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Published: July 24th 2008
July 9 to 12, 2008
On Wednesday, the 9th, we packed up and were out of our London apartment by 10, then took a cab to the Waterloo Station for the train to Portsmouth. The hour and a half train ride was uneventful, and we caught a another cab to the Portsmouth Marriott (and arranged with the cabbie to pick us up at 7AM the next day for the ferry). The room at the Marriott was quite comfortable and large, considering the four of us were sharing it. After the boys took a quick swim, we headed off to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where we wandered amongst some historic ships, most notably the HMS Victory, of Battle of Trafalgar fame. We were there too late in the day for an onboard tour, but as we walked around it we were impressed with its size and complexity, considering it is 200 years old! We walked over to Gunwharf Quays, a large two-story shopping mall on the harbor, and amused ourselves wandering through the stores before dinner at the Custom House.
The next day, July 10, we were up bright and early for our 8 AM ferry across the channel to
Cherbourg, Normandy. The ferry was quite large, with two seating areas, fore and aft, equipped with airplane-style seats, a large lounge in the center, and 3 bars/snack bars. We noticed several vintage cars onboard, and found out many people were headed to Le Mans Racetrack for a Heritage Race. The comfort of the ferry was soon overridden by the rough waters, and the numerous kids that had been downing junk food and running wild, were soon felled by seasickness, as were many others! I started to feel pretty crappy, myself, so headed for the aft deck for some fresh air. A British guy struck up a conversation with me, one of a group of five friends (who all had that "aging rock star" thing going on) heading for the Le Mans festivities. It was distracting and fun chatting with him--he'd lived in San Diego for a couple of years and had a 17 year old son. Eventually we were joined by another of the group, who was interested in American politics, so we discussed the presidential race, and he gave me some insight into the negative attitude of the Brits towards their new PM, Gordon Brown. Soon the ride was
over, we docked in Cherbourg, and I brushed off my rusty high school French to get a cab to the Hertz office to pick up our rental car. (This was more difficult than it sounds, since in French "Hertz" is pronounced with two syllables, "Air-tz"!) Unfortunately, in France, as in Italy, many things close between 12 and 2 PM, including the Hertz office. Fortunately, the cabbie pointed out a tiny cafe down the street, so we schlepped all our luggage there for lunch. The place was family owned, and the dad, who bartended, moved tables and chairs to make a place for our luggage. The daughter served us, and mom was in the kitchen. We had our first croque monsieur sandwiches (different than in the US) and frites.
We dragged our lunch out until the Hertz office opened, they efficiently processed our paperwork, and we were off! Dave did a great job getting back into driving a stick and negotiating roundabouts. Soon we were on the highway, and an hour later we got to Bayeux. We settled into the charming Hotel d'Arogouges, where we have a family suite, consisting of 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, right in the midst
of the old town, and set off to explore.
We were in time to view the famous "Bayeux Tapestry", a 230 foot long embroidered tapestry, telling the story of William the Conqueror's invasion of England and the events leading up to that battle. With the help of an audioguide, we followed the story on cloth that was displayed down the length of a special exhibit designed to display it. Originally it was hung in the Bayeux Cathedral on holy days for the edification of the illiterate. After nearly 1000 years it still impresses, not only for the actual needlework, which is incredibly detailed and clever, despite being two-dimensional. But I also couldn't help thinking about the feat of someone conceiving of and designing this continuous visual storyline, that blends seamlessly from one part of the story to the next.
We detoured over to the Notre Dame Cathedral of Bayeux, another impressive Gothic style church, parts dating back to 1077. Then following a break back at the hotel, we set off again through the medieval old city to a great restaurant, Le Pommier, for our first real French meal!
The next day, July 11, we had an incredible
Dining Room, Hotel d'Argouges
Yummy croissants and baguettes served here for breakfast!experience touring the important American sites of the D-Day invasion of Normandy with Battlebus, and our wonderful, informative guide, Dale. Dave covers this in his entry, entitled "Normandy Experience". That night we ate dinner at a creperie and enjoyed some unusual crepes.
On Saturday morning, July 12, as we were packing up the car and getting ready to check out of the hotel, we noticed a huge "farmers market" taking place in the square across the street. We walked over for a quick look, then got completely caught up in the experience. What an incredible variety of goods being sold: from live poultry and rabbits to vacuum cleaners, from underwear to fresh flowers, from paella (!) to rotisserie chicken... And almost everyone shopping there was a local resident. We wandered around, abandoning our plans to go to another D-Day museum in Aromanches, eventually deciding to buy things for a picnic later in the day. One difference from our farmers markets--you don't pick out your own produce or other items; instead you tell the proprietor how many peaches you want and when you plan to eat them--today, tomorrow, etc.-- and he will choose them and bag them for you.
The next part of the day I'll entitle "The Great Princess Cruise Tour Group Hunt". You see, Dave's parents, sister and brother-in-law left for a cruise of Great Britain and France the day before we left on our travels. Their itinerary was similar to ours, but we missed each other by a day or two everywhere except today in Normandy. We had this great idea that we could meet up with them on their shore excursion to the D-Day Beaches near Bayeux. We were going to try to catch up with them while they had lunch, and were in touch with them via email to get that location. It turned out they were having lunch in the clubhouse of a golf course in Port en Bessin--just about 15 minutes drive from Bayeux. So off we went, even arriving early enough to check out the harbor area of this tiny town. But low and behold, when we eventually located the lunch site, we saw many buses in the parking lot, and many tables of Princess cruisers, but no Juhnke family. Eventually we talked with the tour guides for the group, and found that the group had been divided in half, with
the other part of the group having lunch in another small town in the opposite direction. A kind tour guide encouraged us to try to find it and gave us oral directions, which seemed straightforward at the time...right! Many wrong turns, circling back, and struggling to ask directions later, we actually found the correct restaurant at a converted farm/villa. The place seemed strangely quiet though, with no buses in sight. We went in as the rain started to fall, only to find out that this part of the group wasn't due there for another 45 minutes! We had to turn our car in at the rental agency and catch our train to Paris, so could not wait, but we snapped a photo to prove we'd been there!
We rushed back to Bayeux, with the pouring rain adding to the stress level of driving through unfamiliar country roads without a map... But the upside was getting to see some of the tiny villages and towns dotting the Normandy coast. It reminded us a bit of the French version of Tuscany. We made it back to Bayeux, eventually located the Hertz office, which was just the mini-mart of a gas station.
We called a cab to the train station, and ended up waiting for an hour for our train. And that lovely picnic we'd put together at the market earlier that day--well we ate it perched on plastic chairs in the most unlovely waiting area of the Bayeux train station, since it was raining outside. The train to Paris was fast, but not fast enough. Our overbooked train compartment was shared with, among other travelers, a toddler and a cat on a leash!
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