France - week 3

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This is the third ‘episode’ in another of 'our' travel experiences.

The collective ‘episodes’ describe our journey from our arrival in Paris, France (from the 2nd week of May) and our journey to Floriade (Holland), then the remainder journey through northern and western France. In this part (week #3), we briefly describe our journey from the Nord (north) of France in Flanders across to the coast, inland to (central) Normandy, and back to the coast to Brittany.

As always, if you want to 'see' more detail in an accompanying picture, click it to enlarge.

We've attached a few pics that give you a flavour of our journey, and some 'flow over' past the dialogue.

Saturday 26th May - Somme + Flanders.

For the final 3 days of our 'week 2' travelblog, we focussed on the battle sites we visited and described the impact on us of the killing fields. While visiting the battle sites was a purposeful exercise for us, in hindsight it was also a 'vehicle' by which we visited towns and places we probably wouldn't have otherwise considered. Two of those places were Amiens and Peronne.

Amiens is the district capital, and being situated in a fertile agricultural region is quite prosperous. We needed to visit Amiens several times. We'd bought a mobile internet 'dongle' and needed it activated - a task that turned out to be quite complicated and required assistance. The 'office' at Amiens spoke marginal English, but the French telecommunications firms' restrictive operational methods and their odd technology meant several visits to Amiens. Like so many European cities, the central CB core of Amiens is pedestrianised. With several little parks and large leafy trees 'breaking' the urbane character of the centre, it really is a joy to visit/experience.

Peronne is a much smaller city, but nonetheless enjoyable. What surprised us was that (England's king) Henry 4th had a huge castle erected here - the extensive and well kept remains of which are still evident. We'd been under the impression that the Norman kings commuted between Normandy and England, and the the Somme was not part of their 'territory'. Another history lesson.

Flanders lies adjacent to and northwest of the Somme. We 'arrived' at St Omer to seek accommodation for the night. Here is another beautiful city, being built around a series of ponds/lakes. The city fathers have focussed the city/urban development around the lakes; rather than treat them as separate. We really enjoyed walking in one of the parks around the one of the lakes, all of which are the recreation areas of the various non-CBD urban areas (not that French rural city suburbs are spread out).

Being a sunny Saturday, accommodation was at a premium as both the French and British sought to have a 'good weekend' in the country. St Omer is about 2 hours from London via the tunnel (at Calais) and both the city and the region are popular 'escape' destinations. We gained a 'suite' in a Chateau at Ecquedecaues - about 15 minutes from St Omer. With the grand building and very large room, we got a taste of what it would be like for the priveleged.

Sunday 27th May - Flanders.

We continued tootling around Flanders, though we did zip over to Belgium to Ypres for an hour or so. While the Somme is a landscape of gently sloping hills, Flanders is largely flat. That said, it also has several large 'outcrops' of hills. Over the centuries, these have been used to develop defensive centres. That is, towns that could be defended - unlike those built on the flatlands. These towns have a rich history, and we enjoyed stopping here and there to enjoy that which was readily available. Being Sunday, the information centres were closed. We had a B+B guide and used it to secure a bed in a quaint little town in the middle of nowhere - Auchy de Bois.

Monday 26th May - Etaples.

We headed for the coast of Flanders to Etaples (pronounced Eetaarplays) as Bruce's grandfather (Bert Forsaith) was headquartered here during the Great War. Etaples has a small shallow river mouth, and at the turn of the 20th century was a minor port. It became a major supply route for the allied war efforts.

Little is left of the past history, now being a seaside tourist destination. Interestingly, the town of Etaples has undergone little change over time; the street layout retains the mediaval form. The military developed the area across the rivermouth and towards the beaches (on the southside). This has been developed since WW2 as an upmarket (and fashionable) holiday and retirement destination. Now called Le Touquet it is where the dollars are spent. We stayed the night at Etaples and had a most wonderful seafood meal.

Tuesday 29th + Wednesday 30th + Thursday 31st - central Normandy.

Departing Etaples, we zoomed south via the motorway towards Giverny in the heart of Normandy. Giverny is the village that Impressionist the artist Monet called home, and we read that his house and gardens were worth visiting. The nearest town with a Tourist Office to get accommodation is nearby Vernon, a rustic (but also bustling) town with a mediaval centre. While there is plenty of accommodation, reasonably priced rooms were unavailable. Faced with either expensive lodgements, or seeking further afield, we chose the latter. We secured a B+B at Fontaine sur Jouy, some 15km away - we were indeed fortunate with our choice. So enjoyable was this modernist house with plenty of space and delightful hosts, we elected to stay several days to both rest a little from travelling and also explore the countryside of central Normandy.

