Mont St Michel & Normandy

After Paris, we headed north-west to Mont St Michel. Alexia had heard amazing things about the place and so we were very excited to go there. After arriving in Beauvoir, we took the scary hotel bikes into Mont St Michel which was only about 5km away. For those of you who have never been to Mont St Michel, it's basically an island. It used to be only accessible at low tide, however they have since put in a new man-made road that makes it accessible in all tides. We decided to take the old road out which was the one that would get covered by water. We came upon a beach which looked like it was sand, but as Alexia soon discovered was very nasty mud. Ellis was alerted to this by her screaming as she tried to walk her bike up a small embankment. Apparently the mud was as slippery as ice, which made it very hard to walk on, let alone push a heavy mountain bike up the hill. When she emerged, her feet and the bike were completely covered in mud.

After Alexia's incident, we arrived at the island and began our exploration of the old town. We were too late to visit the cathedral, so we stuck to the shops. The shops were an interesting mix of very touristy things to local wares. They had a lot of clothes made of wool from the region which were extremely high quality and very expensive as well as very nice copper cookware. It was a lot of fun.

Midway through our trip to the island, it started pouring rain. We had, of course, neglected the gathering clouds and did not bring our rain gear. There were groups of tourists huddled under every dry spot, but we were from Seattle, so we didn't care and walked around taking pictures. About the time the rain started, we heard announcements in many languages that it was time to move your cars because the tide was rising. It was amazing to watch the water raise so quickly. They say it comes in as fast as a race horse; we are not sure if this is the exact speed, but it comes in very fast. You wouldn't want to be stuck out on the mud flats.

It was about 7:30, so we decided to head back into town to grab some dinner. We biked back in the rain, keeping our speed low enough that the back tires didn't spray up our backs. There was thunder and lightning, it was gorgeous. We had dinner at a nice little restaurant across from the hotel. Alexia had been seeing signs for Moulles (mussels) everywhere so she decided to try them. They were amazing; probably the best mussels we ever had. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

The next day we went back to Mont St Michel where we toured the abbey and walked around everywhere. The Abbey was built in 1100 AD and the rest of the structures were built up around it slowly. The Abbey was amazing. It took pretty much the whole day to tour the abbey and look at more shops. After this, we had dinner again (mussels) and then went to bed.

The next day we had mussels one more time, except in a cream sauce. BEST MUSSELS EVER. Alexia liked mussels, but didn't love them. These were just so good you couldn't get enough of them. After our mussel fix (2 large plates heaped with mussels and a small portion of fries) we hopped on a bus for Rennes and then a train for La Rochelle.

Paris Day 4

We woke up the next day with still no hotel for the night. Ellis went down to check with the hotel manager if he had any cancellations for that night and he did! In fact, we could have the same room. This was good news. We decided to do the usual for breakfast and had croissants (.90€ a piece). Ellis had heard about this fantastic steak restaurant several blocks away from the Louvre. So our game plan for the day was to run errands, go to the restaurant, then go to the Louvre. Yet again, we step out of our hotel and there is a street fair going on so we buy some more cheese, strawberries and peaches and put them in the refrigerator for dinner and then set off for the restaurant.

We strolled to the restaurant, window shopping along the way. The restaurant was about 3km away from the hotel which was a walk, but not too long. When we arrived we were quickly sat at the only open table in the restaurant. The place smelled amazing and we saw wonderful plates of food being carried by. We were presented with the menu and began discussing our meal. There were all sorts of steak dishes to choose from as well as some things that were unknown to us. We saw a steak dish at the very bottom of the menu for two so we decided to go with that.

What they brought out was two enormous dishes completely covered in thick cut pieces of steak, homemade potato wedges, and a big bone full of marrow. As dressing we had three different types of mustard and really good gray sea salt. We also had a nice bottle of red wine to go with our dish. There was so much food. We got full and had the rest put in some foil for us to take home. After the restaurant we headed straight for the Louvre.

