It feels like forever since I've had the internet, I think I was in a slight withdrawal, lol. The biggest frustration is having SO much to talk about, and not being able to spew it out, lol. I'm about to attempt a detailed brief account of the last four days, and I'm not sure how it will turn out... we'll see :-)
We started our third day in Paris by heading out via the subway to the town/city of Versaille. We had breakfast at the hotel, which was actually fantastic. They had a nice spread of ham, swiss cheese, croissants, chocolate croissants, coffee, juice, and cereal. It was the most breakfast that we've had thus far on our trip. I remembered reading about it, but the French aren't big on breakfast, they prefer a decent lunch, and a nice dinner. Anywho, we've found that breakfast is scarce unless you eat it at the hotel itself. So we had breakfast and headed out. Versaille, like much of what we've seen so far, is incredible. The palace is slowly being restored to look as though it would have two hundred plus years ago. Words cannot properly describe it's beauty, so make sure you check out the link to the pictures below. We spent the morning there, and then rushed back to pick up the car.
We had spent so much time at Versaille, that we made getting the to car dealership rather tight. What made it worse was that we got a little lost trying to find the place, and it was just us on the street - cold... lost... and we had to pee like it was nobodies business. Anywho, after going to the brink of hopelessness, we found the place, and they had nice bathrooms :-) We picked up our car, but decided to park it at a pay parking nearby - opting not to drive it into downtown Paris (which as I mentioned is nuts driving through). We parked right beside a subway station, and made it back to our hotel in less than fifteen minutes. The subway system in Paris is incredible, it puts Toronto to total and complete shame. They have a subway line for practically every which direction with multiple transfer points on each criss-crossing line, it's simply incredible.
Our day was cut short because of our difficulties finding the car dealership, so we opted to skip Sacre-Couer, actually we didn't really have a choice, lol. We made reservations for dinner at a highly recommended restaurant near the Palas Garnier, and headed out to our Opera Garnier experience: Le Parc. It was the ballet, and it was incredible! I've never actually watched a ballet, and certainly not in a live theatre, but it was fantastic. The show detailed love, and the games that are played between the sexes. It was a little erotic at times, which only made it more exciting to view. We left the Palais and went to dinner at a restaurant named Au Petite Riche. The meal was up to that point the best meal we had so far. I had an incredible roast pork with a mushroom risotto, and Lindsay had pretty cool sausage that was indescribable to be honest. It turned out to be a great last day in Paris.
We left as early as we could the next morning, which was tough cause we slept in a bit. We were finally driving out of Paris around noon, but the fifteen minutes of driving before that was NUTS! Thank God for roundabouts, or I'd have been royally screwed. My GPS couldn't get any good signal and kept messing us up, and we didn't have a detailed city map. I ended up using my own sense of judgement and got us onto the right highway out of the city... it was totally luck though, lol. Anywho, the drive out to Bayeux took about two and a half hours, and it was a beautiful drive. The countryside is mostly agriculture, dotted with small villages, and the odd city. The highways have a speed limit of 130 with most going 140 to 145... sufficed to say, I was right at home, lol. It amazes me though how well that system works here, we never had a single traffic issue.
Bayeux was a sight that again, I don't think I can properly put into words. It's a town that looks like something dreamed up by a medieval fanatic. It's gorgeous beyond words, check out the pics. We settled into our hotel there and parked the car, and then we walked down to the Tapestry museum, where the famous Bayeux tapestry measuring over 200 feet in length is displayed. It details the successful invasion of William the Conquerer over England - claiming the throne as his own. It was a remarkable piece of history, made even more remarkable by it's history of near destruction. Yet it remains almost completely intact, and very vibrant still in colour and clarity. The museum was very nice, and we followed that by visiting the towns' church of Notre-Dame. I would almost place this cathedral as more beautiful than the Notre-Dame in Paris, though I think it's a combination of how beautiful the town was that made it seem so much better. We walked around for awhile exploring what lay behind each corner of the city, never feeling disappointed by what we saw. The buildings all look hundreds of years old... man, just recounting the memories makes me long to go back there. We could easily have spent three or four days there alone just relaxing. We had dinner that night at another Frommer's recommended restaurant, and found that the meal from the night before was easily topped by this magnificent display of true French cuisine. We had escargot, duck foie gras, a variety of French cheeses, and main courses done in traditional Normandy style. We left the next morning sad to go, but excited for what lay ahead.
The beaches of Normandy were the next to see, and they did not disappoint. It wasn't as emotional as I had imagined, however I did tear up at one point. I stood on Gold Beach and looked up at the wall that still stands at the beach front, and imagined what it would have been like to be soldier facing a seemingly endless line of German gunfire... the heroism of it is actually making me tear up again right now just remembering it. The amount of beach seems so small from the waterfront to the wall, yet it was some of the hardest gained territory in the entire war. We moved on and visited two sections of Omaha beach, which yielded a better visual of the scars of war, and the remnents of German defences. It was an incredible experience.
Once satisfied, we moved onto what I had been expecting to be one of the best sites of our trip: Mont-St-Michel... it did not disappoint. This place is basically a French Monastery that was built on a giant mountain of rock. The tip of the monastery measure more than 280 feet high, and surrounding it down the rock mountain is a medieval town seemingly carved out of the rock itself. It was hands down the most amazing place we've seen thus far, and were sad to leave. The hotel there bumped us up to the best suite they had for no extra charge simply cause it was low season! We had a balcony that viewed over the entire town and the surrounding clay marshes. We walked out of the town at night along the main road that leads in, and took some night pictures... it was just stunning. The next morning (this morning) we toured the monastery itself for over an hour, and were again just blown away.
We left around noon for Cognac, and arrived around 4pm. The drive was peaceful, and the hotel is fantastic. They bumped us up as well, but the rooms are really nothing crazy. The estate itself though is beautiful. We just had possibly the second best meal so far (which is really saying something), and are hanging out in a beautiful little lounge drinking some Cognac right now. Tomorrow, we'll head downtown and visit a few cognac distilleries, including: Hennessy, Cotard, and Remy-Martin, as well explore the town. Afterwards we think we'll come back to the hotel for dinner, since the menu is different every day according to what the Chef thinks up, and tonights meal was incredible.
After that we head down towards the Provence region, stopping halfway at a nice town built around a small thin mountain, and will also see the caves with those prehistoric drawings in them, as well as the Castle that Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was filmed at. We should have internet once in the Provence region, so expect some more info and pics then. It's getting late now, so I'll post pics tomorrow. Check back here then for the link! Bonsoir!
UPDATE: Hey, I've finally posted the pics, click here to see them. Sorry it took so long, but the connection was horrible at the last hotel in Cognac. We're in Rocamadour now, and have some more free internet, and it's much better. I'll probably post again in a few days. Cheers!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment