On Wednesday, we set out for Normandy eager to eat oysters and camembert, watch the waves crash against the Northern French coast and walk along the D-day beaches to remind ourselves of how proud we are to be Americans (the Mr. even had little jars to collect sand, how patriotic/sweet is that!?) The trip started off great - we hopped on an early morning train to Rouen (the city where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake... {and home to the best faience shops in France}) where we had a Hertz rental car reserved to begin the road trip. A metro ride and half mile walk (in the rain, dragging suitcases) later, we found our way to the Hertz dealership (and by dealership, I mean side counter in a sketchy gas station in the middle of no where). Using our fluent French (and when I say fluent, I mean barely conversational) and our printed Kayak.com reservation, we are given the keys to a car.... a manual car. I'm sure you see where this story is going, and first of all - yeah, ok, I guess it is embarrassing that neither of us can drive a stick. BUT we are quite aware that most cars in Europe are manual and usually it just means an extra few bucks for an automatic. Knowing this, we made sure to reserve an automatic car. And, you guessed it! Our automatic car rental was not available at the sketchy Hertz in Rouen. Or any car rental company in Rouen. Or any car rental company in the ENTIRE REGION OF NORMANDY. Moral of the story? C'est la France, of course. And if you plan on living and/or spending time in this beautifully inefficient country, learn to drive a stick.
SO, long story long - we are back in Paris. We had a nice lunch in Rouen, saw all the Joan of Arc sights, scoped out some faience and hopped on an afternoon train back to where we begin. We're going for round two on Saturday.... hopefully this time it will go a little something like this....
Beaches.
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Image via Pinterest
Harry Potter-esque cliffs.
Cute coastal towns. |
Cheese.
And a Mont St. Michel finale. Wish us luck!
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