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Published: April 2nd 2013
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The highlight of the Mont St. Michel hotel (Saint Pierre Auberge) was definitely the beds, VERY comfortable. We got around fairly early, had our breakfast and then made our way back to the car with our luggage. Have I mentioned luggage on cobblestone streets is not the most fun??? And that my husband was just wonderful in doing all the lifting and carrying because I was still Mrs. Weaky Weak? LOL. We spent a little time driving around trying to find some good views of the island and snapped a few more pictures, then hit the highway to head towards our next Normandy stop - Port en Bessin.
This leg of the journey is all about WWII and D-Day, so we drove first to Carenten, and went to the Dead Man Corner Museum Matt had read about. It had some really cool displays, and some Band of Brothers stuff I was excited to see. We then headed north an hour to the Sword Beach area to go to a German Bunker Museum. We were able to tour all 4 floors of it which they had nice comprehensive displays in representing what each area was used for. I am consistently impressed
with the German's ability to rapidly build elaborate things. They had indeed occupied France 4 years before D-Day, but still...you look at the amount of bunkers and other structures they had along the whole coastline and it's amazing. These bunkers are no joke, there's power, plumbing, air circulation systems, etc...
We had to head to our little apartment that we rented to meet the manager, but I was starving and needed a quick bite. Since there is not a lot of "fast food" in France except a sandwich or a crepe, we pulled off the road briefly at McDonalds (yes, we did!). The first thing that was different was that you walk in and place your orders and pay on kiosks. You then wait and just pick up your order at the counter, pretty cool. They certainly had many many different selections that we have here in the US, and a whole line of burgers with specialty cheese toppings like Camembert, Goat, etc... You would never see that in the US! Well, it still took like 15 min to get our food (I may be exaggerating a bit, LOL) so again....no fast food in France! We shared a chicken
& pepper sauce sandwich served on a baguette with potato wedges.
Matt found our little apartment (La Maison Matelot) when searching around for hotels in the area, and it is just darling. There were 3 in our building to choose from and it was a pretty tough choice as they were all so neatly decorated. We ultimately decided on the ground floor unit because it had a big claw foot tub in the bathroom. We are very much starting to move towards staying in more apartments than hotels. Same price (or less in this whole trip's case) but much more room, kitchens, etc.. We got a few dinner suggestions and then headed out again to visit a German cemetery and a cider producer before that 5pm "everything closes" time. The German cemetery was really neat, the sun was shining, I was feeling better (finally) and WHAM!!! A bird crapped right on my head....can a girl catch a break here????? Again, I have the best husband ever who immediately began to clean it off for me since I was completely disgusted (but he was laughing hysterically the whole time!).
Next we visited a cider/calvados producer. This is one of
the things that the Normandy area is famous for producing. These are hard ciders, some like ours back home, but most in large wine size bottles (think more champagne like). We really didn't care too much for the taste of them and sampled some calvados as well. It is good, but definitely a hard liquor. We ended up purchasing some Pommeau, which is an apertif drink made with half cider, half calvados....very very yummy! We were close to Bayeaux, which is one of the larger towns so decided to head there and kill some time before dinner.
Ahhh....Dinner! Boy did we need a good meal and that is exactly what we got! L'Angle Saint Laurent was recommended by the apartment manager and we were right there when they opened at 7pm. Luckily being off season we were able to get in without reservations. Matt ordered a glass of local Pommeau as an apertif and they served it chilled, much better than room temp! We both ordered from the 35E tasting menu:
Matt: Fois Gras starter, Beef Tenderloin with grilled Fois on top, unidentified sauce, and gnocci for entree, Cheese course was Goat cheese with a fig compote, and
dessert was a crepe filled with chantilly creme and covered in flaming grand marnier.
Me: Cauliflower soup with fois gras mousse and bacon starter, Sea Bass with Saffron cream and amazing veg for entree, Cheese Course was 2 local Normandy cheeses, and the same dessert as Matt.
I forgot to mention our yummy amuse bouche starter of a turnip and egg cream broth...Matt was licking the cup! We ordered a bottle of Poulley-Fume from the Loire and memories were made. What a great great end to an evening!
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