Normandy: Le Mont-Saint-Michel and God’s Town of the Frying Pans

Somewhat late, we’ll give you a quick summary of the rest of our Normandy trip.

One day, we took the fairly long drive (90 minutes) to Mont Saint Michel, the famous Abbey that is probably one of the most photographed places in France. The tides that flow in to surround the island are the highest in Europe and signs are posted in various spots to warn you that if you park there your car will be under water by high tide. On a Monday out of season, we still had to fight our way through dozens of busloads of tourists (mostly Japanese) to get into the walled town and to climb several hundred steps to the top from where we could tour the Abbey. All I will say about the climb is that it wasn’t the older members of the party who complained about the effort involved. The Abbey was beautiful, however and the self guided walk through the various parts was all downhill. We were also lucky to share the tour with a group of German Gregorian Chanters, who tested the acoustics of each stone chapel and hall with amazing chants sung in multi-part harmony. On the way out we again struggled through the crowds in the narrow shopping street of the walled town and we resisted the urge to buy souvenirs, although Brian was strongly tempted by a full-size suit of armour – perfect for that empty corner of the dining room. Hungry by now, we looked for an appropriate restaurant. There is always a local speciality that one is supposed to try and in Mont Saint Michel it is omelettes. We decided to pass up the famous restaurant Mere Poulard (home of the $30 omelette) which had a crowd waiting anyway and we settled instead on toasted panini sandwiches and McCain french fries in a casse-croute. Hardly gourmet, but the Belgian draft beer (brewed by monks, you know) added a touch of historical authenticity.

We decided to take back roads on the return trip to our chambre d’hôte, travelling through Suisse Normande, so named because the hills and valleys of rich farmland are similar to Switzerland. Navigating the route Brian took us towards a town called Villedieu-les-poêles. Remembering the unfortunate overly-literal translation of our hosts (see below), Brian joked that this must be “God’s town of the frying pans”. We arrived to find that is exactly what it is – a town that has been known for fabricating pots and pans since the 11^th century – the main street filled with shops that overflow with copperware of all shapes and sizes. The town is also now known for one of the few remaining foundries in France manufacturing large bells for church towers. Further on we drove through Falaise. We were losing the light but the immense ruin of the fortress that was the home base of William the Conqueror was impressive and something we’ll go back to see more closely. Falaise is also known from World War 2 for the last major fight in the battle of Normandy. Canadian troops suffered heavy losses but were instrumental in closing “the Falaise Gap” to encircle and effectively destroy the remaining German army. We drove on back to Pont l’Eveque for another large dinner, but the culinary entry in the blog is still to come, so I won’t elaborate here.

On the next day we headed back to Paris. Our first morning stop was just a few minutes from our chambre-d'hôte, the medieval town of Beuvron-en-Auge. It has a beautiful main street filled with timbered buildings that are now shops and restaurants catering to tourists. Despite this, and perhaps because it is out of the way, it has a very quiet and charming character. Or should I say it did ... before the tour bus rolled in, disgorging its contents of young Japanese women who set to work taking photos of each other flashing V signs in front of the old buildings and buying up the contents of all the shops. Luckily we already had our box of the local specialty - shortbread biscuits (sablé).

We headed onwards to the coast and stopped in Honfleur. This beautiful port town sits at the mouth of the River Seine where it flows into the Channel. It was a centre of impressionist painting and the harbour is subject of many well-known artworks. More important for Canadians perhaps is the fact that Samuel de Champlain sailed from Honfleur in 1608 to found Quebec City and begin the permanent settlement of Canada by Europeans. The Normandy-Quebec historical links are obvious, from the habitant-style toques that one sees (in the pictures) here, to the back streets of Honfleur that look remarkably like the old streets of Vieux-Quebec. A celebration of the 400^th anniversary is in the planning stages that will be huge in Quebec and will have events here.

We ate a traditional lunch in a harbourside café - steamed mussels followed by Ben and Jerry’s - before piling into the car for the two-hour drive back to Paris. Satisfied with our first busy but enjoyable trip in France, we nevertheless dreaded the looming encounter with the bathroom scale.

Normandy: The D-Day Landing Beaches

This was quite a moving experience as we drove the coast of Normandy visiting the beaches where the allied troops landed on June 6, 1944, beginning the liberation of Europe.

We started at Juno Beach near the town of Courseulles-sur-Mer where an impressive museum has been built through private donations from Canadians.

The Juno Beach Centre was opened in 2003 and is staffed by Canadian student interns on four-month assignments. The exhibits trace Canadian involvement in World War 2 and in the D-Day invasion. We walked out of the museum onto the beach through a steel passageway
built in the size and shape of the D-Day landing craft. We passed old German gun emplacements half sunk into the sand and the tracks of
the tunnels that joined them. Click on the photos below for larger views.

