|
|
Post by framboiseetrose on Apr 23, 2009 14:33:27 GMT -5
Happy, do you have a mandatory retirement age for your domestic service workers? If not, I will be joining Megan into service...........
Luc, that Chateau est tellement ravissant!
|
|
|
|
Post by Katharine on Apr 23, 2009 19:29:03 GMT -5
Holger, we cashed in points and stayed at the Holiday Inn on Place de Marechal Foch. It was a good location, and easy to get in and out of Caen from there. We took the beaches tour with Battlebus. What a great way to get information you might not otherwise get. It leaves from the parking lot right outside of the Churchill Hotel (where ChouChou is staying). The Tapestry is also off of this parking lot, and you HAVE to go see it! Big wow!  We had fun seeing Pegasus Bridge (the first to be taken by Allies on the morning of D-Day, at @12:15 (thank you John Howard)). We drove to Arromanche and saw the remains ofthe Mulberry Harbor.  The 360 degree movie in the theater "up top" over looking Arromanche was terrific - a must do. We took a day and drove up the coast through Cabourg and Deauville to Honfleur. This was a very pretty drive. We stopped at Cabourg and walked the beach and the boardwalk. It was all but deserted since it was early June. We loved it! As you approach Honfleur you will see signs directing you to the Cote de Grace. Go! It is a wonderful overlook of the Seine estuary and offers terrific views. There is a lovely church with bells mounting interestingly on the side. If you time it right you will be there when they ring and that is a sight (not to mention a beautiful sound.) Honfleur is a quaint village, well worth a stop. Eat the moules avec creme fraiche (anything avec creme fraiche is tres bien, eh?).  You will see the memorial to Les Moules, the women who harvested the moules by hand for generations.  We did not make it to MSM. Next time. Have fun, and let me know if you have any other questions. Katharine |
|
|
|
Post by Sandy M on Apr 23, 2009 20:10:00 GMT -5
Great photos Katharine! Honfleur looks like a neat place to visit.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shoesy on Apr 23, 2009 21:39:14 GMT -5
Katharine -  You seem very comfortable posing in those photos. You look particularly snazzy in your jeans outfit with the lime green scarf and matching shoes.  BTW, one of the first things we did in planning our trip was to make a reservation for a Battlebus Tour. Their location across from the Churchill was another reason I decided on that hotel. |
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Apr 24, 2009 8:23:33 GMT -5
An exalt for the photos and the info Katherine.
I can still remember how thrilled and anxious we were to hear that our forces had finally landed in France. Our church had a special morning service the next day to pray for success.
Oh! would that I were 12 again.
|
|
|
|
Post by Happygoin on Apr 24, 2009 8:53:10 GMT -5
Yes, Mossie...but the secret to being 12 again is that you want to know what you know now  PS. Megan and Lilia, you're on. No mandatory retirement age in my chateau |
|
|
|
Post by holger on Apr 24, 2009 9:43:17 GMT -5
Thanks for the pictures and the write-ups, Katherine They will go into my "new" folder.
I am currently wearing lime green clogs. Love the color.
|
|
|
|
Post by PariS on Apr 24, 2009 10:37:29 GMT -5
Nice photos, Katharine! Happy, can I sign on as a sous chef in your kitchen? (that is, assuming you hire a good-looking top-notch French chef whom I can assist!  ) |
|
|
|
Post by Happygoin on Apr 24, 2009 10:59:44 GMT -5
I only have a few positions remaining open, Annette. Happily, sous-chef is one of them. May I assume your husband is interested in being a footman? Several of those still open. I'm waiting for Doug to offer his services as executive chef....  |
|
|
|
Post by framboiseetrose on Apr 24, 2009 14:20:39 GMT -5
Katharine, great photos! I remember the first time we went to Honfleur. It was a spur of the moment weekend before school started and got the last available room in town. What a fun weekend!
Happy, do Megan and I buy our little black dresses now with the frilly aprons or would you provide those? (LOL)
|
|
|
|
Post by geordy on Apr 24, 2009 17:12:11 GMT -5
Happy..you will need some sort of security..if only to screen all the "alleged OPF folks" looking for lodging, Truf's and Annette's meals, etc. Consider this my application..unless I win the lottery first!(frankly I am just planning on buying a modest NYC apartment and staying in plenty of hotels in Paris!)
