Brittany and Winkels

I'm a few days behind...ever since my parents rolled into town last week I've been on the go.

Last Thursday I met them at the airport and with a little creative packing managed to cram all of their luggage into the C2. We came back to the apartment and unpacked all of the treats they brought us from the States; wheat thins, Girl Scout cookies, carrot cake, brown sugar, bbq sauce, and enough peanut butter to last us until we have kids who are old enough to eat peanut butter (and no, that's not any time soon). Then they took showers and repacked smaller bags while I stashed the loot and left dinner notes for Dave.

We left town around 4:00 and made it to our cottage in Saint-Benoit-des-Ondes by 8:00. Saint-Benoit-des-Ondes is a tiny village in Brittany, on the northwestern coast France. I chose the location due to its availability and proximity to Mont Saint Michel.

Saint-Benoit-des-Ondes is too small to be seen on this map, but this is the region we were in.

The cottage was small and musty and gave my mom and me allergic fits, but it was roomy and the beds were comfortable and we didn't spend much time there anyway.


Friday morning we drove half an hour to the infamous Mont Saint Michel, which is a beautiful island just off the coast, topped with an enormous abbey. It's quite an impressive sight. We walked through the streets of the island, past dozens of souvenir shops and resturants, and toured the abbey.



One of Mont Saint Michel's most interesting points is the tide, which rises and falls with the lunar calendar. Years ago, pilgrims used to walk from the mainland when the tides were low, which turned out to be quite treacherous due to quicksand and the potential to get swept away by the returning tide. Now there is a causeway, which explains how we drove to an island.

I was pretty excited to see the tides roll in, but all around the island it was nothing but gray muck. I asked a girl in a shop what time we could expect to see the water come in and she said "next Wednesday". Bummer.

Anyway, it was still a nice trip and the tides will give me a good excuse to revisit with Dave.

After visiting the island, we consulted a few books, maps, and the Tom Tom before deciding to drive to Cancale, another town on the coast. The weather was a little chilly and we hadn't quite packed for chilly, so we did a small walk along the bay and retreated back to the cottage for dinner.

On Saturday, based on another recommendation from my travel book, we visited Saint Malo. St. Malo used to be a fortified island, and the entire city is surrounded by a big wall. We parked the car and walked up on the wall for a while, then wandered through the city shopping and visiting the local cathedral. My mom and I both had Nutella crêpes, which I was happy to see were half the price of crêpes in Paris.

After that Dinan, a small midieval town with half-timbered houses and more shops. Then back to Cancale for dinner. Apparently the oysters in Cancale have been "prized since Roman times", and we figured we shouldn't deny my mom the opportunity to try them (my dad and I aren't oyster fans, although after reading A Moveable Feast I'm considering another try).

So my mom had oysters as an appetizer, then a seafood platter of shrimp, snails, clams, and more oysters, all arranged in a dance of seafood on a bed of seaweed. It was wild. I stuck with the old standby of mussels, and my dad, who is not a seafood fan, ordered "sausage with fries". When we ordered for him, the waitress waved her hands and said "No no! It's for children! Very small!" but we reassured her that he wasn't that hungry. In fact, "sausage" turned out to be 4 boiled hot dogs, and there were more than enough fries for an adult. I imagine it wasn't his ideal meal, but on a coastal town, that's about as non-seafoody as one can hope for, and he seemed quite content.

Sunday morning we woke up early and drove back to Levallois-Perret. We quickly unloaded the car and walked out to the market for some food for the week. I had been looking forward to taking my parents to our local market, and I don't think they were disappointed.

For dinner, we met my friend Adam and his parents, who coincidentally were in London at the same time to visit him. They managed to find a good rate to hop over to Paris, and I was so happy to see them during their short 25 hour stay. Unfortunatly, Saturday night brought the first rain we've seen in weeks, so the evening started a bit damp. We ate in a cramped little French restaurant in the Latin Quarter with a very overworked waitstaff. It would have been annoying if the company wasn't so pleasant.

With all the cheese in France, cheddar is impossible to find ("it's not French" my colleagues would say), so I asked Adam to bring me a bit from England. I'm foreseeing the need for comfort food macaroni and cheese one of these days. Not only did he bring me 3 kinds of English cheddar (I never knew it could be so exotic), he also brought a piece of art that Dave and I admired at his apartment (ok, techinically we've never been to Adam's apartment in London, but he did describe the piece and we knew we'd love it). It was even better than we imagined, and if you want to know what all the fuss is about you'll just have to visit. Possibly the greatest gift ever.

This morning we met the Winkels in front of the Notre Dame for a half day of whirlwind touring. I had thought 10 a.m. on Monday would be slow at the Notre Dame, but I was very mistaken. After the cathedral we took a walk through Saint Michel, then the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We were lucky because weather.com said it was going to rain all day and the weather was quite the opposite. It was nice and sunny and the temperature was perfect.

Next we took a bateau-mouche tour, which was quite fun and afforded a quick view of some of the best sites of Paris. Although we chose seats on the left side of the boat and missed a few things "on your right....", but I think we saw most of it on the way back.

The Winkels had to leave for their flight, so we parted at the foot of the Eiffel tower. I trust Adam got them back to the airport smoothly--he is a frequent visitor to Paris now. :)

My parents and I walked up to Trocadero for another view of the tower, then after some wandering found a metro station to take us to the Champs-Elysées. We did a bit of shopping--more looking than shopping, really--and visited the Arc de Triomphe.

By then we were pretty wiped out and came back to the apartment for dinner. My parents helped me make ravioli, which wasn't as good as Marion's, but edible.

Tomorrow we're out for another day of touring. I'll try to post tomorrow night if I'm not passed out on the futon. Bises!