Vendredi le 17 Septembre
Last night we bundled ourselves into jackets and went out into the darkness of the courtyard to stargaze. It was magical.
The morning was gorgeous, clear and sunny, and the dew on the windshield of our Citröen promised fair weather for the day.
We had asked madame if we could take some apples to the horses in the paddock behind the courtyard and she had said, “Pas problème.” We picked a few apples from the tree along the driveway and made our way to the paddock, but alas, there were no chevaux out in the field. We left the fruit in a pile on the fencepost in case one of them happened to canter by later in the day.
At madame’s urging we again packed up a few pastries, some fruits and a bottle of water from the breakfast table prior to heading out for the day. We programmed Bayeux into the GPS and we were on our way. The drive was fairly short but oh so scenic. The route did not take us on the motorway, but rather on quiet regional roads planted with large trees along one side of them. We followed the curves and twisted past any number of little farmhouses, fields of corn and pastures of content cows.
Bayeux then appeared. A charming place from the little that we saw of it. The Centre Guillaume de Conquérant was housed in a stately building with a replica Norman ship plunked down in the middle of the courtyard amid a sea of smooth grey stones.
We waited for a short time in line to purchase our tickets and to get our audioguide. The tapestry was behind glass doors in a dimly lit gallery. The commentary went along quite rapidly but there were a few pauses that enabled us to look closely at the embroidery.
I wondered about the artisans responsible for such a work of art/historical document. Was it done by women or men? A team or only a few? These were questions left unanswered by the audioguide.
We took a meander through the large gift shop but ultimately did not purchase anything.
On to a café for café crèmes and a bowl of onion soup. Yum!
We debated on the way to the cathedral whether to purchase a section of a spent WWII German ammo clip from a small antique shop. Ultimately decided against it.
The cathedral was covered in scaffolding, I kid you not, but it was spectacular nonetheless. We took a quick look around the inside, ducked into the crypt and then made our way back to the car. The cathedral had been rather a bonus as I hadn’t been aware of a second attraction in Bayeux!
Mont Saint Michel was the next item up for bids. We drove through a very light rain shower on the way there, but otherwise the weather was clear. After about 90 minutes we got our first glimpse of le Mont almost out of nowhere. Silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky, it was a most impressive sight. 10 minutes or so more brought us to the parking lot and a 10 minute walk brought us to the entrance to the town. As we walked toward the entrance we noticed some kind of stage being set up with bleacher seats and lighting. Turned out that there was a touring production of ‘Carmen’ being staged there in the open air that evening and the next. What a setting for opera!
There were crowds along every inch of the narrow streets that lead up the hill to the church. We figured at that point that some lunch might be in order, so we stopped at a restaurant and ordered of all things, spaghetti Bolognese. At first glance the plated looked incredibly small for the price (I think it was €12 or something crazy like that…) but it turned out the plate had a large depression in the centre that actually hid a fair amount of pasta. Anyway, it was surprisingly good and the carbs were put to good use climbing the rest of the way up to the church.
Once we reached the entrance we saw the admission was €7.50 and to be honest we thought that was a little steep. On the one hand it seemed like a lot to pay just to go into a church, but on the other hand, it was what we had come all this way to see, and what else would we do if we didn’t go through the church? Go back to the car? That would have been stooopeeed…
It was a perfect day for looking out from the parvis out across what seemed like miles of sand and to the ocean beyond.
Turned out there was a lot to see and even though we didn’t upgrade to the audioguide (€4.50 extra) we got enough info from the printed paper guide to keep the tour interesting. As seems to be the norm for me at these places the cloisters was definitely the highlight for me, but it was interesting to note that on the parvis there were numbers that had been carved into many of the stone pavers. I determined with my amazing power of deduction that that was the place where the monks played hopscotch between matins and evensong.
On the way back down we stopped to get Reyn a Nutella and banana crepe and I left him eating it in the street in order to backtrack to a souvenir shop we had passed earlier. There was a small square panel that replicated a part of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry that we had seen last year at the Cluny in Paris. I had regretted not getting some type of memento from there so it was a happy if odd coincidence.
Back at the car we shared a pear from madame’s fruit basket that morning. Despite being jostled around the back of a Citröen most of the day, it was perfectly ripe, juicy and delicious.
We started the hour-long drive back to Villers-Bocage for dinner. After two so-so evening meals at a pizzeria called Les Quatres Saisons, we decided to try a brasserie or café for our last dinner in Normandy. Walking down the main street we found a little place called Le P’tit Zinc and were told to come back at 19:00 as they were not yet open. As we left I noticed a small decal in the window. It had a picture of a D-Day landing beach and said in English, “We welcome our liberators.” Just not before 19:00.
We killed time looking at some real estate listings and fantasizing about retiring in a little French town…
So we made our way back to this completely unprepossessing corner restaurant and ended up getting the best meal of the whole trip! For a fraction of what it would have cost in Paris, we each had wine/beer, a large entrée, dessert and espresso. What a treat!
Back at the B&B we let madame know we would need breakfast earlier the next day as out train would be leaving relatively early. We checked our email then went up to pack as much as possible so as to make a speedy departure on the morrow.
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