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It's an adventure. Our family of five is taking a year off from... the normal. Less work. More travel. Even (gasp!) homeschooling! We invite you to come along with us as we head West. Then on to Europe. Even grand times at home in between! Our goals: Rest. Connect. Experience. We hope to grow closer as a family and gain a deeper appreciation of all that God is, does, gives. Scaled back commitments. Scaled up adventure. Come along with us as the story unfolds!

First sights of France

5/03/2012 04:03:00 AM |

We're so excited to be in France! After we got off the ferry, we got the rental car and then spent probably an hour trying to figure out how to get out of St. Malo.  We had planned to buy a map at the ferry terminal, but there weren't any that we could find.  Thankfully we didn't have any problems with the rental car, and Kevin was relieved to be driving on the right side of the road again!  While driving around, we saw what looked like a supermarket ("supermarche"), so Kevin went in to look for a map.  He couldn't find a map, but he had his first conversation trying to speak French with someone.  He said it was pretty comical!

Finally we found a map at a gas station, and we were able to get out of town!  We headed for Mont St. Michel.  This is an abbey built around the 700s.  The story is that the bishop of Avaranches heard the voice of the Archangel Michael telling him to build the abbey.  It's quite beautiful the way it's out on its own, on a island.
Another cold and wet day!
We walked up through all these winding streets to get to the abbey.  It's pretty touristy, but I thought it still looked pretty.  There were lots of souvenir shops, but also lots of creperies and pastry shops!

We found lunch and just ate outside on this ledge.  Hot dogs and fries for the kids!



After Mont St. Michel, we headed over to Bayeux, where we stayed for two nights. We walked around town looking for a place to eat, around 6pm.  Nothing was open!  Apparently most restaurants are open 12p-2p for lunch, and then 7p-10p for dinner, and that's it!  So we decided to eat dessert first, since plenty of patisseries were open.
Mmmm, bakery, pastries, chocolate!  I think we'll be seeing lots of these places!


The Hotel Le Bayeux worked out great for us.  The manager was super nice and friendly, and he even spoke some english.  We practiced some of our French with him too!

Anna was thrilled to see this huge stuffed tiger in our room.  She even named her "Jessie."
Perfect room!  Bunk beds for the boys, and twin bed for Anna.  Notice Kevin checking out what's on tv.  All French shows.  Imagine that!

Breakfast - yum!  Croissants, cheeses, crepes, nutella, wow!
I think I could have spent more time in Bayeux.  It's a beautiful town!  We loved walking around, if only it wasn't so wet and cold!  Oh well, at least we're in France! (that's our mantra whenever anything isn't just perfect!).  While we were walking around, we saw this picturesque river.  

Anna was excited to see more pigeons.  They were sitting in the holes in the walls of this building.  We  think we saw a mom pigeon feeding a baby pigeon.  So cute!

Here's the cathedral in Bayeux.  We ran out of time, so we weren't able to go in.  I think the kids were okay with that.   One of them commented that there sure are lots of cathedrals that are called "one of the most beautiful cathedrals."  I guess we said that a lot.
We ended our visit in Bayeux with a visit to the Bayeux Tapestry.  I loved this.  It's a 230 foot long embroidery from about 1000 years ago that tells the story of when William the Conqueror became king.  It's like a huge comic strip! The kids had all heard of it, and Justin had studied up on it, so  it was neat for them to really see it!   But we listened to the great audio guide that took us through the story. Sorry, though, no pictures, since none were allowed.     
While we were in Bayeux, we also went to see some WWII sights.  They were really very moving.  Kevin will be posting about that later.

After Bayeux, we drove a couple hours to Rouen to stay for the night.  Like in St. Malo, we drove around a lot!  At first it was fun, but then we got a little frustrated with not being able to find anywhere to park!  Finally we decided to go ahead and return the rental car a day early, since we wouldn't be using the car anyway!  We drove around the parking deck at the train station for a while until we could find the rental car section.  We were pretty stressed out!  We thought we'd never get rid of the car!

Finally we made it to our hotel.  When not in the car worrying about where to go, Rouen is a beautiful city!
Our hotel for the night!
 
  




 

Tuesday morning we had a YUMMY breakfast!

fromage!
various jellies


Justin loves croissants!  I think he ate three at this breakfast time.
There was even a cute kitty at the hotel!

My initial impressions of France are that not as many people speak English as I thought!  We're in smaller towns, so that might be part of it.  We've been keeping our French/English dictionary hand, and believe me, we're using it a lot!  When all else fails, we just try to use hand motions.  And everyone's been pretty nice.

From Rouen, we hopped on a train headed for Paris!!


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Posted by Kelly

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