Further along the coast we saw the Mulberry harbour that was towed from England: hundreds of huge concrete and steel structures five stories tall were sunk and linked with floating docks to form a port where heavy ships could land equipment. The allies were worried they would not be able to take over an existing harbour in usable condition. Wanting a place to build the new harbour, they did not invade the beach at Arromanches as part of the initial invasion. Instead, they captured the area by land later on the day of June 6 and by the next day they had begun the construction of the port and had begun landing ships. It is an incredible achievement of engineering.

Further along the coast at Longues-sur-mer we came across German heavy cannons still sitting in their concrete bunkers on the cliffs, pointing out across the channel.
Although they were mostly intact, you could still see where one had been blown apart by incoming fire. The open fields and the small villages with their church spires gave us very vivid images of how it must have felt for the soldiers on those days to face the risks and fears as they moved across the countryside.

Here is a short film clip on the landings that day from the History Channel web site.

We made the turn back towards our B and B at Omaha Beach where the main American force landed and returned via Bayeux, a beautiful medieval town which, unlike most of Normandy, was largely undamaged during the war.
Very picturesque narrow streets lead to the impressive cathedral that dates from the 11^th century. Bayeux is also the home of the famous tapestry that depicts the successful invasion of Britain by William the Conqueror in 1066.

A long day followed by a Sunday dinner in an old auberge, but more about that later.

A Long Weekend in Normandy

We have just returned from our first real trip into the country over a four-day weekend. We chose Normandy because it is a relatively short and easy drive from Paris and because it has so much to offer in history, food and sights. We covered almost 1,000 kilometres, but stayed in the same chambre d’hote (B&B) for all three nights. It turned out to be the last weekend of "l 'été indien", with temperatures close to 20 degrees.

Normandy Day 1: Down on the ferme

On Saturday, we were out of Paris and well on our way so quickly that we headed off the autoroute onto lesser highways and found several interesting towns along the way. We ate a pique-nique lunch (more about that later) next to a fifteenth century clock tower that still showed many bullet marks from World War II.

Travel times are always shorter than expected here, so we used our early arrival to visit Deauville, a very attractive beach resort town know for its large casino that is one of the closest to Britain and is favored by English day trippers. Sort of like Monte Carlo for the welly-boot crowd.

We walked the beach boardwalk with its line of changing huts with the names of actors on each door, impressed by the famous people the resort seems to draw, until we realised that many of those named have long-since passed on. I guess the idea is to offer the common folks the chance to slip out of their clothes in the Tom Cruise changing room. We didn’t ask the price – the cost of a coffee in the café had already been enough to tell us we won't be spending our summers there.

Our B&B, which was located in the country (no sirens and revving engines!) was quite interesting, a rather remote farm with horses, ducks, and a couple of Jack Russell terriers. In fact I think the farming is more of a hobby, than a money-making venture. It was run by a charming older hippie couple who, unlike what we’ve observed at other B&Bs we’ve stayed at, appeared to share the duties of running the operation. He also runs a hair dressing shop just behind the kitchen and does metalwork. The house was a strange mix of traditional and modern, with a long buffet made out of post office safes, china cabinets from hospital storage cabinets and overhead lamps from operating rooms. A bit weird but nonetheless quite well-done. As we arrived late in the day on Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the table d'hôte (full course meal) available to their guests for a pretty reasonable fee and prepared by the ‘man of the house’ who then led the conversation over din ner. It was an excellent seafood dinner all grilled over a wood fire. The challenge of course was to dine with eight virtual strangers – all of whom spoke only French. I’m sure Brian must have had a migraine by the end of the evening from carrying the conversation, particularly after having to translate the host’s risqué jokes for the girls. We stayed three nights and I must say I looked forward each morning to breakfast (must have been the country air): croissants, bread, cheese, three types of jam, butter, café au lait, hot chocolate, yogurt…).

One lesson we learned – if you’re going to do translations using those Internet automatic translation engines (e.g. Babelfish), you should probably get them verified by someone who knows the language to ensure the translations are not too literal. Our hosts, not wanting food in the rooms, posted this notice that turned the hyphenated verb for “to picnic” into something quite different – “pique” meaning a type of shovel and “niquer” … you’d better read for yourself.

For those having trouble reading the image: here is the transcript: "Opinion with our pleasant customers: By measurement of hygiene, it is interdict spade-to screw and smoke in the rooms. We thank you for your comprehension."

Will post more soon on the rest of our trip.