Our rental car adventure through Normandy and Brittany France!

Weekend 2 Normandy and Brittany, France: August 23^th – August 24^th 2014

Saturday, August 23^rd

                        So we woke up nice and early  to get to the train station were we rented our nice little mini two door manual transmission European car. Getting out of Paris at 8 in morning was not an issue… Our first stop on our weekend Normandy journey was to the cliffs of Étretat along the northern coast of France. The landscape was beautiful and quite treacherous at the same time. See facebook for pictures J.

                After Étretat we drove to the quaint little seaside village of Honfleur to see the town. This little port city was a great a great decision for some gasoline and a nice walk along the docks. The walk was lined with restaurants serving very fresh seafood (a great picture on facebook to come!).

                Then we made our way over a HUGE bridge that was bumper to bumper waiting for the tolls to be paid at the bottom. (This tall bridge was quite a challenge for the driver, but she never stalled on the bridge!! Thanks mom!) We finally made it to our Airbnb where the host was very kind and spoke English. We dropped our stuff off and made our way to Omaha beach to see where the allied forces landed in Normandy (aka D-Day).  By the way, this year is the 70^th anniversary of D-Day (June 6^th 1944) so American’s felt very welcome at this little town near Omaha beach. There were a lot of decorations celebrating the anniversary.

                For dinner, we stopped in the cute old town of Bayeaux in between Omaha beach and our Airbnb location just outside of Caen France. Stevie was the only one who braved the FRESH, TENDER, JUICY, DELICIOUS mussels cooked in the Noman crème fashion.  We all had some of the cidre (cider, stronger than American cider) and tasted the calvados that the region is known for (apple brandy).

                On the way back to our middle-of-nowhere airbnb – a bat hit the car. Stevie was pretty proud of not hitting anything during the trek around France this weekend, but unfortunately this bat hit us in the countryside of northern France. Also to note, the drive pretty much looked like the drive from Indianapolis to Purdue despite the different markings on the road (so much corn).

Sunday, August 24^th

                The next morning we left bright and early for Mont Saint Michel off the northeast cost of Normandy France. Mont Saint Michel has been home to a monastery since the 8^th century. This little island town is also on the list of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. This monastery is located on an island that is not able to be accessed during the highest tides of the month. We were able to also celebrate mass in the little chapel near the basement of the monetary that morning. The mass has a really great acapella choir that filled the chapel/small church.

                After Mont Saint Michel, we drove over to the nearby walled city of St. Malo in Brittany France. Another cute old city surrounded by a wall that was built in the middle ages (?? It’s pretty old).  We stopped for some famous butter produced in the town made by in the Jean-Yves Bordier.  I (Stevie) ordered a butter cake for dessert at the lunch place we ate at. The butter cake is called kouign amann and it’s like a circular croissant that has been sitting in hot melted butter overnight (that’s probably not how it’s made, but it tasted like it!)

                After a nice and buttery lunch we booked it back to Paris to return the rental car on time. Don’t worry, we made it on time and left the car in perfect condition. There were some scary moments on the road back to Paris (cell phone batteries dying and losing GPS signal as well as the round-about laws in Paris being slightly different than those in the US). It is recommended to look at this website at least before you drive around in Paris. Other than that, the roads were in perfect condition in the countryside of France (pretty much everywhere) and people actually respect the left lane and turn signals in France as opposed to Houston. The drivers are very friendly and courteous. We only got honked at once (which was our fault) where as in Houston it might have been 12345324532 times that.

                But overall it was a pleasurable weekend where A LOT was accomplished (930 kilometers or 578 miles) safely and enjoyably.

Coming to a blog near you: Next weekend’s adventures– TBD (but probably something related to wine and trains)

Bisous (hugs and kisses),

Stevie and Stuart