Sunday, July 26 Mont St. Michel, Menhir du Champ-Dolent, and St. Jacques-de-la-Lande When we returned at night to our room, we are assailed by the fragrance of the cheese we had bought at the market in Bayeux. Since we have a wide windowsill, we promptly left the bag outside on the sill for the night. Breakfast is served from 8:15-9:30. Again, our hosts have been thoughtful for Jackie, and have fresh fruit, soft farmer cheese and yogurt for her. The cheese and yogurt was actually “artisian” made by their neighbor who has a dairy farm. We have baguettes, homemade [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, July 25 We wake to a French breakfast of croissants, baguette, and 4 kinds of confit (jam- strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, apricot, and currant) that our host, Michel and Marie, made themselves from their garden. Marie also bought some gluten-free rolls for Jackie, so we begin our day with a good breakfast. We have everything packed up, and will return for our luggage in the afternoon. Our plan is to see the Bayeux Tapestry. This tapestry is 70 yards long, and is made of linen. It was embroidered sometime after 1066, and tells the story of how William becomes the conqueror, bes [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, July 22- Market Day, Jumieges Abbey, and Sunset on the Beach at Veulles Dean, Jackie and I go into the market square at 9. Wednesday is Market Day in Veules-les-Roses. There are many stalls selling fruits, vegetables, meat, jams, even paella a knife grinder, and clothes sellers. We buy a nail clipper since mine was confiscated and some fruit, jam and vegetables. Jackie has been cooking veggies in a frying pan with butter for dinner at night, and we have been eating lots of bread, cheese, and jams. After the market, we wake Jeff, and head in to the pool. [View Full Entry]

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Sunday evening, July 19 - Veules-les-Roses The house in Veules-les-Roses is on a tiny road-- not even wide enough to be called “chemin”. We stop on the slightly wider lane that it T’s up to, and I walk down to find the house. Four neighbors are chatting, and thankfully they can speak “Franglais”! They point me to the correct house. Its yard has a wide gate for a car to swing in onto the grass, but between the fact that our Grande scenic is too wide to make the swing and that our host, Francois, had advised us to park one [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, July 18- Deauville and D-Day Beaches After market and petit dejeuner, Eric takes Jackie, Jeff, Sixtine, Caitlyn, Dean and I on a tour of the beaches. Our first stop is Pegasus Bridge- so named because it was liberated by RAF glider troops. Outside there is the bridge itself, a replica and part of a real glider, guns and other equipment. There also is a small museum with a video and displays in French and English. From here, we walk across a modern bridge to see the first house liberated by the allies, which is now a café. We all have [View Full Entry]

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Thursday, July 16 - St. Audoen’s Church, Dublin Castle, Irish Music Archives, St. Stephen’s Green and Iveagh Gardens After Dean returned from the pool, we took the bus into the city. We took the Hop On Hop Off Bus, and we heard someone say, “Hey, Connecticut!” It was the California couple, they told us all about the women swooning during Jeff’s song last night. We exchanged emails, and left them at Dublin Castle, which is the main government building from which the English ruled for so many years. We decided to [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, July 15 We did not want to impose on Caroline for a ride, so Dean heads off to take the bus to the pool. Eight minutes later, Caroline comes to the door- what a sweetheart- she thought she’d drive him again, but the bus had been prompt. So she ended up picking him up and returning him home when he was done. Tomorrow she has work in the “country” so he’ll be on his own for sure. When he returns, we take the #16 bus in to St. George St., and then wait for the green Dublin Hop On & [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009 This morning, I wake up at 7:30, and see Caroline our hostess putting out the trash. It turns out that she is here to oversee her workmen who are putting on an addition to a home 2 doors down that she designed. She stops in to talk, but passes on tea because she is having coffee with the workers. They are storing their supplies in the shed out back. She offers to stop back in at 9:30 to drive Dean to the pool. Her husband Andrew and son, Ben flew in this morning from the Cape. She [View Full Entry]

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Sunday, July 12-Monasterboice,Knowth, Newgrange, Trim Castle, and Dublin Today is predicted to be the best weather day of the next three that we have the rental car, so we head north to see the valley of the Boyne. I have our route from Google maps, so we leave at 7:30 for Monasterboice, the site of two of the best preserved, most ornately carved, and largest tall crosses in Ireland. It is an adventure driving through the city to reach the north side. Next time, we will use the loop highway. Even so, it is worth the drive. We are the only [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday, July 8- Killarney and Killarney National Park After breakfast, we walked to the Diseart exhibition in the convent of the Sisters of the Presentation. Their chapel has 12 stained glass windows made by Harry Clarke, a renowned Irish stained glass artist. It is the only church or chapel in the world to have more than 2 or 3. They are gorgeous- not only were the colors brilliant, but no single piece of glass was plain. They all were etched with some pattern or design; he must have been the “Tiffany” of religious stained glass windows. We returned to our room, [View Full Entry]

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