No reliable wifi for two days = catching up - part un

     We've just returned to Paris tonight - I said "It feels good to be home!" - and reliable wifi. The lack of wifi was made up many times over in our experiences...so...I'll break my catching up into three parts. Saturday - picked up the rental car, hoping for one that was reasonably comfortable and not tiny - the way people drive here is crazy, and although we'd never drive in the city, Roger agreed to drive for our trip to the lower Normandy region. He had to agree, because not only is it difficult to get automatic cars here, they charge hefty additional charges, and I cannot drive manual. After a quick lesson with the GPS, all good - and we're on our way to the home of Monet at Giverny. It was amazingly beautiful and lush with flowers - even in October. I supposed that a summer visit might have played havoc with my allergies - and it was truly full of different colored and kinds of blooms wherever we happened to be on the grounds. I had put in the address for Giverny, and we found our way to the restaurant's parking lot - had lunch - and were able to leave the car there whilst we wandered the property and toured the home. It was much closer than the "regular" parking lot - now we have parking karma too, it seems :)
      Most of our photos are on the other camera, but I did get some to post here - the beautiful bamboo grove, the view of the Japanese bridge made famous in his series of "Water Lilies" paintings:

                       

     After leaving Giverny, we headed to Mont Saint Michel. I didn't know - until I did some internet recon (short, of course, for "reconnaissance" = searching) that there were hotels right on the Mont. I wanted to have as close to the Abbey experience, if we were going to do this, as we could. It worked! We got the last of 29 rooms at one of a cluster of "Poulard" properties - evidently this family owns about 80% of what's on the island. (There are 44 permanent residents on the Mont - probably the proprietors of the various eateries and shops, I'd guess.)

      We had some beautiful views of the Mont as we approached, and since we'd booked a hotel room actually there, were given a code to use a closer-in parking lot. There were two ways to get most of the 50-minute walk to the island - bus or horse-cart. We took the bus - which was very interesting. It never turned around...the driver simply got out, went to the other end, and drove whichever way it was supposed to go - no turns - ever! We knew that the hotel wouldn't have a "lift" (elevator), but we didn't know that it was 1/2 way up the steps to the Abbey at the top. We put our things in the room - which did, indeed have an "Abbey view" - if we stuck our heads out the window (no screens) - we could look up and see the spire with a statue of St.Michael the Archangel at the very top of the Abbey. It took a bit of work, but there was a view ;). The room was slanted - it's a structure from medieval times, and the floors were uneven, but we were ON Mont Saint Michel! We had been given a packet that included some discounts, when we checked in, and ended up at one of those restaurants for dinner - our luck - we were "entitled" to a free "house cocktail." Ok. It turned out to be something we'd wanted to try anyway - the region's cider. It's a lot like when apple cider turns hard - but intentional here. Dinner was its own adventure - of course, I wanted to have dessert, so kind of talked both of us into the prix fixe dinner - which had some choices. I didn't really like any of the entrees, and had no clue, and for the "entree" (in France, that's the appetizer - the main course is called the "plat") I chose whelks with mayonnaise, thinking "ok, I don't have to use the mayonnaise." Roger got the sausage sampler. Neither was really what we'd hoped, (should've chosen the salad with the goat cheese, but hey, we're on an adventure, right?) Whelks - cold snails, but in a twirly shell - I tried, I really tried, but after sharing one (also thumbs-down) and eating three, I couldn't have any more. There had to have been at least a dozen - the server/bartender/possible proprietor noticed, and asked if I didn't like them. I didn't like them - at all. The rest of the dinner was fine (I had to get "steak-frites" at least once this trip, so chose that and Roger had a galette complète, which is a specialty of the region and is a buckwheat crêpe with ham and cheese inside and a fried egg on top); dessert was good (crème caramel and apple pie with a custard base throughout the filling) - and it was time to settle in. On the way to the room, we went a little further, and visited a little cemetary, and bells were playing, so we waited for that to end, then went to the room, planning to turn on the tv, check emails, etc...complete today's blog...not! Nothing worked enough to use, so I guess it was good that we were tired enough to call it a day.

http://www.okeefes.org/Whelks/whelk_102_9530.jpg

Whelk is a common name that is applied to various kinds of sea snail, many of which have historically been used, or are still used, by humans and other animals for food.