Disambiguation

Kathy and I felt like royalty this morning as she, Dean and I had croissants, emmentaler, fresh yogurt and fruit.  

This place is amazing, Our room is on the thirs floor with a spiral stone staircase. 

There is a large stone fireplace across from the bed which has a drop leaf table on Jodi's side of the bed and a night stand on my side.  

There are small windows with tiny places to kneel and look out, or very small people could sit there in the window sill.  

The ceiling is beam and there is a stone carving in one corner of the room as well as faces carved in the fireplace.  

We first went to Port en Bessin where the owner of Le Quesnay, Jacques, made reservations for our dinner this evening at Le Mariner Hotel.  After we scopped that out we headed to the American Cemetary.  I ALWAYS manage to mis the entrance and how after all this time I do not know.  Regardless, in the five years since we have been here it has changed.  There is a new entrance/museum area which is, for once, a good use of our tax dollars!  It made all of those crosses much more personal.  I was in there less than five minutes and I felt a bubble of grief welling up, and carried that feeling through the whole place!  I look at those crosses and think of the loss, not only of the life of that person and what they could have brought to the world, but also of their families and the grief their loss left back home.  It was interesting how we talked about the senselessness of war on the way in and then had a bit different sort of conversation on the way out.  Without the sacrifice of all of those men and women our world today could be very different.  

The beach front area there always feels so serene, it is a holy place now.

We found a cidre place, which was lucky because our usual place was FERME!

But what we found was delicious and we drank it later at the beach!! 

Then we moved on to pont du hoc, to have a better look at some bunkers and craters left by the Americans.  It was one of the highlights of my day as a group of students from Brown, thought I was a French lady!  I had to have some fun with them, so asked where they were from, and they said the states I said in my best Hoosier accent "Yes, I gathered that, but from where", they all laughed.  Pont su hoc amazes me, I can not even begin to imagine climbing up  the cliff even without enemy gunfire, let alone with it coming at you.   

Then we went to St. Mere Eglise via Mc Donald's, I was trying to be nice because we were going to a foofey dinner.  The thing I have noticed in the last five years is the commercialism of the D-Day area.  The first time I was at point du Hoc we drove right up, and each time I have returned it has changed and today there were at least a dozen guides plying their tales as we wandered. St Mere Eglise has a several new museums as well as there is a big "Overlord" museum outside the American Cemetary.  It makes me sad, even though I applaud the new entrance to the American Cemetary.  

We got euros which took a while because the lady in front of me could not figure out how to work the ATM.  

Then we drove to the beach, looked for shells, and generally fooled around.  I found a few lovely shells for the pond!  The tide was WAY out which is something I have not seen before here, It must have something to do with the time of the year, I need some time and tide lessons!

I thought this was a nice use for an old bunker!  It says: "Who changes the children, changes the world."

Dinner at La Marine was yummy, melon soup with ham on the side, a pork, prune and carrot dish followed by a dessert Jodi picked out, which was a good choice.  

Duck Massacre at the Duk.

I am pooped.  When I was 16 i wanted to take multiple languages and be a tour guide.  I got a taste of that today, that and a taste of more getting lost.  After another yummy breakfast at La Rosarie, we headed for Caen today. Tomorrow we will spend the day at various D-Day sites and I wanted The Kids to have a idea of what we were seeing and why.  On the way we stopped at Mc Donald's for Deans BD, he was pleasantly surprised.  

I am not a wrap sort of girl, it irritates me when I am fed them instead of a sandwiches at luncheons, but Mickey D's has a goat cheese wrap that was actually a do over!   Back on the road, we arrived at the war memorial to drop off The Kids and to my surprise there was a new statue of a sailor kissing a nurse, that classic D-day pose.  It was asesome!  

They had it right down to the seams on her white hose!  Jodi and I were on a mission that I thought would be easy, find a store, get some coke, water, and hairspray, and fill up the gas tank.  Easy it was not, we did the whole perifique (the loop) of Caen, and finally Jodi talked me into asking about the diesel we could not find, the girl at the check out at the gas station said she did not know, to ask at the service station, and that man said gazol and diesel were the same.  The consequences of putting the wrong fuel in the car wre pretty enormous so Jodi had the bright idea of looking up gazol in my French dictionary, problem solved, now to fill it up.  We with much ado filled it as full as it would go, then found a store and lastly another Golden Arches trip , the bathroom for me a coke light with EXTRA ice for Deans Birthday!  We picked up The Kids late and went on to Benoville, where Pegasus Bridge is located.  

