Viva La France - 12 Sept

After departing Dover our ship’s first stop the next morning is Le Havre. We found our two driver/guides waiting, and I was oh so very glad we asked for their arrivals at 9:30am rather than an earlier time…..first, we had set our clocks ahead one hour, so the extra hour of sleep we gained by leaving a bit later than other scheduled tours was precious; and second, Carnival’s own bevy of buses had scampered off to Paris, Rouen, and to other parts of France, so we had the vast parking lot to ourselves; and third, it was a delight to disembark without crowds. And we all had time to begin our day with a hearty breakfast to boot.

Driver Michael took off with DH and 7 others to the Landing Beaches of D-Day. While we headed to the monumental abbey at Mont St. Michel, a 2.5 hour drive made pleasant by our knowledgeable driver/guide Jack’s commentary as well as the beautiful countryside. I had found www.best-of-france.com via a google search, and Philippe provided prompt communications both by phone calls and e-mail. I felt we would be in good hands and we were.

As we drove west to the border of Normandy and Brittany, the sky became darker and a light rain fell presenting us with a small rainbow as a good omen for the day. And suddenly we saw in the distance the fairy-tale like structure, its silhouette a familiar memory from my Epcot France pavilion visits. It was surreal to climb the stairs and meander through the cloisters, the levels of the abbey, and to envision centuries of others following the same paths before us. The personal audio guide brought forth the details of former uses: abbey, fortress, prison. All this built without machinery, let alone computers. Who’s the wiser now?

Mme. Poulard’s is world renown for omelets, but we stopped at Terrasses Poulard half-way to the top for mussels, steak frites, and kabobs, ensuring that we need not feast on the ship that night. Okay, we did so anyway. In fact, our full tummies were yet led astray again by the temptation of butter, sugar and the resulting galettes and bretonnes at the nearby cookie factory on the route to Honfleur en route back to Splendor docked in Le Havre.
More about Honfleur plus tard. Kiko