After leaving Mont St Michel we drove straight to Caen and then on a self-guided tour through the D-Day landing beaches. First we stopped at Arromanches Les Bain, where many of the allies landed. The girls bought poppy scarves and we took a few shots on the beach. The remains of the artificial harbour lie rusting in the ocean offshore like tombstones. We then went on to Longues Sur Mer where German battlements remain dotted in the green hills, some of them bomb...

We drove to a tiny village near Mont St Michel today and stayed in a cottage that we found on AirBNB. The cottage was very quaint, owned by a Welsh couple and their dog, Millie. As soon as we unpacked we jumped in Bessy and headed off the Mont St Michel, a life long dream of Lidia's and Alex's. We turned a corner on a tiny country road and there was Mont St Michel against the horizon. I said to Lidia, "Check that out". Mont St Michell loomed over the horizon li...

This morning we picked up our Peugeot 2008 to start our road trip. We set the GPS to an English woman's voice and named her Bessy. She has absolutely no guts, her GPS has no POI's in it and she constantly gives us bad directions. This makes it much more interesting driving in foreign lands with no English signage on the wrong side of the car AND road. First stop, Amboise. This quaint little village is in the heart of French chateau country. We stopped to see Cha...

Today we took the train out to Versailles. It was a beautiful day and we took full advantage, exploring the gardens all day after a quick foray into the palace, which we have seen before. Alex decided to hire a bicycle and Lidia and I went for the golf cart, thinking it would be faster and allow us to get around the vast properties a lot quicker. Turns out, an old man with a walking frame could have walked faster than the golf cart and Alex streaked ahead of us...

Braved the wet weather and went to the Paris Cemetery today where we saw the graves of Chopin, Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf. The Chopin grave had a statue on it, and someone had placed some hand-written music in the arms of the statue. We can only guess that it was a composer who wanted Chopin to bless their music. Oscar Wilde's grave had lipstick marks all over it. It is apparently a mecca for people who want to kiss his grave as he has become a cult figure for m...