Mont St Michel

We had a great day today; we woke up early in morning and drove to Mont St Michel. An abbey situated on an island in the Baie de Mont Saint Michel. The Baie is famous for its very odd tidal patterns on certain days of the year the water will sweep away any cars parked along the road to the Mont.

 When we drove up, the Mont was very beautiful in the morning sun with only a handful of hardy souls there in the biting morning cold. On the walk up the hill to the old abbey there is shop-lined road originally built for the thousands of pilgrims who come there. It is amazing how they manage to fit so many things on such a tiny island, every inch of land was being used for something. Most of the space was taken up by the enormous abbey but at the base of the island there were bits of building sticking out everywhere in a tiny maze of alleys running out from the one road. When we walked into the walled “town” we had the place to ourselves, none of the shops were open so we walked along the ramparts a bit before going to the abbey.

At the abbey, we had arrived too early to take a guided tour, which we had heard was worth it, so we walked around a bit on our own and tried to get back to the start to take a tour. Unfortunately, we went down the wrong staircase and when we tried to get back up, we were pushed back down by a bossy tour guide. In the end I had to talk with the lady at the desk and act cute so that she would let us back in. The tour was great; the lady told us all sorts of interesting things about the architecture and the history.  One of the most interesting things she told us was that they used to bring up supplies in a basket on a rope and the giant wheel they used to pull up the heavy bricks and food was turned by prisoners of the French revolution, like ran in the wheel like hamsters. On our way out we bought two boxes of the famous Mère Poulards Cookies, they are delicious.

On our drive home, we stopped and climbed Mont Dol.   It was not a long walk but there was a tower up top that you could climb to get great views, there was also a windmill and a café.

McDonalds

The McDonalds in France are very interesting. They have free Wi-Fi so they are one of the few places we can post blogs from but there seems to be a complete lack of salt and pepper (although only for me, the same man gave it to my sister) also the menu is nearly entirely in english and even the stuff that is written in French you have to ask for in English or else they will not understand you despite being francophones themselves.

It is very confusing.

On The Road

Well, we are on the road again.  Yesterday we drove from our gîte up north near Belgium to Caen.  It was a great drive through stunning Normandy countryside. We stopped at Le Tréport along the way, and drove through the city of Le Havre.  Le Tréport was a very nice seaside town but Le Havre was more interesting.  Le Havre was nearly completely destroyed by Allied bombs during WWII so they hired a Belgian architect to rebuild the city, and he did so in a modern and utilitarian way with row upon row of rectangular apartment blocks.  Although the city center may have been well…ugly…the beach was packed and very inviting.  Despite being October, it was a warm and sunny day.

On the final leg of the journey we had to cross the Pont de Normandie, over the Seine estuary.  The bridge was huge: a long, high bridge that touched down on an island then another bridge.

When we got to Caen, we quickly found a hotel, although the closest parking space was 750 meters away.  Caen was an important city where much was destroyed during the war, but luckily not everything.  Since our hotel was right in the old town, we walked a bit and visited the castle.  The castle was built by William the Conqueror, and there was no admission fee.  The inside of the castle was really cool.  From the ramparts we had a great view of the Caen.  One of the best things about the castle was that the moat was empty, so you could see how deep it would have been. 

Since we arrived in Caen on a Friday night, the streets were packed with people, students mainly. 

The next morning, we woke at 8:00 am, I went out and bought two baguettes while my mom went to get milk and we ate our cereal and baguette in the hotel.  Our first stop of the day was Juno beach where the Canadians landed on D-Day, or as they say in French Jour-J.  The beach was interesting because you could see where the German bunkers and machine guns had been; the concrete bases were still there.  We went into one bunker with a guide.  We walked along the beach a bit too.  Dad and I went into the Canadian museum.  One of the most interesting things in the museum was the collection of war propaganda posters.  My favourite was one that showed a lion with a crown, representing Britain, charging into battle with a sword, and beside it a beaver, representing Canada, with a spear.  After Juno Beach we took a fabulous route along the coast where we could see remains of the Atlantic Wall.