The outside of the Louvre was gorgeous. The building was intricately decorated. Each archway and each window had a different design carved into the stone. The famous glass pyramid is where we entered. We got our tickets and went exploring. First we went to the Medieval Louvre exhibit where they had excavated walls of the original castle that the Louvre was build on top of. After that we went to the section with the Egyptian antiquities where they had pink granite sphinxes, weaponry, pictographs, pillars, and of course sarcophagi. They also had a real mummy and some mummified animals. The Egyptian art was amazing. It was beautiful and extremely well preserved, even the wood carvings. This was probably due to the climate and that most was art was kept in tombs. Still, the art was 5000 years old and looked like it was only made 100 years ago. For instance, we saw a wooden and leather chair that you wouldn't be surprised to find at a simple antique store in Seattle.

We quickly went through the Oriental art and into the sculpture section were we some sculptures by Michelangelo, Donatello, the ancient Greeks and Romans. They were all spectacular. Then it was getting close to closing so we decided to see the Mona Lisa. It was small like everyone says but it wasn't a disappointment. The painting is gorgeous. We had a few minutes so we admired some other paintings. Once 5:30 came around we were all herded out of the museum by the guards who seemed to appear out of nowhere.

After the Louvre we just walked around the city some more looking at shops. We looked at some more landmarks then went on a hunt for the best ice cream in town with no luck. We then headed home and had our leftovers and market food for dinner with some wine. Then, as usual, we crashed out.

Leaving Paris

We started the next day with getting up early-ish and trying to figure out the Paris train system. We wanted to get on a train to Mont St. Michel. All this time we had walked all over Paris. This was not only great exercise and a bit time consuming, but we really got to know the city. It did make our day a little more complicated. We asked the local subway info desk and they informed us that we needed to be at the regional train station across town. In order to do this we had to figure out the subway system. We go our tickets and went downstairs and started asking for help. We ended up asking a local off-duty policeman who not only showed us how to get to where we wanted to go, but took us there himself! He walked us through how the train system works and helped in translating a few things. After this we had no problems getting around.

It should be noted that the stereotype that the French, especially Parisians, are snooty and mean is absolutely not true at all. Almost every single person that we've encountered on this trip has been incredibly helpful going way out of their way to help us even when we don't need it! They bear with us stumbling through French and butchering their language and have just been wonderful hosts to us on our trip.

We went back to our hotel and packed and Alexia took a shower. We then took the subway back to the train station and hopped on a train to Rennes. The train was incredibly fast; it probably hit 150 mph or more. When we went through a tunnel our ears popped from the pressure of the air being displaced by the train and having nowhere to go in a tunnel. It was pretty uncomfortable at first.

We saw a lot from the train such as a wind farm, fields, rivers, and small cities. In Rennes we got on a but that took us to Beauvoir where we were going to stay for a while. The bus took small one lane roads through the country side. It was such a beautiful journey. Once in Beauvoir, we checked into the hotel and relaxed. We took the free rental bikes of the hotel to a small local restaurant that was recommended to us by the receptionist. It was good food but took forever to come out. I think the meal took about three hours just because the food came out so slowly. At least the food was very good. This was the first time we had ordered from a set menu on this trip and it was a great experience. Ellis had a very nice salad for the starter, then a big slice of ham that was grilled with a cider sauce served with veggies and other good things, and then for dessert some of the best ice cream we've ever had. Alexia had a house made paté with a salad, grilled chicken with roasted vegetables, and a strange custard bread that wasn't really sweet; it was interesting.

After dinner, we walked the bikes back to the hotel because it was dark and we didn't feel like getting killed by cars, and pretty immediately fell asleep.

