Versaille

We intended to visit the city of Rouen today. This city is mostly famous for its cathedral and it is where they burned Joan of Arc on the stake. However, the city was crazy to drive around and we were running out of gas. We could not find a place to park and when we started to look for gas stations they were all underground and thus, had a height restriction of 2 meters. Julie was not up to spending the money to stay at the campsite in Rouen after spending a half hour driving around the modern city. So we headed off to our next stop. Les Andelys is a small town with a ruined castle. The castle was nice enough to walk around, but it was closed because it was a Tuesday. So we saved some money, because I didn’t think going inside the castle would have been worth the 3 euros entry. It being closed convinced Julie.

The drive to Versaille was a long one. We originally wanted to split up this long drive, but since we didn’t stay in Rouen, we needed to move on to the campsite in Versaille. We intend to use this campsite as a base for exploring Paris. When we arrived at the campsite, one of the employees was really excited that we were from Canada. Apparently the chain of campgrounds has a few sites in Quebec. On our way back to the van we saw street signs pointing to what they considered “Canadien” style lodges. They had wooden floors with waterproof canvas sides and ceiling. You can have a look at them online. We had already put our Canadian flag on the front window and before we even had a chance to sit down a boy came by to say high. He is on exchange for two months and had come to Versaille to see Paris with his host family. He said he was from Barrie and that the host family told him he shouldn’t go over to the van to say “Hi”. His response to them, was “Canadian’s are the nicest people in the world and not to worry about it.” Once he was off, one of our new neighbors returned and the lady asked us if we were really Canadians or American’s pretending to be Canadians. Peggy and Bruce are from Nevada on tour for the summer. They purchased their van from a dealer in Amsterdam, and strange as it is, they were driving a Volkswagen LT28. We chatted for quite some time before calling it a night. Julie said to me later, that the flag had already paid for itself.

La Mailleraye-sur-seine

This was another free parking spot for campervans, and once again it was along a river. I love these locations, I just wish it was warmer and maybe that I had a boat. After we got settled we remembered that I needed to call home as my parents just returned from Jamaica yesterday after attending Kate and Kenny’s wedding (sorry guys for not making it).

Courseulles-sur-Mer

The town of Bayeux appeared to be a nice small town with a fairly impressive church when we passed through the other day, but in the end we decided not to back track to this town. Instead we went to Juno beach about 20km west of Arromanches. When we woke earlier that morning we headed out with the intention of visiting the museum in town, which we sort of did. On our way we passed by the beach only to see the tide had gone out another 50 feet or so. It was crazy to have seen the water only 15 feet from the break wall and now the water was more than a football field away. We took advantage of this and walked around the beach again. We saw three people on horseback and we figured by the way they were riding them they must have been training the horses to walk in the water. Julie was also grossed out while we walked along the beach. That was due to what she referred to as “fish poo” that covered the ocean floor we were now walking on. We then went to purchase a giant Canadian flag to hang in our window when we’re parked and we also had some awful lunch consisting of microwaved hamburgers and French fries. The museum was on the concrete harbor that Winston Churchill thought up during the war. Since our shoe strings guide explained what the concrete things were, we decided to skip this museum for another. In the entry room for the museum they had on display the list of beaches that were stormed on D-Day and the countries that stormed them. They also had a plethora of information on all the beaches. The beach we were at is Omaha, which was stormed by the Americans. The beach to the west was called Juno and was stormed by Canadians. In the town of Courseulles-sur-Mer they have a Canadian orientated museum(http://www.junobeach.org/Centre/index.html). We decided that we wanted to learn more about Canada’s part in the war. Juno beach was the second bloodiest of all the beaches stormed that day. Utah saw more blood, which was located on the other side of Omaha. The young lady at the counter was from London, Ontario and we chatted for a bit, but because the movie was about to start we were ushered off. The museum starts you off in a small room with screens surrounding three walls. The lower half of the room is designed to look like one of the boats used during the storming of the beaches. The film was about Canada and about what the soldiers could be thinking. It wasn’t what we expected. We figured it was supposed to be moving, but it missed its mark. The remainder of the museum was set up in stages, what was being done in Canada and what troops were in the war. The second last room had to be the best though. On all the walls they had information on the war going on in each country and in the centre of the room they had videos playing. The videos were of veterans speaking of the war, all were matched perfectly from the start to the finish of the war. The last room had a continuous stream of names of all the Canadian soldiers that lost their lives. Apparently to watch it from start to finish it would take 4 ½ hours. Up to this point the museum was on Canada’s contribution to the war effort. Now the museum turned to Canada in its present state. Julie and I felt that this sign was just perfect. (insert photo here). We ended up not hanging around too long in this room as it seemed more like an advertisement of Canada then actual education. We did read some of the quotes that ran around the room. One read “It’s impossible to explain the size of Canada to any European. I mean we will drive 100 km just to see a movie.” We left the museum with Canadian patches for our bags (we haven’t had them and could not find them up to this point) and decided once again, not to buy Maple syrup. €15.50 for 500ml of this golden liquid is insane.

