I might electrocute myself

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Geo: 49.2764, -0.705529

Well, my little prefab shower room didn't work so well. The room must have been tilted just enough because the water from the showerhead would land on the rim of the tub and then cascade over the side, even though I kept turning it toward the wall. When I was done with my shower, the bath mat was a sodden mess, and the floor was completely covered in water. After I
finished using the bath towel I put it down on the floor, and it took about four seconds for it to be completely soaked. I was too scared to use the hair dryer after that, so I was finally glad that I've been hauling around my travel dryer all this time.

I walked downhill to the main hotel building for breakfast. There was a pretty big spread, including bacon and scrambled eggs. I had a crêpe with Nutella, a piece of salami, a piece of cheese and some juice. And then I hauled myself back up the hill to brush my teeth, get my luggage and go back down to the main building. We all then trooped down the hill to the coach
so we could store our luggage. At the bottom, we were met by our guide Margarit, and we started the long trek back up to the top of the mount. This time, though, we got to go the back way. There were beautiful views over the bay, and we could see brave – or foolish – people out walking on the sand. The tide can come roaring in very, very fast, and people have been known to get trapped and require rescue.

Margarit explained a lot about the building of the Abbey, etc., but her accent was very strong and I had a hard time following her. I didn't worry too much about it because I had a wonderful time just looking at everything. We walked through the Abbey, which is a warren of passageways and stairways, and I'm glad I wasn't a monk in the 10th century. The Benedictine monks were not allowed to speak during meals (except for one who stood at a lectern and read from the Bible for 40 minutes), so they developed a sort of sign language to communicate.
Margarit showed us some of the signs, and we were able to make sense of most of them. The monks were also forbidden to have any heat source in their dining room, which is on the north side of the Abbey. I can't imagine how cold they were in wintertime, especially as they only wore sandals on their feet. The tour was very interesting, and the only unfortunate thing was that we were sandwiched between two Japanese tour groups. I'm amazed at how they will stand in front of a crucifix, arms outstretched, and smiling or flashing peace signs at the camera.

We were back on the coach by 11:30 for the drive to Bayeux. Since it was so close to lunch when we left, we stopped at a Shell station (!) and had lunch at the cafeteria. It was a full-service cafeteria, and there was an espresso stand as well. The cafeteria had a plat du jour, and several
different plate lunch options. I had “saucisses et frites,” and I must remember in future that saucisse doesn't mean sausage so much as it does hot dog. Anyway, it was pretty decent food, and they also had beautiful little tarts for dessert. I didn't get one, but Yvonne had a lemon tart and she said it was one of the best she's ever had. Before we got back on the coach, I bought a Ritter bar and a KinderSurprise egg.

Our hotel in Bayeux is once again spread over three buildings and is known as the Hôtel
d'Argouges. I'm in the Maison du Jardin, and I have a view of the service courtyard. The room is large, with a high beamed ceiling, a double bed, and a shower stall with two doors on it! There is
supposed to be wi-fi, but it's broken or something. I was given a plug that goes into the wall and into my laptop and is supposed to allow Internet access, but I still can't get online.

Bayeux is a cute little town whose main street reminds me of Britain. Rolinka took us to see the Bayeux tapestry, which I've wanted to see since Mrs. Meslans used to go into raptures about it in high school. It's a pretty amazing piece of work and surprisingly realistic for something that was embroidered in the 11th century. Yes, embroidered; it's not a true tapestry. It's 70 feet
long, and it tells the story of how William, Duke of Normandy, fought Edward the Confessor's brother-in-law Harold in order to take the English throne. It's basically Norman propaganda. There's an audioguide that goes with it so you can walk along the length of the tapestry and understand what's going on. (Hint: The Duke of Normandy is more commonly known as William the Conqueror.) Anyway, I was really pleased to see it.

Yvonne went on to the cathedral (which is pretty nice from the outside; good gargoyles), and I went back to the hotel to get my laundry and go across the street to a laundrette. It took me a while to figure out how to pay for the washing machine and how to get soap, but I finally
figured it out. And then I didn't know where to put the soap. After a bit, a teenage boy came in to collect some clothes from a dryer, so I asked him. He didn't speak English, and I tried my best with French. He seemed to understand, and my clothes did end up getting clean. ...And then I couldn't figure out how to work the dryer. Fortunately, the boy came back again with another load, and we determined that the dryer I was trying was actually broken. I transferred everything to another dryer, and that worked. The whole process cost me about 7 euros and took just over an hour.

At 7:00 p.m., we all walked to dinner at Le Pommier. Rick's book mentions that this restaurant is big on fish, and I figured I could handle that. Our first course, however, turned out to be a gizzard salad with something that I determined from the waitress was duck (I'm not sure
which part of the duck, but it looked like bacon). I took a bite before I knew they were gizzards, and it nearly made me gag. So I tried the duck stuff, which I thought had a very strange taste, so I ate the tomatoes and an awful lot of lettuce. Then the main dish came: more duck. Fortunately, it was served with a potato tart that was quite tasty. I did eat half of the piece of duck, but I really did have to choke down every bite. I was wishing I had asked Rolinka to book me a vegetarian meal: they wound up with what was basically a garden burger. Dessert was a raspberry trifle.

I sat with Christina, Yvonne and Peter, and we had a terrific time planning what should be a new offering in Rick's tour repertoire: Senior-Friendly Europe. There were lots of jokes about walkers, a guide that will dispense everyone's meds, “Rascals” on the Champs-Élysées, “Depends” in every room, and nap time every day. But we all realize that we'll be there someday.

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Photos

La Maison du Jardin
The building I stayed in at Hotel d'Argouges.