Paris Day 3

Today we had been planning on going to the Louvre, but first we had to find a new hotel since the one we were staying in was booked. We talked to the person at the front desk who suggested a hotel around the corner about two blocks away. We walked over there and asked if they had any rooms available and they did, but just for one night. We took the room for a night and went back to hotel #1. The guy at the desk recommended a couple other places which also turned out to be full, but finally found one a couple miles away. He booked us a room and said we just needed to walk over there and pay. We looked on the map and it seemed close enough so we set off. The only problem was, we didn't have a name or an address. To this time, we still have no idea where that hotel is.

We showered, packed, checked out and then moved our stuff to Hotel #2, and then decided to go out and find that third hotel. We walked over to the area which turned out to be a lot further than it seemed on the map, but realized that there were many hotels in that area and we didn't even know what ours was called. After searching and searching we gave up. The location was far from ideal. There was a busy street and a train track close by. The neighborhood looked less appealing overall as well. We decided to make the most of the rest of our day and headed to a small little restaurant called "Le Escargot." Alexia had not had the fabled snails and this was the day she was going to try them. We had them as an appetizer and they were yummy. They were cooked in a basil, garlic, and butter sauce. It is hard to describe the taste, but it was not strong and it was very good. Alexia was feeling rather adventurous so she decided to order the restaurants special even though she had no idea what it was. Turns out it was a delicious, mouth watering heart attack on a plate. It was: ham, potatoes, onions, cheese, all cooked together with butter and crème fraise. AMAZING!

After lunch was over, it was too late to go to the Louvre so we decided to go explore our area of the city a bit more. Ellis really didn't pack any nice clothes and was eager to find something that didn't label him as "American living out of a backpack." There was one interesting part to this story. The last shop we went into was a shop dedicated to suits. We were just browsing around and getting a feel for things and one of the men who worked there pounced on us and started pulling out suits for Ellis to try on. He found a really nice one which fit very well, but turned out to be 675€ which was way too much. Ellis said it was too expensive, and he asked us our top price. Alexia said 200-250€ to be nice. A reasonable price for a suit we thought, but enough that they would leave it at that. The guy runs off and talks with the owner of the store and he comes over and says he'll give it to us for 300€. We're very confused at this point, and we said that our top price was 250€. Keep in mind, Ellis had only had the jacket on for 2 minutes and hadn't even tried on anything else. The man said, "Fine. 250€," and we were just dumbfounded. Ellis said "Maybe, we need to keep looking," and the man threw the suit coat on the table and stormed off. We were now very, very confused; it had all happened so fast. Quickly after that, we said we were sorry and ducked out of the store and headed on our way.

We went back to our hotel and stopped in a wine shop along the way. We bought a Bordeaux to go with the leftovers we had for dinner and then also a bottle of champagne for dessert. It was amazing to us how nice the wine was in Paris and how inexpensive it was if you shopped around a bit. We retired to our room and pulled the chairs in our room out onto the balcony. Our new room was on the 6^th floor of this hotel right on the main drag, Boulevard St Germaine. From our balcony, you could see the spire of Notre Dame and all of the other building that made up the Paris skyline.

We were deciding between having dinner or champagne first, but the champagne was chilled then so we decided to drink that first and watched the sun set from our balcony. Afterward we ate leftovers and had our bottle of wine. Overall it was an amazing day in Paris.

Paris Day 2

On the second day of our stay in Paris we got up fairly early and enjoyed a nice shower. Ellis went out to the bakery to grab some delicious croissants for breakfast. After a tasty breakfast we set off to see more sites but then were quickly distracted by a local street market one block from the hotel. There were fresh fruits and vegetables, coats, bags, jewelry, and CHEESE! Of course we went a little crazy with the cheese. We got brie, and three others that we had no idea what they were called. Alexia also got a necklace made garnets and silver for cheap. We also bought some strawberries and a peach. Ellis tried on a gorgeous leather suit jacket but it was too expensive and a little bit too shiny for Seattle. We bought another bottle of wine at a wine shop (5€) as well.

