Les Trois Mousquetaires go to France, Italy and maybe a few other places #8

Day 6: Wednesday, June 7 – Afternoon
As we drive through Normandy, I can’t believe how profoundly rural France is, and Normandy in particular. Lots of wheat fields for all these wonderful pains, pâtisseries and crêpes the girls have already fallen in love with and from which I am desperately trying to stay away, not always successfully!

Small pastures with cows and beef cattle, although I am surprised (and will remain surprised throughout my trip in France) at how few cows there are in the fields. I do not see any feedlots, just small fields with a few dozens cows (if that many) happily grazing on wonderfully green grass (it rains a lot around here). Considering the damage I, alone, am causing to the cheese supply of the country, where are the cows? Where are the goats – Tiffany and I have discovered chèvre chaud, delicious rounds of chèvre cheese on toasts, with herbs and olive oil – and we are depleting that supply, too?! But, more on France’s economy and agriculture later…

We arrive at Falaise, about half an hour South of Caen early in the evening, check in the local Ibis and quickly go the downtown area, just 4 minutes away. Falaise is quite a place actually! William the Conqueror’s birthplace to be more exact. The Château Guillaume-Le-Conquérant dominates the adorable little town. It was extensively restored in the last 20 years and the medieval castle looks very impressive. I will later learn from my friend Jean Patier from Angers that Falaise was very heavily bombed during WWII. He remembers visiting as a child and having to climb over rubble everywhere, but a lot of the castle survived, somehow. The little town was rebuilt pretty much the way it was before the war. It is too late to visit (it closes at 6:30pm during spring/summer) but we do get to walk all around it. The towers, in particular, were recently restored according to a manager at the hotel and the result is magnificent. It goes on my list of places to go back to. Check out the château on the website.

We are hungry and find this little hôtel-restaurant (where we would have loved to stay), Hôtel de Normandie (4, rue Amiral-Courbet) where we have a truly delicious meal. I start my new régime of seafood, moules marinière (mussels in white wine, with parsley and garlic) to start and loup grillé (a local fish), and the girls eat steak and some of the best potatoes they have ever had. In fact, Kimberley asks for seconds – but they are just simple roasted potatoes, says the cook! Right! 210 francs ($30) is all it costs us, it will turn out to be one of our best (and cheapest) meal.

Another tour of the little town after dinner (it doesn’t get dark until almost 11pm at that latitude and time of year), and it is time to turn in and get ready for the beginning of my WWII odyssey tomorrow. As to the girls, they have only one thing on their minds: a beach. After Caen tomorrow, I promise them a dip in the Atlantic…

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