Au revoir

Today, Wednesday, is our last day in France. We are currently resting in an airport hotel having returned our last rental car after poor Michael successfully drove untold millions of miles. We start the long trip home tomorrow; but with that stupid forced overnight in SXM, we will not get to Anguilla until Friday morning. It is time. Just to make leaving easier and to remind us how lucky we have been, today dawned overcast with heavy fog, and some massive river cruise ship docked in Honfleur filling the street with more tour groups than one could have imagined.

Even so, we enjoyed a petit dejeuner and strolled the streets for a few hours taking pictures of any cute signs we could spot.  Many adorned restaurants, of course. Though I have no idea why that last one has a pirate that looks like he is working at Chippendales.

 

Then there was one carpenter with two different signs.

And in homage to the sea-faring roots of the area, there were plenty of ships.

Including one pretty carved one that harkened all the way back to Norse ancestors

So we will toast to another wonderful trip from the best of times and including the worst of times.(yes, Swansea, we mean you. But my new motto is "If you don't go, you won't know.") Not necessarily as we should in this case with a glass of Calvados cidre en pressoir

but with a glass of Cotes de Provence rose that we bought at the market yesterday for 4.35 euros. The hotel desk clerk who just uncorked it for me approves of our choice even though he quite correctly guessed the price we paid for it.
So Sante.
And au revoir.

 

More Honfleur

Today was one of the few completely leisurely days we have had. With few exceptions, we have almost always been moving on to a new town every day. But we are spending two nights here in Honfleur leaving today just a day for roaming the streets. As is true of most little European towns there are plenty of little streets to roam.

Across our little street is St. Catherine's church, the largest wooden timber-built church with a separate bell tower in France. Unfortunately, wooden churches turn out to be harder to photograph than those made of light marble or stone, but it is very pretty and serene nonetheless.

 

The rest of the buildings here are an interesting hodge-podge of brick, slate and half-timber construction.

 

 

But the part of town that inspired Boudin and Monet and other impressionist painters along with the scores of little school children sketching along the port today is this particular view:





 

It is also the view that made me think of Porto last night. (We were just on that side looking the other way so didn't get a picture of it until this morning.)

 

Beautiful.

 

Winding Down

The minute we arrived in Dinan we wished we could stay longer. But the open road called us on. (That and the fact that our lovely Maison de Pavie had no vacancies the next night. :-(  )
So we had a lovely breakfast of ham and cheese and fresh apricots and croissants at the long, wood plank table overlooking the garden with the other guests from Spain and Virginia and Minnesota and took one more stroll about to walk on the ramparts and to look down on the Port of Dinan:

It looks like something taken straight out of a fairy tale. Too cute for words. But time is running out and we need to see the iconic Mont Saint Michel before we end this trip. So we reluctantly and yet expectantly headed off.

We had seen Mont St Michel way off in the distance from the highway on our way down. I don't know exactly how far away you can catch glimpses of it, but apparently pretty far. Once through town nearing the parking areas it really came into view:

You used to have to watch the tide charts to cross over to it since high tides quite suddenly engulf the flats around it, but nowadays there is a handy bridge to accommodate some 2.5 million visitors a year. (It seemed a bit like 2.5 million that day but the streets are, of course, narrow so it just feels that way, I am sure.) Anyway, the buses conveniently leave you off still on the bridge so you can get great photos. Here's one when we arrived around noon:

and another when we were leaving at 4P:

The tide was coming all the way in to Mont St Michel that day but not until 6P and we had another 2-1/2 hours of driving to go so unfortunately we couldn't wait for it to chase all those people up to higher ground. But here is a video of the dramatic change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glOSH8WQ_RI

We were heading on to Honfleur at the recommendation of several of our friends and because it is on our way to CDG airport for our flight home. More winding streets and then the port.

 

So we sat and drank wine and calvados and Michael ate Moules! with Frites simply because it seemed like the thing to do. And it reminded me of Porto in Portugal. So much so that I couldn't help but recall the time when a certain somewhat self-absorbed, twenty-something strolled with us into the town of Mykonos under the full moon with octopus hanging from the sailboat riggings and deftly declared, "Eh, if you've seen one port town, you've seen them all."

