Day 2

This morning Mark went to the car rental place and got us car with a Garmin navigation system as an add-on. We headed for a little market and bought 2 baguettes, butter, water, clementines, and a yogurt and hit the road for Rouen.

In Rouen, there is a cathedral called Notre Dame (not THE Notre Dame) that Monet painted in different light over 30 times.

In it is the tomb of Richard the Lionheart – but it only has his heart in it. Apparently, the remainder of his body is in England. We also saw the square where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. It has kind of a modern church and plaza to mark the spot.

We walked around the downtown area for a while and also went into a little courtyard that was the site of a plague cemetery.

The surrounding buildings are decorated with skeletons and bones carved into the timbers. Many of the houses are half-timber in design.

There is also a very old clock with only one hand. In the olden days, no one really cared about minutes, just hours, so only one hand on the clock was needed.

We left Rouen and shortly thereafter our Garmin said the battery was low and eventually died. We had it plugged into the cigarette lighter, but I guess it wasn’t getting any juice. So we got off the freeway at Caen, found our way to the center of town and went into the TI office (tourist information) and asked where we might find a Hertz car rental place. We were directed to go to the train station and after a very long time looking and asking, Mark was finally given a new navi. He pointed out that it might not be the navi, but rather the car, but the young lady knew nothing about cars and shooed him away with a new navigation system in hand.

The countryside is so green and lush here. Very beautiful. Our stop in Caen was a 1 ½ hour detour, so we got back on the road trying to make Mont St. Michel before it was too late to see it. Luckily, it doesn’t get dark here until about 10:00 pm and we arrived shortly before 7:00 pm.

It was fun to walk around this quaint little fortress/city/abbey. One last bus was leaving the parking lot on the west side of the causeway when we arrived. As we left about an hour later the parking lot had disappeared under the incoming tide. Because the causeway is built up on higher ground, the incoming tide no longer makes Mont St. Michel an island. One good thing about arriving so late in the day was that there was hardly anybody walking around, so it was like we had the place to ourselves.

We had a quick dinner in the neighboring town and then drove an hour to our lodgings for the next two night, La Ducrie. On the way, the navigational system ran out of battery again. It is definitely a problem with the car.

La Ducrie is a charming chateau (with a mote!) B&B built around the 1400s and is run by a British couple. We stayed here in 2002. More on La Ducrie and the beaches of Normany tour tomorrow.