Later, when we got to Bayeux, we ate our picnic lunch, (our Camembert was getting really smelly, I didn’t like sitting beside the cool bag during this, our second day of travel), and then we went straight to see the Bayeux tapestry. Despite how boring the name sounds it was really great. The tapestry is from 1077 AD and shows William the conqueror’s conquest of England in 1066 AD in a comic strip style. It is 68.3 meters long and better than any “Pearls Before Swine”. The way that they can tell the story with simple pictures is amazing. Since it is done with thread instead of paint, it seems almost 3-D.

 Juno Beach

Carved timber on a house in Caen 

Beautiful Le Havre 

Caen Castle

Belgium

Yesterday we decided that since we were so close to Belgium, we should go for a day trip. We went to Tournai. When we left our gîte we really didn’t know what to expect of the city. For all we knew it could have been a dreary industrial town where all the old buildings had been destroyed in the war, which is far too common in this area of France. Luckily, the city was absolutely gorgeous, with a beautiful cathedral and dozens of other spectacular Flemish buildings. In the middle of town was the huge belfry (bell tower), which we climbed. This was definitely the highlight of our visit. To get up you had to climb the tiny spiral staircase with just a rope along side with which to hold.  When we got to top, we had amazing views across the city; a panorama of red tiled rooftops. When we got back down we went for a walk around the town, went into the Cathedral then bought Belgian chocolate, pastries and gauffres à sucre (Belgian sugar waffles). Mmmmmmmmm…

Today we are having a lazy day enjoying our gîte. We had crêpes for breakfast with Belgian chocolate spread or sugar and lemon juice. After breakfast we had math class for the remainder of the morning. In the early afternoon we went for a walk around the small village where we are located. The town is lovely with a tiny river trickling through it and an old church in the middle of town. The only problem with the town is that there is not a single store (except for the house with a sign saying they sell walnuts from the tree in their yard). But that’s okay because the driving all around the area is lovely so a short drive to the shops is no problem.

If anyone reading this is planning a trip to France anytime soon I would highly recommend renting a gîte. A gîte is a holiday cottage that you usually rent for a week at a time. They are seldom in cities, but often in or around small villages. Since there are so many people in France who are moving from the country to the big cities you can buy country homes at bargain prices, fix them up and rent them for between 200 Euros to a couple thousand a week. There are plenty of beautiful gîtes for 4 people that are less than 250 Euros a week in the off season, and even more for fewer than 300 Euros. There are a number of websites to help you find these gites, the main one being “Gîte De France”. Once you have found a gîte you like, you call the owner and arrange a date to arrive.

 Our view of the Square

 Our view of the Cathedral from atop the Belfry

The Beautiful city of Tournai

The Staircase to the Belfry

France!

Hooray!!! I am writing this blog from a gîte (holiday cottage) in France! Although we have no internet so I will save and post from an Internet café later.  We took the ferry from Dover to Calais Monday morning. In the afternoon, we went to Arras, a beautiful Flemish town. We spent some time admiring the beauty of the architecture, but we were also searching for accommodations. Our latest edition of Lonely Planet France told us that there was a hostel downtown but unfortunately it had disappeared without a trace. So we walked through the streets looking for reasonably priced hotels, but there was no such thing. We then went nearer the train station and found a hotel that was much the same price as the ones in the square, but we were tired of searching so we went for it. The next day we had more fun in Arras, we got a parking ticket! When we went to pay it the policeman told us we had to give the real money to the tabagie, (they sell tobacco, lottery tickets etc.) who would give us stamps which we could then give to the police. After we sorted that out we decided that we did not want to be harassed in Arras anymore so we waited in line for an hour to buy a cell-phone from which we could book this gite in the country.

On our way to the gite we stopped at Vimy Ridge, the site of a WWI battle, where the Canadians beat the Germans with death tolls of 3,500. The French had tried, and lost 150,000. On the top of the Ridge they have a giant piercing white monument surrounded by fields pock marked by bombs. Further back, you can go into the trenches and the underground tunnels from where they launched the attacks. The walls of the tunnels were made of chalk with chunks of flint sticking out; not great when you are walking around in a uniform from which hung bits of metal and you are carrying bags of dynamite and ammunitions.

 Arras

The towers of the Monument from the back

 Front view of the Monument

 Flint in the tunnel wall

Helmets in the tunnel

Hastings

We spent the last weekend in Hastings with our friends Richard and Fiona and their kids. We went to the beach and the old town. On the pebble beach we caught about 30 or 40 starfish.