 

I hope he didn't really mean it then, but I am sure he doesn't believe it now. I, for one, am happy to see every one of them - similar and yet different. So much world, so little time.

 

 

Dinan

As you know from the church picture posted last night, after leaving Omaha Beach we came to a little town called Dinan. I have no recollection of how we decided to stay here, but it is lovely. Quiet and quaint and a nice contrast to the sadness of the Normandy beaches.

Of course, there are churches. This is the inside of St. Sauveur which you saw in the photo last night.

And little streets.

And our tiny La Maison Pavie.

Is it not surprising that we didn't recognize it as our hotel at first? There is a tiny sign to the right of the door once you know that it is there. (Faye, you thought YOUR hotel in Edinburgh was understated?) And the little dormer window at the top? That is our room from which I took last night's photo. Adorable even if there are some treacherous spiral staircases to surmount.

Omaha Beach

We wanted to beat any busloads of crowds at the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach so we arrived at 9:02A just as it opened with only one other car in the lot. As expected, it is an extremely moving experience. I can't really do it any more justice than all of the other photos you have undoubtedly seen that were shot from above to take in the entire cemetery at once but from there you can really appreciate how far the soldiers had to come to get to the top of the hill. There is a post in the middle of this photo in the drier sand this side of the beach. We missed the jogger going by but he wasn't much taller than the post. They both looked like dots on the sand.

It is no wonder so many lives were lost.

 

 

 

 

I imagine that it is no coincidence that the graves face west.

And while the museums were full of intriguing artifacts and interesting facts about the battles, the videos about and by individuals involved in the attack are certainly the most moving. One surviving nurse from the time mentioned that when she has visited the site over the years, the French are always quick to thank her. She said that she thinks that the French are probably more aware of the sacrifices made for them than the Americans are. I can see as how that could be, and we certainly saw more French visitors than Americans, by far.

In one o the videos, one sister recounted the loss of her brother at the battle and spoke of her family's decision to have him buried at the Cemetery here. She wanted him to come home. Her mother said, No. He earned that little piece of land. True that.

 

Dinan room with a view

Too tired to blog but this is what is outside of my window tonight. 10pm and still blue in the sky and the church lit up. Just beautiful 

Bonjour!

No I have not posted blogs these last few days. After leaving York we arrived at Faye and Robin's in Over Wallop in Hampshire and I just didn't think you needed to hear of or see photos of us eating and drinking in pubs with their friends, eating and drinking in pubs with their daughter, or eating and drinking in their kitchen. These were our most 'typical' weather days with occasional periods of rain amidst occasional periods of sun, but we did get out for some strolls and some antique shopping, And on our last morning there (Friday) we even took Hepzibah, their precious, little, miniature Dachsund for a stroll around the top of a nearby ancient hill fort.

Not the best photo of the three of us but the best of little Hepzi.

After one final fabulous lunch (this time homemade) we were off to the train station to head into London for an overnight. We didn't get settled into our hotel until about 5P when Michael decided he wanted to go to see a show. A billboard in the train station was advertising '42nd Street' playing at the Royal Drury Lane Theatre. We saw "Miss Saigon" there probably, gulp, 20 years ago so...what the hell. We caught an Uber (yes Uber) on over and bought last minute tickets for 20GB a piece. Michael had to climb an awful lot of stairs to get to the seats, but it was fun nonetheless. (I live in utter amazement that people can tap dance)

Today we were up early and off to London Southend Airport for a Flybe airlines flight to Caen. Then a bus to the train station to pick up a rental car. (Who would suspect that the rental car counters at an airport would be CLOSED on a Saturday?).Then a drive in a left hand drive car on the right side of the road!!!! woo hoo to the beaches of Normandy. (that's when I snapped the previous photo of the sky through the windshield.)

