Day 15 - May 18, 2013 - St. Malo and the Brittany Region

 Today we decided we’d check out the Brittany region of France.  So we headed out on the road and along the way we saw Mont St-Michel in the distance.

We drove along the Brittany coast until re arrived at the port city of St. Malo.  St. Malo reminded us a little of Quebec City as it is a port town with cobblestone streets.  After first finding lunch at a nice brasserie, we found parking in the port area and wandered through the walls of the city and found ourselves in a little shopping district with really narrow streets lots of bakeries and little shops selling everything from shoes to souvenirs.  Down one of the narrow streets we came across a little bakery specializing in French macaroons so we picked out twelve little delicate macaroons and took them home with us.

After a few hours my kidneys couldn’t take any more of the cobblestones do we headed back to Normandy, but stopped first for groceries as the stores are closed on Sundays, but are also closed this week on Monday for a bank holiday and into Coutances for dinner at Don Camillos were we had tender homemade lasagna and crepes of course for dessert.

Bonne nuit!

                                                                  Mont St Michel

                                                 A Leffe Ruby...fruity...but in a good way

St. Malo

St. Malo

St. Malo

Day 18 – May 22, 2013 – Vimy Ridge and Tyne Cot (Passendaele)

For a change of pace we decided that we’d check out of our little cottage and head to Northern France to Vimy Ridge (Arras, Fr).  I have to say that the size and solitude of Vimy is rather impressive.  You really don’t get a sense of the imposing memorial in pictures, but I hope that the pictures impart some of it.  Also note that the land around the memorial is cordoned off with electric fence as even though the battle was fought 100 years ago, the earth was carpeted with unexploded ordinance…so they have sheep and goats…I wonder if they get hazard pay… the Earth is pock-marked and yet lush and green.  It creates an impressive landscape…Peter kept asking me if I wanted to go for a walk…LOL…he might want to sleep with one eye open tonight…LOL!

From Vimy, we drove to Belgium…and after a few wrong turns…nothing like getting lost in Belgium without internet to make for a fun trip…eventually on the third try we located Tyne Cot (Passendaele).  A colleague at work had recommended we go see it, but neglected to mention how hard it might be to locate...lesson learned...next time google map it before leaving Canada!!!!!

Tyne Cot Cemetary is the largest commonwealth cemetery in the world and is the final resting place of many commonwealth soldiers from WWI.  Now, while we had seen a number of cemeteries in Normandy, nothing prepared us for the size of Tyne Cot.  Sadly, many of the buried men are unknown, even to this day.  Some they were able to identify their country and in some cases even the battalion but many are simply unknown, no idea even their nationality.  The walls surrounding Tyne Cot are inscribed with the names of 35, 000 missing service men.

After a frigid day at Vimy and Tyne Cot, we continued on to Brussels, where we checked into our hotel and were recommended a fabulous Argentinian restaurant (Toma Mato).  It was delicious; the steaks were so tender you could cut them with a butter knife.

Tomorrow we head back to Paris for a couple of nights.

Bonne nuit!

Day 16 &17 - May 20 & 21, 2013 - A Quiet Couple of days in Normandy

With a bank holiday on Monday and a cold day on Tuesday we had a quiet couple of days and stuck mainly to the cottage…so instead of stories of adventures, I’ll show you instead the cottage we rented…

Note the spiral staircase…not recommended…bumming up and down these stairs is painfully difficult…and walking is treacherous….

Bonne nuit!!!!