Monet’s Gardens and Mont. St. Michel

Carey and I decided to spend a couple of days outside of Paris/Vincennes, so we rented a car and drove to Giverny, home of Monet’s home and his famous gardens. The picture above is a home in Giverny that I liked, not really affiliated with Monet. We had so much trouble with our big car in the south of France, so we were dismayed when we were given an SUV this time, though we had requested a much smaller car. When we asked about this, the car rental employee told us that the problem is that most Europeans drive manual cars, and thus there are not a lot of automatics. Carey and I both know how to drive a manual, but it can be tiring, especially if you haven’t done it in a few decades (Ted really suffered with this when we were in France in 2018, as we had a stick-shift that time and he did all of the driving). As we were deciding what to do, the employee told us that a Mini-Cooper had just been returned, and it was an automatic. If we were OK with waiting while it was checked out, cleaned and tank filled, we could have that one. What a relief! So we waited about 15 minutes, and then we were on our way. Yay!

We stopped for lunch in Giverny, then headed in to tour the lovely gardens. I loved them so much when I was there in early June of 2018, so was looking forward to seeing them in mid-September.

After that lovely visit, it was back in the car and on our way. We had intended to go to one of the Normandy beaches where the Allies came ashore to liberate France in World War II, but Carey wanted to see Rouen, and the historic area where Joan of Arc was burned. I have been to both places, so was fine with this. We happily found parking about a block from where we wanted to be, because of our small car. A larger car would not have fit in the spot. Yay! After a hunt for cash to pay the parking meter (it wasn’t working with our credit card for some reason), off we went.

The architecture of historic Rouen is very traditional half-timbered buildings, which can be funny when the street level tenant is a Sephora or other modern shop. The market square, above, is the location of the Saint Joan of Arc Church, which looks out of place in this ancient village. I didn’t take any pictures of the outside of the church, but you can see it in the link above. The church opened in 1979, and houses historic stained glass windows, which were moved from a nearby church that was destroyed in World War II.

After touring the church, we walked through the rest of the old town, and did a little window shopping. I was sad to see that the well known family run ceramic shop, Fayencerie Augy has closed, though their signs are still there and the website is still active. It now appears to be a bookstore, though that was also closed when we were there. I bought a couple of items there in 2018, and had considered buying something else this time. We then went looking for dinner, knowing we had a couple of hours still to drive before getting to our Air BnB near Mont. St. Michel. We likely should have eaten at the restaurant where I had lunch last time there, or at the Michelin restaurant nearby, but they didn’t open for another hour (it was only 6:30 at this point), and we were hoping to get to our destination before it got too late. As it was, we didn’t make it until 10pm, so another hour likely would not have made much difference. We ordered pizza from a little place with outdoor seating. It was OK, but a little under cooked inside. Oh well.

We arrived at our Air BnB safely, an odd little townhouse. We went to bed right away. I awoke at one point and looked out of the skylight above, and saw the most amazing stars. We live in an area with so much light pollution, the stars look so far away and small. The glimpse outside of the skylight showed a velvet black sky, with brilliant stars that looked like you could touch them. I considered going downstairs and outside for a better look, but the stairs were really creaky and I didn’t want to wake Carey up. In the morning, we set off for Mont. St. Michel. Mont. St. Michel was a bucket list item for Carey, she had a poster on her wall as a teenager. We went and looked at it in 2018, but we weren’t able to go inside, so it was pretty cool to do so now.

Mont. Saint Michel is incredibly busy and full of tourists and students on field trips. Once you cross the bridge and climb onto the island, you are brought into the crowded narrow streets. As always, practical considerations are foremost, so we set out to find brunch first thing. I remembered fondly the savory crepes (la crêpe complète) that I had in Brittany a few years ago, and Carey had never had savory crepes. I don’t really care for the crepes I have had in the United States, so I have an unofficial policy, which is to not eat crepes anywhere but Brittany. I have modified it slightly now to say that I will not eat them anywhere but Brittany, or right on the Brittany/Normandy border. Good decision, because they were delicious. The photo above is our restaurant, which is a souvenir shop on the ground floor, and a restaurant above. They opened at 11:45, and we were in line at about 11:30, so we were first in line and got a table right away. It was a tiny restaurant, and filled quickly. Having worked in restaurants many years ago, I hated the thought of that first seating, of every table sitting down at the same time, everyone wanting their food and drink at the same time, but they know their business, and handled it all very well.