Though we could have learned from a text book, we 'discovered' that Normandy is bisected by the Seinne (river) - here it is quite deep and wide and cuts through a limestone landscape. The latter is important in that the cliffs along various parts of the Seinne provided defensive positions for castleforts. It was also that the limestone based terrain is very fertile, hence the capacity of Normans a millenia ago to develop a powerful and influential military.

Though we'd planned to visit Monet's garden early the next day, we didn't get started in the car till around 10am; far too late to enjoy the gardens without jostling for space (and vision) with the contents of tour buses. We made the decision to visited other 'attractions'. We read of a nearby Chateau with large grounds. We're glad we ventured there for the day as it turned out to be the last fully sunny day of the week. We got a little lost, and came across some delightful villages tucked away out of the mainstream. While it was fortuitous on this occasion, we are yet to comprehend the 'code' that is the French road signage. At one intersection, the reference places are shown, at the next they may not be listed. Frustrating!!! Nonetheless, in such a beautul location with warm sunshine, there was no point getting annoyed. Instead, we bought a fresh baguatte sandwich, some patisserie, and some beers. We found a lovely spot near a stream and sent our grimaces packing.

As it transpired, the Domaine de Villarceaux is Louis 15th castle set in magnificent groundsm and was only open from 2pm. So, had we not become lost, etc., we would have been far too early. C'est la vie! The management of the Chateau and its huge manicured grounds required that visitors be escorted. We joined the next departure, only to find everyone was to be subjected to a lengthy history lesson as they travelled around the extensive estate. From the outset we felt frustrated that we had to listen to something we didn't understand, and were unable to move through the estate more quickly. We ventured back to the 'office' hall and negotiated that a person would 'escort' us around. The 'discussion' point was that they had nobody who could speak English. We impressed upon them we didn't mind, and that it was the buildings and grounds that took our fancy - not the commentary. Fortunately, we were ascribed a lovely lady who had a few words of English and so with pidgin English/French we made merry conversation about nothing as we enjoyed the estate. WOW, did those French royals know how to spend money on their buildings and gardens. The 'value' of the estate is not lost on the French, and this Chateau is on the government 'National Estate' list and without entry cost.

With time passing by, we made our way back to our (temporary) 'digs' and headed for a nearby village for dinner.

On the Wednesday, we managed to get to the Monet gardens at opening time. While there were some that entered before us via a 'groups' entry, we were delighted to find the 'lily pond' was largely devoid of people. This is where Money painted many of his 'garden' paintings. While much more structured and ordered than when Monet lived there (it needing to be so as to 'control' the hordes), it nonetheless still presents with a similar relaxedness evident in Monet's works. By the time the crowds caught up with us, it was time to depart.

We'd read about a village some distance away that still comprised many mediaval buildings. We're undecided which was the most delightful, the scenery along the way of the village. That's not to say the village was less than pleasant. Rather, the forested scenery was magnificent. Like so many places listed in tourist brochures, the reason for inclusion often gets overwhelmed by the perceived need to cater for tourists. Lyons-la-Foret was no exception. However, unlike other sites we'd visited, at least the medieval buildings were not tarted up +/or reconstructed to satisfy the image being marketed. Nevertheless, elsewhere in France we'd been in villages with more medieval buildings that had failed to make it into the tourist brochures. In one, even the 'modern' buildings were 19th century; perhaps the reason it was not included is that everything was in need of a bit of 'love'. It's interesting to ponder on why one place gets the 'tourist' nod over others.



Seeking a different flavour of central Normandy, we headed for another 'attraction' - a museum in an old Chateau at Martainville-Eprivalle. The Chateau du Martainville was built in 1485 and now houses a magnificent collection of regional furniture of the 15th-19th centuries. for us, both very interesting and quite educational.



We departed and slowly meandered our way back to our 'digs' via the quietest of backroads. here, we stopped often to walk, look, converse (as best we could) and ogle. despite the agricultural focus, the Normandy countryside is littered with villages of various sizes.

Friday 1st June - to Brittany.

