Balladins Confort Hotel Rouen Val De Reuil

... 16 charges were made between 4:00 pm and around midnight when it was finally too dark to see anything. Some charges made it all the way to the English lines where fierce hand-to-hand fighting took place. King Edward's son, 16 year-old Edward, called the Black Prince, commanded the English center and won his spurs that day. Edward was in danger several times, but his father wanted him to distinguish himself and declined to send reinforcements.

I stood near the point ...

... kitty sniffing around and Chris gave it a little bowl of milk. I guess it liked the milk since the next day there were paw prints going up our windshield and then a butt print of it sliding down again. I guess it was looking for a way in. We haven't found a cat in the van yet so I guess there was none!

Well it was back to Paris the next day with one last stop off in Versailles. There is always something else to see!

... a lovely (and cheap) bottle of the local cider.

We didn't venture out into Rouen deciding to leave it for the morning.

When we did we saw where Joan of arc was burnt at the stake, and the tower where she was locked pending her trial.

The old town was full of tudor style buildings, but the highlight was the ancient one handed town clock.

... your place on the fast trains; secondly because the machines won't accept my cards so I can't avoid trying to communicate with the staff; and thirdly it is hard to understand French (more so than German) when they announce the platforms and because they don't have information to show what the next town is. I have been lucky enough to choose popular or end stations, and on direct trains (which is lovely), so I haven't needed to worry about missing my platform.

We flew into Paris Beauvis Airport and took a shuttle bus the rest of the way into the city. Onto the metro to connect with the main line trains. The metro is awesome and very easy to use. It would be totally idiot proof if I spoke a bit more French and had a better idea as to how the city is layed out, but we will save that for a later post.

I will not be using any contactions in this post because I am typing on a French keyboard and can not seem to find ...

... nearly every bite of it. We also were given wine and coffee and of course dessert! My dessert is a little hard to explain, it was kind of like a mousse/ice cream with nuts and a raspberry sauce drizzled around...so good. After lunch we toured the gardens and the studio of the 'hotel'.

Before departing we met up with a woman who works for the museum and gardens in Giverny who invited us on a guided tour of some of the other private gardens of the institution that takes care ...

... we drive down to Giverny in Normandy! It was about an hours drive through the countryside! I do love seeing cows! We decided to visit Claude Monets famous gardens! If you dont know him, he is a pretty well known artist who painted beautiful landscapes of his huge gardens and the countryside! The first nice thing of the day was that parking was free!! The gardens were beyond amazing. So many types of flowers and plants. It was another sunny day so ...

... at 10 AM on a Sunday going to church. I guess you're wrong. If anyone wants the story of how/why I ended up having to physically defend myself, I'll tell you in person. It's rather humourous now ;) and I am proud of girl power! After that debacle, I headed over to the famous Wall of Love to take a look. It is a wall that has "I love you" written in every known language and you are invited to write it in your language if you ...

... This was where the Germans housed their big cannons to fight off naval ships and aircrafts. This is also where most of their bunkers were. This large grassy cliff top used to be completely flat with cement bunkers sticking out of the earth every so often. Now it is pot-marked with craters created by air raids and the war ships. It was crazy to see chunks of cement, barbed wire, and metal strewn about the crater filled area. It was as if time stood still and we ...

... re supposed to walk with a guide, but luckily we had no near-death encounters. The sun was setting and it was very beautiful, and we saw the groups of pilgrims walking and some people on horseback. We then cleaned up and went to another fabulous dinner, where I tried mussels (yum) and oysters (blech) and salmon (pretty good). We then went for a night walk through the windy streets, which was spooky yet cool. Today we took a tour of the abbey, which required walking ...