First Days in Caen, France

The flights here were uneventful, complete with easy immigration and no customs. Caen is charming, clean, reserved, and definitely a college town. It has lots of brick houses with flowerboxes and tile roofs, but it is very modern with a great public transportation system. We are living on one of the four campuses that make up Université de Caen in a spacious efficiency with a bed, small table and desk, two desk chairs. The kitchen has a microwave, small fridge, silverware and dishes for 6 and not much else.

The tram and bus stops are near where we live, and we are an easy walk to the city center. We managed to get two-month passes for the Tram/Bus and found that we can walk to the Laundromat, boulangerie (bakery) (which Jan has done daily!), lots of shopping, meat and vegetable markets, lots of wonderful restaurants, and the synagogue! We took our backpacks and extra reusable shopping bags and rode the tram to Carrefour, a Meijer type mega store. It was a great adventure. We bought some odds & ends (like a paring knife, extension cord, hangers) and food to try to cook at home. After our first dinner at home, we found that we need a bit more…like a cutting board and serving bowl. Jan's “find” yesterday was a 2€ Store, like our Dollar Stores, but Europe style. We’re now the proud owners of a cutting board, serving bowl and other odds and ends to make life more fun.

The food here is incredible. Our first night we stopped at a bakery and picked up chocolate croissants for the following breakfast. We’ve eaten dinner in two marvelous restaurants, and stopped for a baguette filled with brie for lunch on the grass in front of a castle.