On our way by train from Frankfurt to Grindelwald, Switzerland

WTRD 12 - posted new blog last night - Last days in Normandy.  https://worrallwind. blogspot. com

Ten Days - France, Camembert and Montormel, 8-10 of 10, WTRD's 9-11

And we fly out of France to Germany

Day 8, Goodby St Michel - On our way back to Paris Via Camembert, Montormel and Bouffemont.











We really loved our stay in St. Michel  with our hosts Patricia and Michel.  Their B and B was modern, comfortable, and Patricia served us a wonderful breakfast with eggs directly from the hens each morning.  They were super hosts!

Michel and Patricia

We left around 9:30 and headed to Camembert, home of Camembert cheese.  We stopped for a picnic lunch along the way and arrived Camembert via narrow country roads that wove through the hills and valleys of Normandy arriving around 2:00 pm.

We immediately visited the Camembert Museum and Visitor center where we learned the history of the cheese and of course had a chance to do a tasting
We liked the raw milk cheeses the best, and bought two rounds.  They have great flavor but smell awful.  I will be glad when we have eaten them.  Now we know where the saying, "who cut the cheese" comes from....exactly!


Our accommodations were across the small valley in a rustic farm cottage.   We stopped at a market to buy a few items for dinner to go with the cheese.  We stayed in the la petite The barn is used for families.   No one was in the converted barn so we had the property and the shared bathing toilet area all to ourselves. 

Cottage bottom left, Barn behind, main house middle, bakery and still house (Calvado) to the right.

Shared Bathroom Downstairs, Barn on Top

Cottage to the Left - Shared Bathroom to the Right

Peak into the cottage

After meeting our host, Eric, and taking a tour of his property, and the renovations he has undertaken to turn the classic Normandy property into a guest accommodations,

Large Still barrels made into hanging beds.

il

The barn sitting room and kitchen

we set out our dinner  and enjoyed a bowl of soup, bread, cheese, fresh, fruit, and a bottle of wine.  It was a perfect Normandy country dinner. 

We took hot showers and crawled under the blankets for a cozy night's sleep.

Day 9 - Back to Bouffemont

We awoke to bird song and a misty morning that evaporated into a clear blue sky. 

Our breakfast consisted of more cheese, more bread, yogurt, fruit and coffee.  AND we still have a block of cheese that is quite unpleasantly fragrant no matter how well we wrap it.  We may ditch it before we eat it as I've had enough cheese already! 

Eric encouraged us to visit the Montormel memorial about 10 kilometers from Camembert where the last battle of Normandy was fought.

Within two and half months of after the normandy invasion, British, Canadian, American, and Polish solders were able to to surround the Germans in the valley below Montormel, and  clear Normandy of 100,000 German soldiers in a bloody battle.  Fifty percent of the German Troops were able to escape and retreat, 10,000 were killed, and 40,000 were taken as prisoners of war.  It was a victory that liberated Normandy, but at a terrible cost to the Polish soldiers,  as they were the stop gap unit that the Germans tried to force their way through.

When looking over the verdant countryside where the only sounds are those of the birds and the wind snappy the flags of allied forces, it seems impossible that such  violence, destruction, and blood covered these peaceful hills and valleys in 1944.

 This is a grim reminder of why history must not repeat itself.

After our stop in Montormel, we headed back to Bouffemont

where we returned to our first AirBnB.  It almost felt like coming home.  Alan opened up for us, and again we found more food and wine than we could possibly eat and drink in one night.  We spent the balance of the afternoon rearranging our bags once again for our flight on Air France from Paris to Frankfurt  tomorrow morning.  Glad we are not staying another week as Air France is scheduled to go on strike.  We chose to fly out of France because the trains are currently on strike.

Day 10 - Au Revoir France, Guten Tag Deutschland

Our ten days in Normandy has been one of history, remembrance, and delightful French people and gorgeous countryside, but alas we must bid good bye.  We arrived in Frankfurt via Air France about 2:00 pm this afternoon, collected our bags, took the S-bahn to the Frankfurt bahnhoff

and checked into our hotel across the street by 4:00 pm.  After rearranging our bags once again and jailing the cheese in the refrigerator, we took a walk around the old city of Frankfurt and along the Main River,

Dancers from Cashmire

and the old part of town where we spent a great summer evening enjoying a Parade der Kulturen of dancers in the town square and later  at a sidewalk cafe called Liebe & Seele "heart and soul" eating wiener schnitzel and drinking beer.  Frankfurt, while still German, has become a melting pot of ethnic cultures, now rich with diversity.

We leave tomorrow morning on the train to Interlaken, Switzerland, and then to Grindelwald for some hiking and soaking in the alpine beauty.  Our original plan A was to volunteer at Diverbo the Immersion school just outside of Frankfurt.  We were on the waiting list and had made reservations thinking we might have a chance, but that hope grew thin within two weeks of leaving the states so we switched to Plan B....a week in Switzerland.  Our train leaves at 8:55 tomorrow morning.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Frankfurt, Germany returning here after 48 years ago  when Russ was serving in the military.