En route we were going to pass through Bayeux. Would have just blown right through except that Faye had mentioned the Bayeux tapestry to us so again we thought, what the hell and stopped. And we are so glad we did. It is an amazing pictorial history of the Norman Invasion of England by William the Conqueror. It was first mentioned in a written reference in 1476 but is believed to have been commissioned and completed around 1077 making the 20inch tall 230ft long tapestry nearly 1000 years old. I wish I could show you pictures but visitors can't take any. So I will just give you a link: http://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/la_tapisserie_de_bayeux_en.html  Check it out.

Then as an added, extra plus....we saw Notre-Dam de Bayeux. What a stunning cathedral...and I say this having seen a lot of stunning cathedrals in my days. This one is just full of arches. Everywhere you look, down low, up high, one inside of another, they are everywhere with different shapes and decorations. Just lovely.

The outside isn't bad either. (And not a bit of photo-shopping at all.)

Right now we are fed and resting up in our hotel room in anticipation of a somber day tomorrow touring D-Day museums and the American Cemetery here in Normandy.

Meanwhile, we had a good laugh. I found the card with the hotel's wifi password on it and instructed Michael that it was sapo maha. Sapo Maha, he said? I said, yeah. He responded, Any chance that is Sap Omaha since we are here at Hotel le Sapiniere on Omaha Beach? I know it isn't going to seem that humorous in writing so you will just have to trust me. It was hysterical! I cannot honestly remember the last time I laughed so hard that I cried. Good to get that out before tomorrow.

Sapo Maha!
Ha ha ha ha!
See, there I go again.

In France on our way to the beaches in Normandy

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Off to York

Sorry to have fallen off the grid. After the wedding we had a bit of a resting lull. Sunday just revolved around returning Michael's hired wedding outfit and having lunch and all. Monday driving to York with Robin and Faye....the boot full of luggage and bits of cake and a huge arrangement of flowers tucked between us on the floor in the back.

York was really lovely in spite of the fact that the English weather has finally caught up with us. Drizzling and occasionally windy. But still an adorable little village with a very old castle:

and churches of course including the minster you can see across the village through the window in the castle:

which you can reach through a stroll through the cobbled streets amongst the crazy-angled shops in the Shambles:

then there is the minster:

A gorgeous cathedral with stunning stained glass - having survived nearly 1000 years. (When I can't keep wine glassed around for more than a few years!)

 

I know we can't do them justice in photos, but suffice it to say that we could stand to go back there for a few days to really take out time in both the minster and the town. Just beautiful.
 

Get Me to the Church On Time

Today, Sunday morning, is the sunniest day by far here in Edinburgh.

Honestly, until today we didn't realize that there was a river and a hill on the horizon.

Yesterday, wedding day was not so nice. A bit drizzly and foggy in the morning. Someone told us that rain is lucky on your wedding day. I imagine if you lived in a place where it rained all the time, you would spin it that way, too.

We hailed an Uber to the cathedral and were greeted by throngs of tourists probably both frustrated at not being able to get into the cathedral and also curious as to who was getting married. I have to assume that they photographed the attendees in case any of us turned out to be anybody. That must be what it is like to be Kim Kardashian.

On cue, the sun started shining through the stained glass windows in the midst of the ceremony, and the reception was lovely....including the beautiful cake Faye made:

A great time was had by all. So, as promised, here is a somewhat breezy picture of us in our British finest.

 

And I'll Get to Scotland....

It is Saturday morning now. Thursday was a driving day from the Lake District up here to Edinburgh where we picked up Michael's rented morning coat suit for the wedding today and got together for dinner with our friends, the parents of the groom.

Yesterday was our sightseeing day. The weather has turned overcast and misty but at least not really rainy. First we went by St Giles Cathedral where the wedding will take place:

and inside:

Then up the hill to the castle:

where we saw possibly the first graffiti of the new Stars and Stripes flag carved into a door of the prison here where they kept prisoners of war during the American Revolution. (there in the upper left hand corner):

And the little plot of land where they bury the soldiers dogs. Yes, the dog cemetery is on the tour map. Awww: