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<\/a><\/p>\nLe Havre, at the mouth of the Seine, is a busy shipping port.\u00a0 It has a very large and impressive bridge that we crossed (for 5.50e, thank you very much) and then a smaller one, also architecturally interesting.<\/p>\n
and…<\/p>\n We ran, not literally, into an accident on the autoroute so got off and started winding our way toward Veulette-sur-Mer.\u00a0 Thank goodness for GPS as our map of France didn’t have all the small roads.\u00a0 We arrived in this seaside town around 6:30, met Nathalie, our hostess at Le Grismoustier, her home and B&B.\u00a0 It\u2019s an amazing property, a small chateau built as a replica of a Scottish property by a transplanted Scot 100 years ago.\u00a0 We had to call her when we arrived and she had to open the gates for us to enter.\u00a0 The driveway is steep and a bit winding, and the parking is a bit tight, off to the side.\u00a0 There are three guest bedrooms \u2013 ours was in the middle.\u00a0 But first, we had to get to it! \u2013 up a staircase that curved to the right, then took a 90 degree turn up 4 narrow stairs through a door, then up another small flight that curved to the left but also had a sloping ceiling to the right.\u00a0 I had to duck a bit and lean to the left; Steve had to almost fold in half to get up those ones.\u00a0 (It was at that moment we decided to take what we needed for the night out of our suitcases, and bring them up in a knapsack!)\u00a0 The hallway was dark and narrow, also with the same slanted roofline, but we could at least stand up straight.\u00a0 Our room was charming to say the least, and the window opened wide from the front of the home, looking out over a well-manicured expanse of treed and flowered lawn, right down to that intriguing gate.\u00a0 Ok, so it wasn’t very big, and the washroom was separated from the bedroom by a half wall and curtain, but it was charming and beautifully decorated according to the age of the home.<\/p>\n (from the little landing looking up…)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (and from the little landing looking down…)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (and the reward at the top…)<\/p>\n On Thursday, when I made the reservation for this evening, I asked for dinner recommendations.\u00a0 Nathalie made 2, which I checked out online, and chose her favourite, Les Fregates.\u00a0 We took Nathalie up on her offer to reserve a table for us.\u00a0 Veulettes-sur-Mer is a tiny \u201cBourg\u201d.\u00a0 Le Grismoustier is on a tiny, tiny quiet road (the left turn onto the road was angled too much for the car, so we had to go down the hill, turn around, and approach it from the other direction), great for walking.\u00a0 The restaurant was at the bottom of the hill we drove down to turn around.\u00a0 All together, it took us 5 minutes to get there and we didn’t have to drive.\u00a0 Which meant we could both drink and we both did \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Les Fregates is across from the sea and we had a window table with a seaside view.\u00a0 Dinner was very good but, by the time I got through my appetizer of Tartare de deux Saumone served on green lentils, and half of my entree of Steak\/Frites, I was sorry I had ordered the prix fixe menu.\u00a0 I still had the rest of my main, a cheese plate, and dessert to get through.\u00a0 So, being that we were in Normandy, and Normandy is well-known for Calvados, Steve talked me into a Trou Normande before our cheese plate arrived.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if it helped or not but it tasted good and I was able to finish most of the rest of my dinner.\u00a0 While we were eating, we watched a spectacular sunset but had left our cameras behind so you\u2019ll just have to take my word for it.<\/p>\n Nathalie has the most intriguing, yet efficient, system for ensuring the main guest door is locked at night. The guest names are written on a little chalk board and, as you return for the evening, you put an \u201cx\u201d beside your name. The last one in, bars the door.<\/p>\n The bedding was luxurious and I wished it had been much colder so I could have appreciated snuggling under that duvet with the window wide open.\u00a0 As it was, the duvet lasted about 10 minutes before it was tossed off the bed and we were left with the smooth cotton sheet to keep off any drafts.<\/p>\n Breakfast on Sunday was fit for royalty, as was the room it was served in \u2013 a yummy pastry that was a cross between a croissant and a baguette (her local patisserie\u2019s specialty), brioche, homemade cake, local Normandy cheese with baguette, plain yogurt, muesli, fresh apricots (as their season was just starting), local apple juice, clementine juice, 6 different homemade jams, tea, coffee. We could also have had eggs, if we wanted.\u00a0 And conversation flowed (maybe flowed is the wrong word as that indicates a fluidity in language, and we certainly weren’t fluid but we definitely communicated) with the other guests \u2013 a couple from Versailles celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary, and another couple from Bruges, Belgium.<\/p>\n (unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures with the table set before we actually ate…)<\/p>\n Here are some photos of the home and property.<\/p>\n The coast in Normandy is very different from the coast in Brittany.\u00a0 In Brittany, every beach is sandy \u2013 a pleasure to walk on and easy to park a chair on \u2013 and we almost always saw swimmers and others enjoying the beach.\u00a0 In Normandy, the beaches we saw are all covered in gravel and stones \u2013 difficult to walk on (we tried) \u2013 and, other than a couple of wind surfers, we didn’t see any swimmers or people on the beaches.\u00a0 We did see cliffs, though, very high, very white, very vertical cliffs, which could explain all those stones as there were signs everywhere about falling rocks.\u00a0 These are the very same cliffs the allied forces faced when making their attempts to land and push back the Germans in WW2.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to see why so many of them died trying \u2013 more on that a bit later.<\/p>\n Following an exploration of the beach and cliffs at Veulette-sur-Mer…<\/p>\n … we made our way up to Dieppe by way of as many seaside roads as we could.\u00a0 Unlike in Brittany, where most seaside roads either took us past an amazing beach or a spot where we could see an amazing beach, we were either too high up and too far in on the cliffs to see anything other than farms, or the spots to stop at required a hike in to see the ocean.\u00a0 As we were on a schedule to get back to the airport hotel in time for dinner, we did not hike.\u00a0 We did stop to take a few photos along the way, though.<\/p>\n But, we did make the time to visit the Canadian War Memorial at Dieppe and I\u2019m so glad we did.\u00a0 When we passed through this region in 1996, we missed this tribute to our fallen soldiers of WW2 and it was a regret. The cemetery is smaller than we expected, which makes us think photos we\u2019ve seen have been taken with a wide angle lens.\u00a0 Regardless, it\u2019s quite awe-inspiring, not to mention sobering.\u00a0 And it\u2019s spotless and so well manicured and maintained.\u00a0 I will have to research to know who does the maintenance and how often.\u00a0 Almost all the gravestones are identical rectangles with rounded tops, with the exception of a few crosses, and there are a variety of insignias on them \u2013 some with dog tag numbers, some with regiment details, some with \u201cUnknown Soldier\u201d.\u00a0 All told, 707 Canadians are buried at this site and it\u2019s quite the site to see.\u00a0 We were honoured to sign the visitors\u2019 book.<\/p>\n We only had 2 \u201cevents\u201d driving back to the airport.\u00a0 The first was when we reached the second toll on the autoroute and chose the wrong lane.\u00a0 No one was in the booth and our non-European credit card was not recognized.\u00a0 Fortunately, we were still far enough out from Paris that we only had one other car behind us.\u00a0 He graciously backed up and we were able to change lanes to one with an attendant.\u00a0 From there on in, we were very careful to choose the right lane and there were no more \u201ctourist\u201d moments.\u00a0 Our second \u201cevent\u201d occurred when we missed the driveway for the Novotel by approx 6 feet (which we remember doing 3 years ago, but only after we did it again).\u00a0 Unfortunately, we were on a one-way road so couldn’t just turn right…\u00a0 So \u201caround the block\u201d we went, but that was easier said than done!\u00a0 Like any large airport, there are lots and lots of roads that criss-cross over each other and that sport a multitude of signs.\u00a0 I should mention that, a couple hundred kms back, we had initially programmed CDG Airport into our GPS, and not the actual hotel, which may help to explain the upcoming events.\u00a0 So, then I found the Novotel, programmed the GPS, and away we went.\u00a0 It seemed a bit odd that our destination was 5km away, considering we could see the backside of the hotel, but we knew we had to go around so thought no more about it.\u00a0 Five kms and 5 minutes later and we were at the Novotel, but the wrong one!\u00a0 (For those traveling into Paris, there are 3! Novotels at the airport.)\u00a0 I found the right one, re-programmed the GPS, and off we went again \u2013 another 5km, back from where we came, right?\u00a0 But now we were slipping around all the cargo areas, which also seemed odd… and didn’t we come to a dead end!!!\u00a0 Forget the GPS, which clearly was not our friend!\u00a0 We knew the hotel was at Terminal 3, so what better way to find it than to follow the signs for Terminal 3 \u2013 et voila \u2013 20 minutes after we missed the driveway the first time, success!\u00a0 Fortunately, the French like to eat late and we did not miss dinner.<\/p>\n It\u2019s somewhat anti-climatic to spend your last vacation night in a run-of-the-mill airport hotel, especially after having experienced the charm and lure of the French culture, but c\u2019est la vie.\u00a0 It certainly offered convenient car return and a 5-minute walk to the terminal for our departure.<\/p>\n It\u2019s so hard to believe that a month has passed already.\u00a0 It seemed like such a long time when we first arrived.\u00a0 But we did LOTS.\u00a0 We marvelled at Mont St Michel \u2013 twice \u2013 and visited St. Malo.\u00a0 We hiked the Pink Granite Coast 3 times and Le Gouffre twice.\u00a0 We toured a distillery.\u00a0 We took many scenic drives and explored countless beaches.\u00a0 We visited markets (Lannion twice, Paimpol, Penvenan, Treguier), and had an overnight stay in Dinan.\u00a0 We found great restaurants, drank local cider, ate fabulous meals.\u00a0 We really enjoyed the company of our 2 groups of friends who were able to join us for a period of time, and we enjoyed the time we had to ourselves.\u00a0 It was a perfect mix.\u00a0 And, of course, we had the most beautiful, comfortable, well-located vacation home close to a fabulous beach.\u00a0 All in all, what more could we have asked for.<\/p>\n So, here I am, Monday afternoon, sitting on an aircraft at 32,000 feet (10,000 metres) somewhere over the Atlantic, chewing on licorice nibs and washing them down with Prosecco, thinking about our next adventure abroad… a bientot!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We left Trevou-Treguignec just before noon on Saturday after a nice chat with Danielle.\u00a0 We found out (a little too late) that we could have visited with them while we were here, perhaps even experienced a pig farm, which they Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france","category-normandy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2364"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2446,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a> \u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 (it was a windy day \u2013 again)<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 (the cliffs in Normandy are a great place to locate wind turbines)<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a> <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0<\/a> <\/a> \u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a> <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a> \u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a> \u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n