We took all of our goodies back to the hotel and had lunch of a baguette, the CHEESE, wine, and the strawberries. The CHEESE was AMAZING. All of it! The strawberries were wonderful too; they tasted like candy. The strawberries were different than the ones they sell in the States. These were tiny strawberries, like wild ones, perfectly ripe and bursting with flavor. Best strawberries either of us have ever had.

After having our little foodgasm, we set off for the Eiffel Tower. We had a couple other places we wanted to stop along the way as well, so we set off. We started off walking down Boulevard St Germaine. This is the main road through the Latin Quarter which is where we were staying. This road is lined with all sorts of shops. Everything from super high end clothing shops (more on that in a bit) to tiny little cafes and convenience stores. We were feeling completely underdressed and so we set off to find some new clothes so that we could look more like the locals. It was quite interesting. Everyone there is very well dressed. Most men wear suits, or at least slacks and a shirt. Even delivery truck drivers were wearing shirts and ties and nice pants.

We found a couple cool shops with clothes within our budget, but nothing in there really called out to us. For kicks, we went into one of the high end shops to try stuff on. To give you an example of their stuff, a Hugo Boss suit at 850€ was their budget suit. Alexia was looking at the coats and found a couple nice ones, but they weren't quite right until she found "the one". It was a gorgeous felted cashmere grey coat and it fit perfectly. Only problem was it was 690€ which is was more than out of our price range. You could buy another plane ticket for that kind of money. Alexia just wished she had a million dollars and then we went off on our way.

We window shopped in a few more places and then visited the Hotel des Invalides. It was built in the 1600s as a hotel for the soldiers that were injured in the name of France as well as veterans. Part of it was still being used as this and the rest was a museum of war. We got in for free with our ISIC cards and went through the whole thing. They had an exhibit on armor from the medieval ages on and two elaborate exhibits on WWI and WWII. After that we headed to see Napoleon's tomb, also in the hotel, under the large golden dome. There were several tombs there; some were of people we heard of (Napoleon) and others we hadn't. They were huge granite structures, carefully carved, and set in various large rooms in the domed area. Intricate paintings, carvings, and stained glass decorated the ceilings and walls. On our way out of the Museum we saw the area where they kept the wounded soldiers. It was forbidden for tourists to enter. It was nice to see that this country cared for their wounded and veterans as such. The hotel was very well kept.

After the hotel we set off for the Eiffel Tower. We could see it above the buildings so we knew where to go. We stopped at a sandwich shop along the way to grab a bite to eat since it was almost dinner time. We had a sandwich with composed of a baguette, ham, and butter. It was simple but delicious! After that we stumbled the rest of the way to the Eiffel Tower. By this point we had walked 8 km so far and our feet hurt a lot. The Eiffel Tower was beautiful. It was built in 1889, but had some refurbishments along the way of course. The elevators were essentially original except for the automation. We decided to go all the way to the top.

We got to the top and you could see everything! Miles and miles! And Paris went for miles and miles! We didn't realize just how big Paris really was. We went to all corners and took lots and lots of pictures. Then we had a celebratory toast of champagne, because all though cheesy, we had made it to the top of Paris and had worked really hard to get there. After that we continued site seeing and then realized "Paris is the city of lights!" We had to see the city at night. It was 6:00 then… and sunset was at 8:30. So we camped out on the top of the Eiffel Tower for 3 hours, well maybe more with all the picture taking and the trip down. We watched the sun set and slowly watched the city light up one street lamp at a time. We also saw the Eiffel Tower light up. Once we had seen Paris in all its nightly glory we decided to head down and make the long trek back home. The Eiffel Tower sparkled on our tip down with tiny little strobe lights everywhere. Since it was just after 9 pm we thought it must light up on the hour, but we were too tired and hungry to wait until 10. We snapped some photos of the Tower at night and headed home.

It was very dark on the way home, we were starving, and our feet were killing us, but it was completely worth it. We walked back toward the hotel and found a cool little restaurant about halfway back. This was our first time eating out at a proper restaurant in Paris and we were quite excited. Ellis ordered the beef tartare, which was the first time he'd had it, and Alexia had the veal. The meal was very good, and afterward we made our way back to the hotel and collapsed.