Arromanches

It would seem that I got my wish. This morning we woke to an extremely nice day. I was able to wear shorts and a t-shirt for at least most of the morning. I had to put on a sweater by mid-day. Nevertheless, we both enjoyed the warm weather until we had to leave the campsite at 2pm. At this point it had started to pour. We had originally decided to go to Bayeux to visit the D-day beaches but when I looked at the map, it wasn’t on the coast. So I changed the plans to go to Arromanches instead which was only 10 km north of Bayeux. Once we parked the van and had lunch Julie and I ventured out for a short walk. We had no intention of doing much today other than showing up. We plan to visit tomorrow. But the town is pretty small, really only one main street so we ended up walking the beaches later that night (at sunset) when the tide had decreased. This allowed us to walk right up to what we think was the old concrete dock that was made in order to support the troops during the storming of the beaches. As you can imagine, the sea is taking its toll on them, but they are still pretty impressive to see. After seeing these, it made me want to visit as much as possible in Normandy. So tomorrow we might visit the museum in town and then proceed to the other beaches. We will also make a stop in Bayeux, but a short one at that.

Le Mont St Michel

What can I tell you about Mont St Michel? Well, since it has a pretty decent history, I can start there (but I will only mention a few things). It is thought that Aubert the bishop of Avranches built a sanctuary on Mont-Tombe (now called Mont St Michel) in 708. He dedicated it to Saint Michael. It is a fortress and a place of worship. There is a town just outside its walls. During the 100 years war it was impregnable. In 1874 it was classified as a historic monument and 1979 it became a Unesco site. The current population is 42.What makes it pretty cool to visit, is that it is on a small island connected to the main land by a causeway. You can visually see where the water level comes up to during high tide. During low tide you can see the ocean floor for kilometers in most directions but can barely see the ocean itself its so far away. The walk up to the Abbey leads you along a narrow medieval street lined with shops and restaurants. The restaurants are extremely expensive and the shops sell typical tourist stuff. Julie and I could not imagine visiting this place in the high season because it was extremely busy today. Our guide book says not to even bother visiting on weekends during the summer and tells of traffic backing up 5 km from the abbey. We decided to go with an audio guide while we walked around the Abbey. One of the rooms we were in was thought to have been built in the year 1000 and has been untouched since. We didn’t have a close look, but apparently you can still see the timber marks from the scaffolding on the walls. The abbey was pretty cool and the views, when you got them from the windows, were great. On another note, Julie and I took way to long this morning getting going. I was typing the blog, while Julie was engrossed in a book. We managed to head out around 1, which made it too late to check out today. So we are spending another night at the campsite. Tomorrow is Sunday (April 13th) and everything will be closed. So we took the van to fill up on gas and purchased some food from the grocery store. My jeans are finally giving in. I tore them today at the knee, so Julie is patching them up now. I hope it can hold out until Canada, or at least until the weather becomes warm enough for me to start wearing shorts.

Fougeres and St Malo

Well this day was a bust, mostly due to us. We took our time getting ready this morning and didn’t leave the campsite until noon. When we did finally head out we ended up taking the wrong road and then had to back track. When we arrived in Fougeres the campsite we intended to stay at was full, but we aren’t even sure if it was the campsite. It was the wrong name and it was located in an industrial zone. We went to a McDonalds to use the WiFi and before long we decided to head to St Malo as it had a free place to stay. The drive to Fougeres was a long one, so we weren’t looking forward to this drive. It was around 6’oclock when we arrived in St Malo but the site didn’t open until June 1st unlike what our book told us. On a map it showed the location to other parking areas for campers. St Malo is a popular destination for UK citizens as it’s just across the channel. We never did get to see it as we decided to skip this stop as well. We drove another 1 ½ hours to Le Mont St Michel. Where there is a campsite just 2.5 km away. We were very grateful to be resting at a campsite after the drive we just did. It might have only been 367 km, but it took 8 hours to do it. Sometimes we wonder if avoiding the toll roads in France is really worth it.

The Loire Valley

Today we started the drive through the Loire valley. Maybe it was the route we took, but at no time did we see or feel like we were in a valley. We have only planned on visiting 2 castles out of the many that are here. Chateau Chambord is one of them and is the first one for today. From our rest stop it was roughly a 60 km drive to get to Chambord. But not even 30 km in did we spot our first castle. Sully-sur-Loire was definitely worth a stop so we pulled into the parking lot and started to take some pictures and walked into the grounds. We did not plan to go inside though, as almost all the castles in the Loire valley charge from 7 euros and up. This one was no different. It was a truly magnificent castle with a moat and everything.

We moved on feeling pretty excited about the drive and it wasn’t too long after that we were driving in Chambord’s nature reserve on route to the castle itself. Chambord castle is truly remarkable. Julie felt that it looked more like a church then it did a castle. To its defense, it was built as a castle but used as a hunting lodge. This is the first castle we have been in that actually uses the fireplaces. This proved to be a great way to warm up. We spent a few hours wandering around the castle, a few of the rooms were done up while some were stripped bare. On the third floor was an exhibit of all the products that bare Chambord’s name. It was really amusing to see and to learn what they did to sell to the Americans. The castle was truly great to see.

I decided I wanted to see the other castles mentioned in the book so we added them to our route. These were Chateau de Cheverny and Chateau de Chaumont. But in the end, they weren’t as accommodating as Chambord. High gates and bushes made it impossible to see. Whereas at Chambord, you could walk the grounds for free. On our way to Chinon we spotted another small chateau and took some pictures, though we didn’t get out of the van this time.

The campsite in Chinon is located directly across from the castle. It would have been great views if it weren’t for the huge restoration taking place. They are planning on rebuilding the entire castle to its former glory by 2010. When complete, it will be pretty impressive. We opted out of seeing this one even though Joan of Arc spoke to the Dauphin here. I decided today, since it was so nice out, I would get Julie to shave my head. I haven’t bic’d it yet but this is the closest haircut I have ever had (to my memory) so I might not do that. Julie says I look younger and completely different from behind and isn’t sold on it and neither am I frankly.