June 3rd

Woke up to another beautiful day. Love laying in bed and looking out at the valley view and smelling the croissants baking! This is a wonderful place to kick back and relax. We were treated to fresh eggs again this morning! On Liz's suggestion we headed to a nearby town, Villedieu, whose claim to fame is copper production that dates back to the Middle Ages. It was a lovely little town with cobblestones streets and a number of alleys and courtyards to explore. I picked up a couple of small copper pots to bring back home.

Villedieu

After making sure we stopped at a small supermarket to stock up on a bit of food we headed to Le Mont Saint-Michel. UNESCO classed this site as a world heritage in 1979 and it has three million visitors a year. This the 2nd most visited place in France, next to the Eiffel Tower. http://www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/en/accueil.htm. It was certainly a busy place and required lots of climbing but well worth it for the views and history of the place.

Headed back towards La Maugerie and decided to turn off the GPS and just explore some of the back roads and gorgeous French countryside. Had a nice glass of wine at a roadside brasserie and stopped a couple of times to take pictures.

Liz out did herself again with another excellent dinner. Liz and Mark are great hosts and we really enjoyed their company. It we win the lotto will be taking this place off their hands. :) There were other guests staying the night; four young people from the Netherlands so we had an enjoyable evening chatting with them.

Just a pretty village church

Normandy and Landing Beaches

 Yesterday started with an excellent breakfast with eggs laid that morning by the chicken's Liz has in the  garden. :)  We're loving being in the country after 4 weeks of city living.  Opened the curtains when we woke up and looked out over the beautiful countryside with cows mooing in the next field and sheep baaing.   This home is so beautiful and the views even more so.



Fresh Eggs for Breakfast!



We started off about 9:30 for our D-Day tour.  First stop was a Canadian cemetery in Cintheaux.   2,978 Canadian soliders buried here.    Very moving to see so many young men buried in one place and with the dates of their passing all within weeks of each other.  The care and upkeep of the cemetery is amazing.  After drying a few tears we headed to the landing beaches starting with Sword Beach where the British landed.  We stopped a number of times to take in the views and the memorials.  In each village/town along the route there were numerous memorials each flying the Canadian, British, American and French flags.  Next major stop was Juno Beach, the main landing point of the Canadian troops.  We spend a couple of hours were and took our time at the Juno Center.  Very interesting and really helped us understand what this men faced when they landed in France the morning of June 6th, 1944.  From Juno we visited a 2nd Canadian cemetery, Benny-Sur-Mer-Reviers.  Here lie 2,049 Canadians.  The cemetary is laid out much the same as the one In Cintheaux with the same care and standard of upkeep.  Amazing how many people have laid wreaths, flowers, personal notes, pictures and flags at various headstones. 

We also visited Omha Beach where the US landed and walked around Grandcamp-Maisy where the US Rangers scaled the cliffs.  You can see all the mine craters, old bunkers etc.  While we were there they were setting up stages and tents for the June 6th remberance services.



Cemetarey



Sword Beach

One of the landing beaches

Grandcamp-Maisy

Juno Beach

After a full and rather emotional day we came back to our B&B, La Maugerie, where Liz had outdone herself with another excellent 3 course mean which included Beef Bourguignon with Lemon Posset for dessert!  (I'm bringing home Liz's cookbook so I'll get to share some of these recipes!)

We needed to take a bit of a walk after dinner to digest after eating far too much!  Country lanes are so great and again the views just blow us away!

Evening Walk



Normandy, France



Courtyard of our 17th Century hotel in Rouen

Restaurant were we finally had a good French meal!

Cathedrale Notre-Dame in Rouen

Rouen is where Joan of Arc was imprisoned and burnt at the stake

Mon Dieu!  We headed out for dinner last night about 6:30 only to find the places we'd seen during the afternoon now closed or only serving drinks and snacks!  We soon realized there were other restuarants that opened at 7pm for dinner and went on to have an awesome four course dinner.  Could barely walk back to the hotel we were so full.  Scallops for starter, main course (steak for me, fish for Denis) then 5 different types of cheese with bread and a creme bruille for dessert!  And of course some lovely French wine to wash it all down.

Breakfast this morning was the usual coffee and croissant.  (Mum - Denis will be after a good fry up when we're home!)