Arriving in Paris

Our plane left Cyprus at 3:55 am so we ended up getting sleep deprived again. The plane leaving Larnaka was not full so we each got a row to ourselves, but sleeping was still difficult. We were both very excited to be starting on the next leg of our journey and the stiff uncomfortable seats and plane noise did not help things either. We got into Vienna at about 6 am and had to catch a connecting flight to Paris leaving at 7 am. Our plane landed early and we made sure we knew where we were going so we got to the gate with time to spare. The flight to Paris was full. Alexia managed to crash out but Ellis only slept for an hour.

The decent into Paris was exciting to say the least. It was very windy so the plane was being tossed around side to side and dropped a few times. The landing was a heart stopper. The plane landed squarely on the back two wheels then got lifted off sideways by a gust and landed again on one wheel followed by the other three. It was jarring and everyone gasped. In spite of the scare, we made it to the gate safely and headed to the airport to figure out how to get into the city.

The French airport was small and easy to get around. We found the train depot and took a shot at the automated machines. They seemed simple enough but we checked with an info booth to make sure we were doing it right and headed in the right direction. We were! The train into Paris from the airport took about 30 minutes. Once we were in Paris we decided to find our hotel. We started with the map that Ellis had saved on his computer. We circled the area the hotel was supposed to be for a while with no luck. Then we looked to the guide book and it said that the hotel was in a slightly different location, so we looked there. Again no luck. We were so tired! We finally asked a French couple for some help. They gladly offered and even walked with us to help us find a better map. They had gotten off work for lunch and as a routine, took walks around the city. They were very nice and extremely helpful. They got us to within a block of the place and then continued on their walk.

Finally, a few hours after arriving in Paris, we found our hotel. We got our room, which was at the top of 6 flights of stairs, and dumped all of our stuff on the bed, changed out of our nasty travelling clothes and took a moment to get our bearings before we set off. The first place we went to was a creperie. Alexia had been craving crepes since half way through our time in Cyprus, but had decided to wait until we hit Paris. We found a cool little one just down the street from our hotel and ordered one savory crepe with ham and cheese and one sweet one with Nutella and bananas. They were very delicious.

After our first taste of French cuisine, we set off to see the famous Cathedral of Notre Dame. It was beautiful. Outside, the architecture and detail was extraordinary and on the inside, the stained glass, large rooms, and organ were breathtaking. The Cathedral was well maintained and still functioned for mass and other forms of worship. We didn't go to the top because we were so tired, but we enjoyed looking at it from the inside and circumnavigating while admiring the outside.

After the cathedral, we headed back toward the hotel and found a small bakery and bought a small lemon meringue pie and a baguette. We also found a small grocery store and bought some cheese and a bottle of wine. We brought this back to our hotel room and ate dinner and drank our wine and just took in this amazing city we'd arrived in. Ellis then crashed on the bed because he hadn't really had a chance to sleep on the plane on the way over, but Alexia wasn't that tired yet, so she decided to go exploring.

Alexia walked around the city and took in some of the sites. The city was amazing. The buildings were all made of stone and looked like they were built many years ago. The river Siene and the several cathedrals were picturesque. The streets were covered with people walking and window shopping. The city was filled with small stores such as bakeries, coffee shops, restaurants, tourist shops, boutiques, and super markets. There was much dedication to art including interesting statues, medieval statues, and many art museums. Alexia got tired and decided to visit Ellis back at the hotel. Ellis, who was going to try and get up at 7:30 that evening was out for the night. So Alexia crawled into bed. The was our first, and very long day in Paris.

Normandy

Hello all,

We are currently in Normandy in this little town named Beauvoir. Our hotel room is actually across the river from the region of Brettony so it's a very interesting area. We've been doing a lot of exploring, and internet is very hard to come by so bear with us! More posts will be coming.

Ellis and Alexia