roof and incorporated the old stained glass windows into it. This was just 1 of about 10 churches in town, really.
The town also has lots of cantilevered (half-timbered) buildings.
HONFLEUR
On day 2 we headed to Honfleur which is an ocean port town and also my fav of the trip. Not much to do there, just walk around and smile at the scenery, which we all did.
And shop at Normandy specialty stores that have really cute tins full of cookies.
And buy hand-made clogs that fit your feet like gloves.
BAYEUX
Next we moved on to Bayeux and the D-Day Beaches area. Bayeux had a gorgeous church.
And a really cute pastry/chocolate shop - which we frequented of course.
And the ever-famous Bayeux tapestry, which turns out isn't square or a super large rectangle that covers walls like we thought. It's about 50 feet long and begs to be rolled up like a scroll, since it's a story, all about William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, which date was drilled into our brains at school though I never remembered it's significance. Now I do. And I know about his trickster cousin Harold as well, who's death is chronicled in the tapestry - one of the guys with a sword through him.
D-DAY BEACHESReason #14 for why Becky was so great to have on our trip is that she knows all about WWII, kind of a passion of hers. So she brought the D-Day beaches to life for us. Out there in the ocean's distance are remains of a 6-mile long man-made port that the allied forces constructed in less than 15 days after D-Day.
We also went to the fabulous Caen museum to catch up on our history, and then visited the US Memorial where 3,000 Americans are buried that died just on that one fateful day, rescuing France from the Nazis. It was somber, but also really peaceful and respectful. Each cross had the name of the soldier as well as his home-state: California, Utah, Florida... They said that the majority of soldiers who died were in their young 20's.
I gained a huge appreciation for the bravery and sacrifice of all those who gave their lives in that effort for good.MONT ST. MICHEL
Our next and last stop in Normandy was Mont St. Michel which is a little island that was a haven for monks and now for tourists. We stayed 20 minutes outside of town in the countryside at a cute B&B. After having some delish crepes for lunch, there appeared to be a little shortcut through the farmland to get us straight to the island. We set out with the mountain directing us. After several tractors and dirt roads, we hit a dead end.
When we finally got there, this site awaited us - with a little more spire :-) oops.
And then we hung out listening to NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me in the car for an hour so we could see it at night. Def worth it.
The Loire, coming up.
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