Ten Days - France, Mont St Michel, Worrall Traveler Days (WTRD 6-7), France Day 5-6 of 10

Good Bye Nonante - Off to Mont St Michel with a stop in Bayeux. 

We leave our farmhouse accommodation and our new friend Chantel today after breakfast.  Our first stop is Bayeux to visit what known as a historical tapestry.  In reality the tapestry is really an embroidery of the tale from William the Conquerer's point of view how he became the King of England.

The story is embroidered on  a piece of linen that is nearly 70 meters long and 50 centimeters wide.  Since most of the population was illiterate, the saga was retold in embroidered drawings of how the Duke of Normandy became the King of England. The full story can be found here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry.  It is an intriguing story.

Shortly before noon we headed towards Mont Saint Michel and our new lodgings at a Bed and Breakfast which was a two hour drive away in a small farm village, but close to Mount Saint Michel. It has been another misty day, and as we approach the island is shrouded in a veil of fog.

Our hosts are from Martinique and our new accommodations have a Caribbean feel about them.

We spent a leisurely afternoon catching up on mail and news from home. And then walked a few blocks in to town

Curried Salmon

Lamb Pot

for dinner and to watch the sun set near Mount St. Michel.

Dinner was excellent.  The sunset was beautiful, and somewhere from the AirBnB to the Restaurant, I lost my glasses.  They are not in our room, my person, our car. I had them on prior to leaving for our walk to town.  I think I wore them out the door, took them off somewhere along the way to see better lighting through the camera lens (they darken in the sun), but I usually stick them in my pocket.  Well, not in my pocket, not in our room, not found in the restaurant.  We have retraced steps three times.  It's a mystery!  I should love a mystery....but not this one.  I have a spare pair, but these were my best Rx.  Oh well.

Mont St. Michel, June 13, 2018 - Happy Birthday Abby!

Today is our daughter's birthday.  Happy Birthday Ab.  We miss you.
We are treated to a wonderful breakfast of eggs from chicken nest to frying pan, waffles, flan, yogurt,  fruit, fresh bread, butter and jam, and coffee.

Fortified we decide to walk from our accommodation to the top of the Abbey.  We leave the car and do not drive to the parking lot.  We do not take the free shuttle across the causeway.  We walk and enjoy the bird songs, the fresh morning air and most of all the sun which we see for the first time in several days. 

The tide has gone out and the abbey and cathedral fortress built on an island rock is now surrounded by mud and sand flats....some of it quick sand.  Tourists are advised that if they walk to the abbey not using the causeway to go with a guide who is equipped with ropes in case one starts to sink. 

Depicted in the tapestry we saw yesterday morning, the horses and soldiers from England who  tried to capture the Abbey discovered the hard way that no tide, did not mean an easy ride across the mud flat moat.   Several horses and men stumbled, sank, and died while in battle on these flats. Today, rescue teams standby with a tractor.  We actually saw a maintenance vehicle being pulled from the mud.  School groups and tourist love to go out on the flats and wiggle their toes in the mud.... but not us.

The Abbey was started in 708 AD.  It was added on and modified mostly between the 1000's and 1400's.  Because of it's location, rocky base, and difficult accessibility slowed trial and error construction.  The same characteristics that hindered construction also allowed the structure and its occupants the ability to withstand every attack during the 100 year war.  St. Michel is the patron saint of war...quite fitting.  Modern day soldiers watched over the Abbey.

Bells rang calling worshipers inside for mass.   

We attended the mid-day mass. Flute music and the beautiful voices of the nuns echoed through the church.  We wandered through the different rooms of the Abbey with an English headset.  Enjoy the photos.

The Cloister

The Refrectory

Guest Hall

Another Great Hall Intended for Knights to Meet....but they never did.

One of the most interesting aspects of the monastery was how they brought supplies up the many floors.  From the outside, visitors can see a steep ramp with a heavy rope.  Supplies were loaded on to a sled and pulled up the incline on the outside of the monastery.  A mammoth "hamster wheel" was built that held eight walking men trudging up the sides of the wheel to raise the supply load up the ramp.  Very ingenious.

As the crowds grew heavy,

we ducked into the White Sheep terrace restaurant for a late lunch around 3:30.  I had smoked salmon with cream fresh and chive crepe, and Russ had a rack of lamb.  We felt no guilt with all of the walking and stair climbing we did.  When we returned back at our AirBnB, the Fit bit said we had traveled 16,767 steps, 7.36 miles, expended, 2,407 calories, and had gone up or down 36 flights of stairs.

We leave tomorrow for Camembert for one night and some cheese, then back to Bouffemont, and Paris on Friday.  We are then off to Frankfurt where we will catch a train to Switzerland on Sunday for a week of hiking in the Alps.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's, Ardevon, France.