We dropped them off at the Museum there and headed for a coffee and goodie at the Gondree cafe.  I love this little place, I love the history, but it seems to be rewriting itself.  Jodi really couldn't find any info about the father spying during the war.  Boo Hoo Hoo.  

We did get to the bridge go up and a sail boat sashay down the Orne.  

We picked up The Kids and headed to the beach, just so they could see it.  then Jodi talked me into stopping and it was pretty cool.  I have never seen the tide out so far and you could really see the Mullberrys!  

We stopped at Arromanches too and then made our way to the B&B,  Le Manoir De Quesnay.  It is an amazing place, It has been in the family since the 1500's 

We are on the third floor and getting my suitcase up the tiny spiral stone staircase was a feat! Then room is charming, and I am thrilled.  

We went to dinner at a place in Bayeaux, La Taverne Des Ducs.  It is a pity that a poor duck gave his life to be treated the way this place cooked my duck breast.  There sould be a french law against it.  

The wine they served me at the highest of the three prices available  was probably usable in the car for fuel!  My experience was suckey, but the birthday boy got a steak and he was happy!  So for today that is good enough.  But seriously don't even go to this place unless you are starving!  Bon Nuit.

Chenonceaux Evenings

I wrote once abut Chenonceaux mornings, but this one has started out much more mundane.  

We did have another great breakfast in the hotel.  More cafe au lait for me, cereal, eggs and bacon for The Kids.  Yummy croissants for Kathy and I, interestingly enough Dean prefers the "French bread"  aka baguettes.  The Kids needed to do laundry so I asked the waitress in the hotel about a lavondrie and she sent us to Blere.  I stopped and asked a Post lady and she directed us tout doite and a gauche,  but it was really a doite.  We found it and with some serious but clenching we parked.  

I am currently praying that I can miss the post in front of the car on my way out!  

The Laundromat was a challenge of language, and figuring out machinery, but we did it and The Kids are exploring while I try furiously to catch up on the blog.  I left Jodi getting beauty sleep and resting for ballroom dancing this afternoon!  I came home to this:

We ended up lunching on the most expensive , least tasty food at the castle  before we went in.  There was nothing open in Chenonceaux and a couple of ladies at the Hotel Du Roy were braying donkeys about our wanting to eat lunch at 2 PM.  

Chenonceaux was still breathtakingly beautiful,  my favorite garden, 

the Catherine de Medici garden is still lovely this time of the year, 

the Diane Du Poitier garden was being dismantled for the winter, and not so lovely, but where we hung out quite a while waiting for sunset.   

We went partway into the castle with The Kids, and they danced in the ballroom and then we all danced.  

Jodi Speaking French!

Dinner was more corn soup and this time I had oxtail in croute with matchstick vegies in two corners and sauteed mushroom in the other two. 

It was delish!

This is the view out side of our bedroom window.  It is Delish too!

Old Friends

Breakfast today was immeasurably more delightful!  Croissants, Jam, All the coffee I wanted, as well as eggs and bacon for Kathy and Dean.  We were all happy and I even snuck out a goodie for Jodi!  Off we wenet to Amboise.  It was familiar, but had just enough "deviations" and changes to keep me on my toes.  

Close Luce was lovely and Jodi and I enjoyed it, 

even third time around.  

I was a bit bummed the thank does not spin any more, 

but such is life.  

Creps and coffee for a snack and while they toured the house we relaxed and I knitted, Jodi enjoyed the sun.  

Then we went to the castle where we were going to drop off the kids ( Kathy and Dean)  because Kathys knee was hurting, but we got a parking spot supreme!  I looked a bit and consedered photos that might interest the girls, 

but mosely just enjoyed the atmpsphere and sunshine.  

After all that enjoying we were hungry, of course not much was open, but there was a place and it had Tartare de Boeuf and was it good!  

On the way home we drove by Chaumont Sur Loire so the kids could see where Diane Du Poitier was banished.  Back to La Roserie for a hot bath and bed!