Train to Caen was uneventful although for some reason almost 30 minutes late even though we left on time??  Picked up the rental car and after playing with the GPS for a bit we were on the way to our B&B, La Maugerie, in St Vigor Des Monts.  It's a beautiful 300 year old farm house with stunning view of the countryside.  Our hosts, Liz and Mark are from New Castle and moved here to France about 4 years ago.  Super nice people!  We went for a long walk through the winding roads and had a beer at the local bar.  Funny enough we met another English couple there who retired to France after having their home broken into  for the 3rd time!  Baraba and Tom (like in The Good Life, an English TV Show)

Liz cooked us an excellent meal which we are now trying to digest. :)  Tomorrow we're off to the landing beaches.  Denis is studying the map right now and planning our route!

Having problems uploaded pictures again today...will try again tomorrow.

Walking the Normandy countryside



View from B&B bedroom window

Not so friendly France

Our last night at the Baden Blues Festival was really good.  Our buddy from breakfast, Ernest 'Guitar' Roy was very entertaining.  Duke Robillard was also good although not so much party music as the previous night.  Just as well because we had an early start on Sunday morning.  We thanked Suzanne and her husband Robert profusely and bought ourselves T-shirts.  

Denis is making me mention that he found out part way through Saturday evening that Man U lost to Barcelona, 3-1,  which certainly did not make him a happy man.

Train to Paris was longer than scheduled.  Apparently French trains are not on par with the rest of Europe.  Train stopped twice due to technical difficulies...one being no air conditioning but they did hand out water. :)  We were scheduled to arrive in Paris at 1:30 and arrived about 2:00.  Took taxi from one train station to another to make the connection to Rouen.  That part went smoothly although the French were already laughing at Denis' french at the train station.  

Met a nice older couple on train to Rouen.  He had been a merchant marine in the '70's, travelling across the Atlantic and up the St. Lawerence.  He was familar with Montreal, Quebec and had even been to Thunder Bay.  Although by reputation, French people aren't know to be friendly, we've had some luck.  We asked a young girl for directions to our hotel;  turns out she lived close by and walked us there!  Front desk at the hotel and people in 'restuarants' last night did live up to the reputation! We had a really hard time getting something to eat.  Apparently most stores and restaurants are closed on Sundays!  We sat at one Bistro and although we could get beer and wine, food was not available.  Another place could only serve us ice cream as it was close to closing!  Our first night in France we ended up eating in McDonalds!  Needless to say, I went to bed hungry and grumpy!

Today didn't start out promsing on the food front either.  Now we know how the French stay thin!  Coffee and cigarettes seems to be the breakfast of choice with the odd croissant thrown in.  Denis had a sandwich and I settled for expresso and croissant which are pretty amazing.  Rouen is a pretty place with a lot of history and we did some good sightseeing.  The hotel we're staying is in a very old building, built in the 17th century!  Really neat place and Denis has taken some good pictures which we'll post later.  (internet connection not that great here)

Light rain started about 2pm so Denis headed back to the hotel, and me, I went shopping!  Yes, again. :)

We're writing this from the lounge/dinning area of the hotel, enjoying some nice French wine, which we purchased today for $6...... 2009 Chateau Monestier La Tour! before leaving for dinner.  We saw a place on our travels today that serves food!

A demain, mes amis!

Baden, Switzerland

Yesterday was the first day of real rain since we left England which isn't so bad on a travel day.  More awesome scenery out the window although with it being overcast you often couldn't see the tops of the mountains.  Very easy and quick transfer from Zurich to Baden and by the time we arrived the rain had stopped.

Baden is not very big place and the hotel was a short walk from the train station.  We're here to take in the Blues Festival Baden and were lucky to run into one of the organizers, Thomas,  at the hotel.  He told us where to find Suzanne, who Denis has been corresponding with prior to us leaving Canada.  She had made our hotel arrangements for us and we're staying at the hotel that the musicians are staying at.  Thomas told us how to get the venue and that Suzanne was there for the sound check.  Another 5 minute walk, found Suzanne who was excited to meet us and have people from Canada come to their festival.  She let us know that they were providing us with VIP passes for both Friday and Saturday nights at no charge!  They are worth more than $300 and include all our drinks and some really nice finger food and balcony view of the stage.  Denis had bought her some Ottawa Blues Society trinkets as gifts and we thought maybe we'd get a T-shirt out of them, never expected free VIP tickets.

We were even more appreciative when we realized how expensive Switzerland is.  Crazy!  We went to get some lunch after checking in to the hotel and ended up at Burger King where 2 Whopper meal cost us about $30!!  Today Denis had $20 spaghetti lunch and I had $12 soup. :)  Good thing we're only here for 2 nights.

