France - Monday and Tuesday (German War Cemetery & Domfront)

Monday, 13 November 2017

As we had not had the chance to visit the German War Cemetery we wanted to do that next.  We knew we would be going on a longer trip, but at least the weather was nice enough again to go out and we didn't really want to miss the chance.  We'd been sitting at home long enough...

So, first stop was the German cemetery.  Completely different, but not less impressive and the sheer numbers of fallen soldiers here too is a terrible fact.  Personally I don't hold it against them that they were German and on, for us, the 'wrong' side.  They were all conscripted and fought for their country.  I consider them quite different from the 'animals' that willfully tortured and killed people in the concentration camps. 

At the far end of the cemetery was a lookout from where we could see the bay and also had a good view of Mont St. Michel, which I hope to visit before I travel on the Netherlands.

As it was still eary in the day we decided to visit Domfront, a medieval town, as well.  However on the way we passed again through Ducey where we wanted to stop for a cup of coffee and a cache.  We found a nice little pub for the coffee and the cache as well. :-)

#1790 - L'eglise St-Pair

The logbook contained a stamped TB which I decided to log as well

The church seems to be missing some walls....

After that we drive on to Domfront where we admired the town and the ruines of the castle.  There are a lot of pictures, but I just can't get enough of all these beautiful century-old buildings...

The views and the autumn colours were also spectacular.

At the end of the afternoon we became just a bit weary and were in definite need for another cuppa. :-)  And when we saw what was on the menu we just had to try one of these:

On the list they had: croque monsieur and croque madame.  We had to ask what it was and learned that they are toasted sandwiches with cheese on top.  Croque madame has an added egg on top!  We ordered the meal complete with salade and enjoyed it, even though it was late for lunch and early for dinner. ;-)

One last stroll back through the ancient streets and back to the car.

Tuesday, 14 November 2017

Not really a lot to mention about Tuesday.  We packed early in the morning, said goodbye to Michelle and drove to Versailles.  It was a trip of approx. 4 hours, because I did not want to take the toll roads.  Frank and I had done so before on our trip from Montfalcon to Paris, but you don't see anything when you're travelling on the highways.  This was a lot more pleasant and took only roughly half an hour longer, but we had the pleasure of driving through all those little villages and the beautiful countryside.

We had coffee and lunch at Macdonalds, of all places, but it was the only place we could easily find and it was close to the first petrol station where we needed to top up.  As I had also been driving for a while behind a very slow, piloted vehicle, carrying a large yacht, a break was very welcome.

Then it was only a short half hour to Versailles and our airbnb close to the chateau, where we arrived at about 3pm.  We were shown to our room upstairs in one of the real Parisian types of apartments.  We have the use of a big room, bathroom and kitchenette and will feel quite at home for the following days.  (Pictures will follow later.)

As this is just a bit like Paris there is no room to park your car as a visitor.  Most of our spare money will go to the underground parking garage across the road, where we have to park the car for the duration of our stay. :-(  Ah well, it's probably worth it and driving was much more fun than taking the train.

After a bit of a rest, a 4 hour drive takes its toll at our age (haha), we go out for a walk and explore a bit of the neighbourhood.  Our hostess has told us about the nearby market halls, which appear to be very impressive.  I could not take pictures of all the stalls, but one at least caught my eye, because it was all cheese, and goat's cheese at that:

At near dark we walk back to our airbnb through one of the little side streets where it is still busy at this time of the day, even though it doesn't look like it in the picture...