We then walked through the old town and I bought some Hasting Rock(candy).

The next day we went to Bodiam Castle. We then had a delicous pub lunch of Gammon, and Bubble and Squeak.

London

Yesterday was a day I had been waiting for a long time now, the day we went to London.

We woke up at 6:00 AM to join the million other people who commute to London every day (I thought it was more, but that was the only stat I could find).

When we finally got to our parking lot at North Ealing tube station (The last km took 20 minutes!) we hopped on the tube to Piccadilly Circus in Central London. The ride took forever, but when we walked up from underground it was worth it.

We walked down Regent Street and then down The Mall; we saw the horse guards as we made our way to Buckingham Palace.  The flag was flying; the Royals were there.  We spent some time looking around outside of the palace, but then we decided to leave because not only were there guards in red coats and bear-fur hats, but modern policemen with machine guns.

We walked to the Houses of Parliament.  We looked around a bit, but didn't really spend long there.  Since we had public transport cards, we took the double decker bus to Trafalgar Square.  The square was really beautiful, full of German, Canadian, Spanish and Japanese tourists.  It was amazing how many languages we heard, and we managed to keep the pigeons away while we ate our lunch.  Because the National Gallery was right there, and completely free, we did a quick tour, and now I can say I have seen a Picasso, several Monet's and some Van Gough. When we eventually found our way out, we walked around the West End for awhile. We stopped in McDonald's for some tea and a snack, and we found that the European McD's look more modern and designer, although the grumpy woman at the counter didn’t seem to know that water came from the tap.  She refused to give us a cup of tap water.

In the afternoon, as it started to rain, we headed indoors to Kensington, to the Natural History Museum. The Museum was amazing; one of the most interesting things was the building itself. Since the building was purpose-built to house the museum there were all sorts of animal and plant sculptures on the arches and corners, and dinosaur gargoyles on the exterior. When we walked into the museum there were security guards there to check our bags, although they weren’t very thorough. Before he opened my bag he asked

“What did you bring for dinosaur today?!” (There is a big dinosaur skeleton in the main hall) and then he opened my bag, took out my apple and cried:

“Oh! Apple!” and then closed my bag and gave it back. The rest of the museum was very interesting and well set-up.

When our legs could stand no more meandering, we left and walked to Harrods.  Harrods was the most expensive store I have ever been to. We saw a desk chair for a mere 15 000 pounds, and the lamp on the table was a bargain for 5 000 pounds. The washroom had expensive colognes beside the sink and a plate for tips. The chocolate truffles were six pound fifty per 100 grams and it was the first time I had ever been in an Egyptian themed escalator. Harrods felt very odd because you knew that you couldn’t afford anything and they knew you couldn’t afford anything so after a bit we decided to leave and go get supper.

For supper we went to Wong Kei, a Chinese restaurant in the West End famous for it’s cheap food, quick service and rude waiters. When you walk in a stern looking man tells you where to sit and will seat you with others if there is room. You get a pot of tea as soon as you sit down and if you don’t order in 10 minutes then they kick you out. Once you have ordered the food comes in about 5 minutes and you need to know how to use chopsticks because you can’t even think about asking for a fork unless you wish to provide entertainment to the other diners.

When we finished our delicious food, we took the tube to Paddington station and then to Embankment on the River Thames. We walked onto the Golden Jubilee Bridge and got amazing views of the city at night. We then hopped on the tube and returned to North Ealing and started the long drive home.


sorry no photos yet

Charlecote

Today, my grandparents took Mhari and I to Charlecote Park, a National Trust property. National Trust is a charity to which people donate big manors.  The Trust looks after the manors and puts museums in them, they also do parks and stuff. The House was very interesting, built in Tudor times but with Victorian decorations. It was very interesting to see how people lived back then. One of the most interesting rooms was the drawing room, which was where Queen Elizabeth I slept when she stayed there. There are no photos on our computer yet, but you can Google Charlecote Park if you want.

After Charlecote Park, we went to the local organic garden store, (my grandparents are avid gardeners), which happened to be the birth place of the organic gardening movement. So we went and looked at their gardens.

Then finally we saw the house where my Dad was born in Binley Woods near Coventry.