Last night we saw Whitey Johnson and Delbert McClinton, both excellent.  And we saw them at breakfast as well. :)  Along with one of the performers who is playing tonight!  Very nice guy; he and his wife are from Mississippi.  It's the most English we've heard in weeks!  And I use english loosely with the guy from Mississippi...he was as hard to understand as some of the Germans.

Oh yeah, when Suzanne kicked off the concert last night, of course it was all in German,  but she did give the Denis and the Ottawa Blues Sociey a call out which was really nice.

Today the sun was shining again but cooler, about 20.  We checked out the local market and bought some goodies to eat on the train tomorrow.  Baden is a pretty town and we did a nice long walk following the river.  After lunch we went to the Thermal Baths.  Baden has the richest mineral thermal water in Switzerland and they had pools both inside and outside.  Very relaxing afternoon and a good way to recover from the miles we've walked recently.   www.thermalbaden.ch

We're seeing |Duke Robbillard tonight (as well as our Mississippi buddy from breakfast who's name escapes me right now) from the VIP balcony. :)  Fairly early start tomorrow, passing through Paris on the way to Rouen.  (Normandy Region)

Baden Market

Thursday Innsbruck

What an beautiful place Innsbruck is.  We have sore necks from looking up all the time!  The mountains completely surround this small city.  We checked out the old town which isn't really very big then headed to the funnicular to go up the mountain.  Denis only went as far as the first plateau which is about 2600 feet above sea level before the height got to him.  There was no way he way going the rest of the way in a cable car.  You could see the colour drain from his face just going to the first plateau!  Denis insisted I go the rest of the way, up to 6000 feet in the cable car and I was really glad I did.  I've never seen anything like it; simply took my breath away.  Almost literally because it was a good deal colder up there and since it was 28 degrees in Innsbruck that day, I wasn't dressed for mountain air.  I took a bunch of pictures and came down to the 1st plateau to find Denis enjoying the sun and the great Austrian beer.  After a couple of beer the ride back down went much smoother for him. :)

Back safely on the ground, we wandered the Imperial Gardens, checked out the Golden Palace and had a good Schnitzel for lunch and yes, more beer!  Austria isn't much different than the other countries we've visited in that beer is still the cheapest thing on the menu.

For a change our train isn't at the crack of dawn...left Innsbruck at 10:00am to go to Baden, Switzerland.



View from town



Every time you turn a corner, there are the mountains!

View from 1st Plateau

1st Plateau, 2600 feet

Just over 6000 feet, can you imagine skiing this!?

I wasn't sure I could relax sitting at these tables...not much of a wall!

See the trails?  People hike and bike these both up and down!

Avalanche barriers

Here's where Denis waited for me safe and sound



Funnicular to 1st Plateau



It's Wednesday so this must be Innsbruck

Our outing to the Jazz Dock to see a 'blues' band on our last night in Prague was a bit of a bust!  The American guitar player really wasn't very good and therefore most of the music was carryed by the keyboard player.  No vocals, no tune, just a lot of noise and certainly not the blues.  The crowd there seemed to be enjoying them so we're guessing they don't get a lot of good blues music in Prague.  Either that or they were really drunk!

Our 'direct' train journey from Prague to Linz, (where we were transferring to Innsbruck) held a bit of a surprise.  The women that checked our ticket had to explain to us in broken English that we actually had to get off the train at one point, get on a bus to another town and then get back on a train to finish the trip.  A bit of confusion trying to understand her directions but in the end it worked out okay.  From what I could see on the first part of the train trip they were doing a lot of work on the tracks so I think that was the cause of the detour.  There was a Chinese/American couple on the same coach as us who were just as confused so we stuck together!  Czech Republic is still rebuilding and I think this kind of thing is commonplace.  Their trains were vastly different than other European trains.

Once back on the train and headed to Austria we couldn't stop looking out the windows.  No reading on this leg of the trip.  The countryside was so, well, Austrian!  Just like you see in pictures or in the movies and when we got on the very efficient, modern Austrian train from Linz to Innsbruck I think our mouths were hanging open.  Never again will I think of Mont Tremblant as mountains!  The views were incredible and I don't think my pictures will do it justice. 

We didn't arrive until 4pm.  I've posted a pic of the view from our hotel room and will post more when we get up the mountain tomorrow.

Weather is still hot and sunny even here!  I had to go buy some shorts.

View from hotel room

View from Park across the street from hotel.