We took our leave of (central) Normandy and headed for Brittany. Being not far away, we stopped for lunch at Caen (pronounced Cohn). Though bombed extensively in WW2, oddly the Cathedral survived. We spent some time at the WW2 Memorial museum in order to 'connect' our experiences of the Great War to the second part of the 20th century conflict. These days, few comprehend that WW2 was but an extension of WW1. As is well known, the Great War 'Armistance' not only reduced the size of Germany to about 1.3rd of that governed prior, but also imposed a considerable financial burden in war reparations to the Allies. The impact of the Great Depression enabled the (then) Nationalist Hitler to successfully raise public support to the notion Germany 'was robbed'. In a series of strategic diplomatic moves in the mid 1930's annexing nearby territory, Hitler had more than doubled the land under German governance. The demand for resources to manage this enlarged nation coupled to a disregard for nearby people's resulted in force being applied when 'diplomacy' failed. The rest, as they say, is history. Given that France capitulated to German demands rather than pursue an obvious carnage, the perspective offered by this museum placed a quite different slant on the subject than that we'd come to understand in Australia. From the way the French portrayed events, it appears the Blitzkrieg approach to warfare adopted by the Germans was based on the model executed by Monash in the Great War. We doubt too many Australians would want to highlight that fact. But, successful ideas are soon copied.

Late in the day we arrived at our accommodation at Beauvior - pre-booked in order to be visit Mont Saint-Michel early the next day.

Saturday 2nd June - Mont Saint Michel.

Built on a high rock outcrop on the beach foreshore - originally only accessable at low tide - the Abbey of St Michel was built in 708AD following a 'vision' by a local Bishop. Rebuilt in the 1200's, the 3 level granite structure is massive. Adapted 200 years later to act as a monastic fortress to withstand the English 100 years war, apparently it was the only place in western France not to fall. The 'Revolution' of 1789 'outlawed' monasticism and the building was turned into a prison. To enable better access, an all weather causeway was later constructed. 40 years later, the prison closed. Now, the building has been restored to it's original use (though not occupied) and is part of the National Estate. The huge Abbey building has long been surrounded by a village. Today, that village is a combination of accommodation and retail. To access the Abbey, one must first ascend the 84 metres of the hill, then climb up stairs to the top of the three levels. In all there are some 900 very steep stairs.

Arriving just after opening time (9am), we were confronted with 2 tour bus 'mobs'. Fortunately, their pace was slow and we were able to pass them quickly. Knowing that getting to the top quickly would give us 'time' to view at some leisure, we certainly worked off much of the recently consumed wonderful cheeses, breads, beers, wines and patisseries ascending all those steep steps. After ooohing and aahing at the sheer size and magnificence of the building, we bid our Au Reviors.

We made an error getting onto the correct freeway to get to the part of Brittany we were seeking. Instead of St Malo, we were heading for Rennes. As local roads can be quite slow, we decided that the freeway 'triangle' of Mont St Michel to Rennes to t Malo may be quicker than using local roads to find the correct one; and with less driving hassle. We were taken aback at Rennes. What a great city (the 'capital' of Brittany). From where we parked the car in the city centre, we were struck by the collection of old buildings - from medieval to 19th century. We visited the Tourist Office to get local maps and enjoyed lunch in a really old building. Brittany is famous for crepes, so we enjoyed a savoury crepe washed down with sumptuous local beer. On the way back to the car we wandered around a traditional Marche (market). Here was both an undercover market of fresh food (eg. meat of all sorts, any variety of cheeses, breads and cakes) and outside temporary fresh fruit and vegetable stalls. The latter appeared more like a growers market. We picked up some cured pork sausage, a segment of wonderfully aged cheese, as well as strawberries and rasberries. We would love to have bought more, but felt we'd bought too much already. The only part missing was cold beer - but that's readily accessible in France.

Knowing we needed to get to a tourist office to book accommodation, we departed for the Cotes D'Armor peninsular. We secured a B+B at Treveneuc, not far from Saint-Quay Portrieux. The B+B hosts farmed the land around the dwelling (they being farmers). As we arrived, 2 couples walked up the path seeking accommodation. As we learned, they were walking part of the 1500km coastline walk. As a welcome gesture, the hosts offered a welcome drink of home made cider. It smelt like battery acid, but tasted great. This wasn't the first time we'd been offered a welcome drink of cider, but it began well our Brittany 'excursion'. Tomorrow we will begin another week in France, this time Brittany.



Cheers



ps. The fourth (next segment) of this FRANCE journey can be found here.

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