The Road to "The L.H." (France part 3)

Heading to Mt. Saint Michelle from Caen started out rather tame and ultimately was easy, until it became dark and we realized that we were looking for a rural hostel in a tiny village. A missed turn presented us with the tricky dilemma of finding out how to turn around and find the cozy village hostel (it was much simpler than we imagined).

Just around the corner from the quiet bed & breakfast / hostel was Mont Saint Michelle, an amazing place to visit that I recommend to all. I also recommend renting a car instead of public transportation trips to more rural areas, it puts the schedule in your hands and gives you total control, and the ability to see beautiful villages that are not connected with commercial bus lines.

Mont Sant Michelle is a medieval monastery and now turned village for wealthy individuals that was an epic stronghold since the 8th century. The views from atop it's terraces of the salt flats that surround it are truly breathtaking.

With the majority of the morning spent meandering about in the salty air, we finally got the car, and headed north towards Bayeux to see the Normandy beaches..

mon français se terrible (France part 2)

With a newly rented and cleaned Fiat monster truck, some ¨insider´s¨ directions from the car rental guy, and plenty of countryside to pass, me and my ¨trusty¨ map-reader Beth (soon to be known as Bess) made our way from Beauvais to Rouen. The drive there was a pleasant 1.5 hours in the midst of snow covered fields and rustic villages. It felt amazing to drive a car again, and even more so being as how the tour presented me with fun curves to take and great scenery to dangerously take note of whilst taking said curves.

We hit our first pit-stop in Rouen: home of a houses with twisted frames (reminiscent of Amsterdam), a Gothic cathedral where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heretical accusations, and one of our first Carrefour sandwhich station creations. Believe you me, we got creative.

Our destination for the end of the day was Mt. Sant Michelle, which is about 4 hours drive from our starting point in Beauvais, so our stop in Rouen was brief, but pleasant. The next stop was Caen.

It looked like this .

Just kidding.

But that's what it looked like a month after D-day as their was an intense bombing campaign to rid the city of Nazi forces and allow the allies to retake it. Caen offers two separate monasteries (one women's and one men's), a castle, and wide pedestrian streets lined with shops and bars. We had trouble getting a big enough beanie for Beth's massive hair on these streets, but none whatsoever in finding a beer and pizza pastry from the friendly people of Caen.

Then began my first stint of French night time driving...