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Monday 5th May - First day of our tour - SO excited to be pack in Paris !!!!.
Bags packed and out the door by 7.15am, we must be getting used to packing quickly as our bags were the first ones out, now we can relax over breaky. We grabbed the table by the window so we could people watch, one of my favourite things to do while we travel around.
The welcome meet & greet dinner and drinks last night went really well. I normally don't like going to these things, particularly without my travel buddy Mary, as being shy as I am I normally leave the talking up to Russel but tonight I felt so comfortable talking to these people. They are a great bunch, only 25 in total, so everyone gets a window seat on the bus. One thing we forget about France is that most Parisians don't have dinner until 8pm which by the time we went to bed was close to midnight. Our driver Christoph looks about 20 but after 2 days now of riding in the bus he is an excellent driver. Our tour guide Simon is from the UK and is a wealth of knowledge, no matter what question you ask him.
All aboard by 8.15am and we then meandered our way through the back streets of Paris heading for Rouen where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431. The countryside is so green and canola crops spring up more and more as we travel along the country roads. At Rouen we were supposed to go inside the Notre Dame Cathedral but it was closed for repair, so change of plans, more time wandering the streets is fine by me. The morning started off chilly but gradually the sun is making itself known and the warmth is very inviting. As usual Russel needed his morning coffee fix so this gave us time to people watch while having a coffee, my favourite pastime !! I was a bit disappointed in the monument to Joan of Arc as it didn't give you the story of her life why she was burnt at the stake, actually nothing in writing at all. Mental note google JOA story !!
We stopped for lunch at Honfleur with it's cobbled streets. We LOVED this little seaside town and had fantastic seafood for lunch by the water. We were snap happy here and even managed to get a photo of both of us with the gorgeous harbour in the background. I am having trouble uploading photos from my iPad to here, so hopefully they will have that problem fixed soon. The sun is shining beautifully with the temperature reaching 22 degrees. The tour guide gives you more than enough time in each place.
Our next stop was Pont l'Eveque, Calvados Distillery for a guided tour and tasting of apple liqueur, whoa that was bloody strong - oo la la LOL. I settled for a bottle of Creme, which tastes very similar to Baileys but their one has a taste of apple in it - hmmm the sample of that went down very well indeed.
Now we head to Bayeux for our 3 night stay, so good not to have to pack up each night, gives you time to do some washing. Sun still shining but with the southerly winds it's feels colder than it is brrrr. So glad I bought my beanie and gloves.
WOW Bayeux is a lovely town, cobbled streets and gorgeous wonderful stone buildings. Our hotel is one street back from the centre of town. Our room for 3 nights is huge - you enter into a walk though area with the bathroom on the left (with huge bath and a separate rain water shower, toilet) closets and kettle etc on the right, then you walk through into another room with a king sized bed, two chairs, large table by the wall and a large TV. We have 1 hour to get ready for dinner, quick shower, change of clothes and back out the door. We walked 10 minutes to the restaurant, not far at all. My favourite part of the meal was dessert it was so yummy !!! Back from dinner, now time to upload all the photos, charge everything and have a cuppa before bed.
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