Life in France

We haven’t written in awhile because we’ve been so busy being French. One week before we came, I was told it rains in the fall in Caen, but it isn’t as bad as spring. It has taken almost this long to understand it always rains in Normandy. There are tourist trinkets showing all four seasons with someone wearing a raincoat. So when we have beautiful days, it is an event and the whole town comes out. The first picture is at the chateau in Caen. We walk or take the tram by it every day. People cut through it to get to the other side. It’s just part of living in Caen, living next to a chateau and relaxing on the lawn when the sun is out!

We packed a lot into our second trip to Paris, beginning with climbing the 400 steps to the top of Notre Dame. Beautiful views of the city, (even though, you guessed it, it was raining) and scary views of the gargoyles close up! Then we took a train to Giverny, where Monet lived. We saw his house and studio. But most remarkable was his garden. We were told that he planted and maintained it. We were there on the second to last day that it is open because it eventually stops blooming. You can imagine how beautiful it is during the spring and summer. Actually, you don’t have to imagine because it is in many of his paintings. It was truly one of the most beautiful man-made places we’ve seen. It was cloudy so our pictures do not do it justice, but I hope you get some of the idea of the beauty of this place.

We visited many museums, all quite wonderful and then to a traditional café lunch. It was freezing but we really wanted to eat outside (at least we were under the heat lamps.) The experience of living like the French is a big part of the visit. Actually, we did a lot of eating. Surprise, surprise! We had falafel sandwiches on the street in Marais, the Jewish section of the city. They weren’t French, but they were delicious. As you can see in the window, he had all kinds of things to put in the pita besides the falafel and we asked for it all. It was jam-packed. We also tried the gelato. Although it was melting, can you see the pretty flower that they made out of Chuck’s gelato?

Then weekend before last, we visited Mont Saint Michel, the fourth Christian pilgrimage site. It’s a granite island surrounded by very fast tides (18 feet latterly per second.) So the fact that this incredible abbey and was built from rock from off the island is pretty fantastic. We spent a couple of days there just poking around. They have several herds of sheep that graze on the plants that live off of the salt water, so their meat is saltier. We tried that last night. Then Sunday we enjoyed moules (mussels) crème fresh (heavy cream) for the first time, also a delicacy of Mont Saint Michel.

Jan went to Friday market for the 3rd or 4th time and found out there is a friend/local discount. The wine was 2.50 instead of 3 Euros marked, and we got 8 madelines for the price of 6. Kind of fun being a regular! She’s really going to miss the weekly markets. The food is fresh, the crowd is fun and the vendors are very interesting. Last time Jan got into a discussion about Obama with the flower vendor who spoke very little English, but enough to discuss politics. By the way, he liked Obama.

We took our third and final trip to Paris this past weekend. We have been so lucky to take three shorter trips and see so much. It’s very tiring and hard on the body to do so much sightseeing and we’re lucky we could break it up. This time, we met Ellie Crawford, whose studying this semester in London, for two days in Paris. She brought the first sunny days that we’d seen in Paris. We took the tour around the city on the boat and were pleasantly surprised how interesting it was and what good views we had. We also added a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tour. It really is magnificent.