France

France Adventure, Part 6

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9-23-08 – Sarlat, By Jodi

Ginette accommodated us by having breakfast ready early so we could leave by 8:30. She was such a sweet lady, constantly bringing us things and moving nice lawn furniture in front of our room to sit. She always insisted on packaging up leftover baguettes or bread at breakfast for us to take for ‘picnic’ as she would say. After about every sentence, she would say, VOILA! , so that is why I said that in the prior post. We really liked her a lot and she really knows how to pamper her quests and run a great B&B.

Drive-3So, on the road, about an equal mix of small country roads and highways, as we make our way to Oradour-sur-Glane. We drive to the new town of Oradour, buy a sandwich and eat outside the entrance in a park area before touring WW2 martyred town of Oradour-sur-Glane.

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France Adventure, Part 5

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9-20-08 Amboise and the Loire Valley, by Jodi

Drive to Fougers

Drive to Fougers

We eat breakfast 8am and greeted by not only Max but also Luna, his female counter part who was not friendly and very prissy & hissy. The drive to Amboise took us on some pretty small, one-lane country roads. They are big enough for one car with no centerlines. If another car approaches, you both pull over into the gravel and grass to pass each other. We kept seeing McDonalds signs but never saw one, they boast WIFI, so we were tempted to pull into one just for that, we may still do that in the future if we continue to have access problems. The drive was pleasant and about 4 hours long, but we were not in a big hurry. We enjoyed the scenery on our drive south trying to stay off the main toll highways.

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France Adventure, Part 4

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9-19-08  –  Mont Saint Michel, by Jodi

B&B

B&B

Our drive from Bayeux to Mont St Michel was an easy 1-½ hours, so we take our time packing and finally leaving our room at 10am. We arrive at our B&B greeted by a brown tabby named Max who wanted pets every time we see him and we were happy to oblige. Our B&B is beautiful, just 1 mile from Mont St Michel in the little town of Bouviere. We settle in and decide to have lunch before venturing for the 2-3 hour visit of the Mont. We found a pizza place and had a salad each and split a pizza. The pizza crust is made from a crepe, wood fire grilled in an oven and topped with tons of toppings, it was delicious and very filling yet still very light, exactly what we needed.

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France Adventure, Part 3 – By Jodi

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9-18-08

This is our free day. We take our time getting ready and eating breakfast round the large table with 3 other French couples, not understanding a word they said, but fun anyway.

Longes Sur Mer German Battery gun

Longes Sur Mer German Battery

We head out to the town of Longes Sur Mer to visit the German battery high above the beaches on the cliffs. The four concrete gun buildings were set in a semi circle for the maximum shooting range. This is the only German battery with the guns still intact, one bombed to bits on the ground. Ahead of the 4 guns was a concrete lookout at the edge of the cliff to give the gunners instructions where to fire along Utah and Omaha beaches.

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France Adventure, Part 2

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9-17-08 Battlebus Tour of the Normandy D-Day Beaches and sites (photo heavy post), by Jodi

We both slept great until 6:00 am. We got ready and had our breakfast in the large dining room- baguettes, soft cheeses, homemade jams, yogurt, cereals, apple coffee cake, coffee, and OJ. Delicious!

BattleBus Tour Bus

BattleBus Tour Bus

We left the B&B and head to Bayeux city center to meet our Battle Bus tour guide and the 3 other couples sharing the full day tour. Our tour guide Allan, was a knowledgeable Brit, who has studied the Normandy invasions for 25 years and is a historical author. During the drive between stops Allan told us of local history and sites we passed relating to WWII and prior history of the area, he certainly made the drive interesting.

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France Adventure, Part 1

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9-15-08 Fly out, by Jodi

We leave for LAX airport at 5:00am to catch our 8:30am flight. We had a stopover in Philadelphia, just enough time to find the right gate and we were off again. I was able to nap about 1½ hours, first time ever on a plane, Terry didn’t sleep at all.

9-16-08 Arrive Paris

france trip route

france trip route

We arrived 40 minutes early but ended up standing in the customs line for an hour. We found an ATM to get some Euros, and had the information desk phone AutoFrance for our shuttle pickup to get our car. The lease couldn’t be any easier, we signed some papers, they gave us the keys with a few quick instructions about the car and we were on our way to the nearest gas station. Our car takes diesel, E1.40 per liter, which translates to about $6 per gallon and with the exchange rate it ends up at about $8 per gallon – ouch! A good thing is the diesel was getting about 55 miles per gallon per our calculations. The gas station also had a small store ala 7-11, so we grabbed some snacks and drinks for the road.

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