Katherine...you look like you were born to go to Normandy!
|
|
|
|
Post by Katharine on Apr 26, 2009 8:01:58 GMT -5
Thanks for all your kind words, guys.
Geordy, I don't know about being born to go there, but it is probably my favorite place (other than our dear Paris) in France (and that includes Provence). I was born in a city on the beach, so I naturally gravitate toward it.
I have no words to express what I felt walking in the steps of history that involved so many of our very brave sons, brothers and fathers. (FYI - I am so "sappy" I tear up at our national anthem)
My family has a dear friend who scaled the walls at Pointe du Hoc with the Rangers and "held the position" as they were instructed, against overwhelming odds. He is headed back over there this year to celebrate the 65th anniversary.
BTW, my mother would not have spoken to me again had I not visited the Tapestry. She, the history major!
XO
|
|
|
|
Post by Anne on Apr 28, 2009 5:09:18 GMT -5
Sorry Holger, I had totally overlooked the fact that you were asking about Brittany too ... We've spent many years vacationing all over Brittany when the children were young, but I cannot recommend any hotel, we always rented houses . Brittany is too big for you to stay in just one place and then visit it all . One option would be to keep to Northern Brittany, in the Paimpol area, and from there visit the Côte de Granit Rose to the West and Dinard and Saint Malo to the East . That would be the closest option when driving from Normandy . Even if it is a further drive, my advice would be to visit Southern Brittany, it is absolutely beautiful and the weather is also usually much nicer than in the North . So you could stay in Quimper (beautiful town) and from there visit the presqu'île de Crozon, Locronan, Pont l'Abbé, Concarneau, ... From there you could also drive to the East and spend a day in the Pont-Aven area, and another day further East in Vannes and the Golfe du Morbihan (Quimper-Vannes is less than 1 1/2 hour drive) . We've stayed in all these areas except from the St Malo one and I still have the guidebooks and the photo albums too, so you can ask if you need further advice . And you can also use www.viamichelin.fr to find out about driving times between two places . |
|
|
|
Post by Jody on Apr 28, 2009 5:18:20 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by sunshine817 on Apr 28, 2009 5:31:51 GMT -5
We LOVE Beauvron -- stayed there one night in a B&B (no, I can't remember the name!) run by the mayor's widow, right next door to the ancient church. Wonderful lady, wonderful old house, and fabulous town.
We're out of cidre at the moment, so have been discussing going to the Pays d'Auge to restock - this might have been just the kick in the britches we needed.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shoesy on Apr 28, 2009 5:41:02 GMT -5
Jody - Your photos have managed to whet my appetite for my upcoming trip to Normandy. Thanks.  |
|
|
|
Post by PariS on May 3, 2009 0:20:39 GMT -5
Holger, in case you don't subscribe to the France on Your Own newsletter, the latest edition has the first of a two-part article on Normandy that you might be interested in reading: www.franceonyourown.com/News_13_2_01.htm |
|
|
|
Post by geordy on May 3, 2009 8:33:20 GMT -5
Thanks for that link Annette..one, or one of US , can never have too many French related free newsletters!! Planning a night in Bayeux to see the tapestry, or rather "wool embroidered onto linen cloth" (learned something already! ) in September! |
|
|
|
Post by holger on May 3, 2009 8:35:41 GMT -5
;D
Thanks all. I will check the various hotel sites and have already begun to do so . It is going to be hard to plan this trip as I want at least ten days in Paris and plan to divide the other ten between Normandy and Brittany. While there are lots of places to see in both, I like to dig in and get the "feel" of a place so will have to start narrowing down to the essentials e.g. places both DH and I want to see.
The France on your own site is great.
|
|
|
|
Post by geordy on May 3, 2009 9:11:28 GMT -5
Ahhh... twenty days...I envy your hardship!!! ;D Enjoy the planning...as I'm enjoying planning my 8 nites...I've already confounded a poor hotel worker with making a booking on a booking site AND through the hotel's e-mail! Not to mention confounding my S/O with changing the dates! Now all he can say is I "whatevered! " him! |
|
You seem very comfortable posing in those photos. You look particularly snazzy in your jeans outfit with the lime green scarf and matching shoes. 
)
hahahha