Day 5: Normandy
We got up at 8 something and found that Dave and Pat had already finished their showers and had coffee and oatmeal started. This early start and hot meal was a welcome change from the previous morning. Before leaving town we stopped for breads, fruit, and vegetables at a couple small shops. After taking a few pictures we headed for the freeway which eventually became one of the common toll roads in France. Just after the toll booth we stopped for a bathroom break where I was stunned to find a porcelain hole in the floor. After doing my business I was equally stunned to find that it flushed itself as I walked away. I needed to get a picture of this piece of French sophistication. At the Omaha Beach museum we spent an hour touring the excellent and stirring facility. We then went down to the beach where there was a memorial and had lunch in the camper. Then we were off to the American cemetery at Coleville. We solemnly strolled down long rows of gravestones for an hour before heading out for St. Michel. But Dave said he was wiped out from nights of bad sleep and Mary and I talked about what that would mean as we continued down the road. We had already lost one day between the Antwerp splitup and the previous late morning and we wanted to keep the schedule we had planned for the trip. So I concocted a plan to meet them in Paris at 3pm the next day and to convince them to finish a less aggressive route while we continued on. When we stopped for gas the weather turned sour so we skipped St. Michel in favor of finding a campground for Dave and Pat. By the time we had that done it was 6pm and still a long way to Paris. The toll road helped some but we ended up settling on Chartres, which I remembered has the cool cathedral with the unmatched spires. We found an Ibis and ended up making a reservation for the next night in Paris when I was finally able to get on the internet for the first time on the trip. My hip had tightened up in the cold damp weather and every time I got out of the car I hurt big time. A hot bath helped some but it was a bad night and I was concerned about being able to walk in Paris.
Day 6: Paris
We got up a little late and walked down to the pharmacy to get some heat gel. The walk helped a little and so did a liberal layer of the gel. The car wouldn't start and I had to put a new hard start fuse in due to overloading the system with constant wipers and lights the previous night. The trip to the Paris Ibis was straight forward and walking to the train station was real good medicine. Figuring out the train specifics was a challenge. First there was the route, then there were the tickets to buy, then there wa figuring which platform to go to, then there was navigating the multi-story maze at the station where we transferred trains. By the time we got off we had the knack of it but we were 10 minutes late for our planned meeting with Dave and Pat. They didn't show and we later found that they ended up having a pleasurable trip to Austria before meeting up with us again later in the trip. We spent a little time around the Arch de Triumph and then took another train over to the Eifal Tower. After taking a bunch of pictures we decided that the line was too long and got on a double decker open top tour bus instead. That took us past some beautiful places I had not seen before. After that we found a nice corner cafe and had a long relaxing dinner while watching the city switch from work to play time. A group of tourists on bicycles went by and awhile later were followed by another group all on a sort of electric chariot call a Segway. Our dinner spot was purposely chosen for the convenient train station that quickly brought us back to the hotel for a great night sleep.
Day 7: The French countryside
After breakfast at the hotel we made good time going south and picked up the rest of our lunch fixings when we stopped for gas. Switching back to 98 RON gas seems to also be helping the gas mileage. We ate at a rest stop and I walked around the circle several times to work out the kinks in my hip. Mary drove for awhile after lunch and I think she enjoyed it, at times getting up to 90mph. The mountains of central France are beautiful and were unexpected to this geography buff who went through life not knowing they exist here. Some time after I took over driving I saw a sign for Mende and decided on a detour. Mende promised, in the road sign, a really old bridge with a sort of upside down V shape. We saw a bridge like that on the way up the canyon but none in Mende. What we did see wa a very old church which we circled back to to get a shot of with the car. On the way back to the freeway we turned off at the strange bridge, which also advertised a medieval village. We drove up the hill to a fork in the road where we encountered a sign that I guessed meant that cars weren't allowed. After getting out to walk the rest of the way we saw a car go up the other fork so I decided to follow. At the top was another of those forbidden signs but I decided to play ignorant and drove down into the village. I'm glad I did. By the time we got back to the freeway it was getting on towards dinner time so after a few miles we dropped down into Millau rather than take the spectacular bridge that had recently been completed to span the whole valley. Its a spectacular sight from below. Dinner took much longer than anticipated so we stopped at a motel on the far side of town.
