Exploring Normady

After celebrating our reunion with a good nights sleep at the harbor of Rouen, the capital of Normandy, it was time to check out the city itself.

The cathedral Notre-Dame is quite impressive and I always marvel at the intricate decorations of such a building and wonder how many people it took how long to carve out the thousands of gargoyles, faces and figures with which so many churches are decorated.

Rouen has many tiny alleys with houses soon to fall over, lots of little squares and small shops, very charming. On one square you can find a church that dubs as a market as well. Good combination, if you ask me! And visually interesting as well. In one corner stood a long line of people. They were queuing outside a bakery. Must be good stuff, my human thought, and fell right in line. And yes, good stuff it was!

Church and market hall, winning combination

Say what you want about small countries, but they are very practical. The distances we have to cover here in France are quite different from what we were used to in Holland and Belgium. You don’t just hop from one place to the next, it actually involves some planning. And then there are road tolls. For many bridges and highways you pay a hefty price in France. As we found out today. 

We figured it couldn’t be too bad, it’s just over 100km on a toll road, and to avoid it we would have to drive an extra 40km. So we took the toll road. Well, a mistake we will only make once. After inserting the ticket and then the credit card into the machine at the exit of the road, our budget was short 35 Euros! 35 bucks! For 100km! You do the math!

So this brings us to the Normandy-Maine National Park. On the map it looked like a very large green patch. Should be good for hiking, we figured. Well, kinda. It’s more a network of small towns connected by narrow streets, situated in kind of a green area. Not to be unfair, there were trees and shrubbery and stuff, but not what we expected. Our fault, of course. No expectations!

We parked next to a tiny church, after visiting the Information Center to get some (halfway useful) maps of the area. By the time we arrived it was already late afternoon. So my human went for a little walk around the camp and then we had dinner and a very quiet night. In the morning her and Carmelo went for a 20 km hike, trying to make the most of our stop here. If only the blackberries were ripe already!

We then moved on to St. Malo, back to the coast. Our parking spot was only 5 minutes away from the beach, which is only a beach at low tide, otherwise it’s just water! 

You can circumnavigate what used to be the whole settlement on the 1.7km long town wall, getting a good view of the town and the surrounding ocean and little islands. By now it has obviously outgrown those restrictive walls originally dating from the 12th Century.

Using the low tide in the afternoon, it was time for a refreshing swim in the ocean and after dinner they walked back into town, only 20 minutes away, all the while watching the sun set into the water from the esplanade. This area is famous for it’s galletes and crepes. A gallete is a savory crepes, made with buckwheat flower. So guess, what was for dinner?

In the morning they set of for another long hike towards a green cliff you could see in the distance. And then some. Of course. After a quick dip and a shower on the beach, very handy, we headed for Nantes.

At the tourist center they hand you a large map with a green line drawn on it. This same green line is drawn on the actual street and you can just follow it around and it takes you past all the sights of the city, what a great idea. Especially for orientation impaired people like my human. It starts at the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne and runs for some 22km.

Super cool fountain at the Place Royal

It's called "Air". No, I don't know why.

Belvedere de l'Hermitage. Sure, if you say so...

And here we found out, that the walking dragon of Calais has friends, lots of them. There is a whole island kind of dedicated to them. Unfortunately most of them are caged up in a large hangar which used to hold airplanes. Only one elephant is allowed outside to attract people. Poor things!

In the morning Carmelo and my human went on along bike ride in the Loire valley. Also, very easy to follow. Upriver one side, bridge, downriver the other side. Piece of cake! And very nice. There were hardly any people around and those who were had either large saddle bags and were obviously on a long distance ride, or they had kids with them. In some cases both! Well, better them then us, right?

On the way back they drove past a memorial for the abolition of slavery. Across a very large area you can see many plaques in the ground, each representing a ship which was used in the slave trade by France. There are many plaques. You can go underground and walk through a tunnel, learning more about France’s role in this atrocity and it’s meant to make you feel like you are in the hold of such a ship. 

A good thing we parked right next to an outdoor swimming pool, because as they got back, they needed a shower. Because of Covid you are not allowed to take anything into the pool but your towel and a bottle of water. I’m not sure what a sandwich and a book have to do with Covid, but they wouldn’t allow either item inside. That made for a rather short stay at the pool.

But either way, we had planned to keep on driving to La Rochelle in the afternoon, so that’s just what we did. This time avoiding any toll roads, of course. It takes longer, but hey, we’ve got all the time in the world, right?