Category: Blog

Why? Because when you can’t really use it it then becomes of utmost importance to you! You want to brush your teeth? You have a glass from the purified water bottle sitting there on the bathroom sink. Tap water does not enter your body. You can wash yourself with it and wash dishes (although you want it really hot) – but they have to be totally dry before you use them. Everything else comes from the big bottle on the counter🤐

Now that I have that off my chest – on to other, more fun things! After our 6 AM (ugh) departure from LAX we passed an uneventful 3 hour flight (which I slept through most of) landing in Guadalajara a few minutes early. The airport has this massive customs hall (really well staffed so no one has a long wait), baggage is efficient, and the only moment of concern is whether you will get a green light or a red light. After you get your bags, you join a line (randomly selected which line you go to) and one member of your group has to press a button. If the light is green you get to leave. If the light is red your bags go through additional screening. So far we are 2 for 2 with green lights! YAY!

Once out of the customs area, that airport has another really logical set up. You walk up to a taxi counter, tell them where you want to go, the fee is set based on what your destination. No surprise costs. And the cost of the half hour taxi ride? $435. That’s pesos, not dollars. Because that same symbol is used down here too. It’s not so bad that Canada and Australia (I think New Zealand too) use because the value of the money isn’t too dissimilar. But pesos man! We spent $200 at the fruit and veg stand yesterday…that’s about US$10. Two full bags of produce for that amount too. It really messes with your head.

Now for Ajijic. Our flat is….okay. We were lucky to find anything at all here, so we are fortunate that this one turned up. We aren’t too far away from necessities, far enough from Dona’s Donuts that it isn’t a constant temptation, and enough hills to make every walk burn a few extra calories. Then there are the streets themselves. These cobblestones are in a class of their own. No mortar of any kind. And the sidewalks. Oh man. If you build something, you put a sidewalk in front of it. Different height than what was there? No problem. Maybe add a step. Or a concrete ramp. Or…nothing. Surprise! Same with street corners. The kicker is that the cars still drive just as fast on these streets. No one has a suspension to speak of. It’s not neat and tidy here, but it has a charm of its own. Don’t get me wrong…it is not dirty. Every morning people are out sweeping their sidewalks – and the street! Dog poop is another matter, but even Rome has issues with that!

Here in Ajijic, there is a wonderful organization called the Lake Chapala Society. The Society has been in existence since 1955, when a group of ex-pats living down here formed a group to help other ex-pats. There has been an ex-pat presence here since the late 1920’s, mainly Canadian and American. Now there are many Europeans here too (and a French bakery/restaurant!). The Society is the place to go for everything from tax help and doctor referrals to book/DVD lending and computer classes! They have a beautiful garden with a small cafe too.

We are settling in nicely now. Only needing a Pepto-Bismol here and there. We enjoy our morning walks, plus we are often out for a walk in the evening too. The fabulous fresh produce here is amazing! We did not get to the street market this week, but are planning to go next Wednesday. There should be loads of fabulous photos from it! There are so many things to photograph here.😁Since we won’t be doing much extra traveling, I may devote blog entries to the various photography subjects! I’ll have to think on that…

After a few weeks in Connecticut, we were thinking it would be good to get back to the Pacific Northwest. Mild temperatures, a bit of rain…no biggie…yeah, didn’t quite turn out as we thought:

The weather certainly put a cramp in some of our plans – there were people we did not get to see – SORRY!!! Strange to think the next time we are back it will be almost summer.

We restocked necessities, hugged our son and daughter in law (and grandpuppy!) goodbye and forged our way south to Seatac. Seattle traffic (and, in this case, weather) is so unpredictable that we long ago started making a point of going down to the airport the night before a flight. It really simplifies matters and takes away that stress.

Next stop: Southern California! For those of you who don’t know, this is where I spent my formative years (9-19 years old). My tan lines are still etched into my skin – and I have yearly visits to the dermatologist to see if I am paying the price for that.😓So far, so good. Sunscreen is my friend now. Anyway, we were off to spend the week with my childhood (read: she knows where the bodies are buried) Best Friend, her husband, and my beautiful goddaughter (same ones who visited us in France). She will be a teenager in just a couple of days – yikes!

Blue skies and warmth. Heaven. Ventura is very moderate temperatures, and that is just fine with us.

The Best Friend gave us the evening to recover and settle in, then she had a full day planned for all of us! First thing Saturday morning we piled into two cars and headed north along the coast. It had been a very long time (I was probably less than 15) since I had been north of Santa Barbara. What a beautiful place the central coast of California is. You’re out of the populated area, so it’s natural beauty everywhere you look. We stopped in Cambria (I don’t think I had ever been there) for lunch at Linn’s bakery. Fabulous food, fun atmosphere. I don’t think I had ever heard of an olallieberry before. Very similar to marionberry ( https://www.linnsfruitbin.com/Linns_Restaurant.html ).

After lunch we continued our trek north. As we approached Hearst Castle (thanks Mom and Dad for taking me there!) we got talking about the zebras. William Randolph Hearst had a zoo at the castle with an extensive collection of animals. At some point the zebras got loose or were turned loose and are often seen along the highway. We were fortunate enough to see them! No photos, sadly.

Just north of San Simeon (Hearst Castle area) there is a stretch of beach that elephant seals are known to chill on at this time of year. Oh wow, were they ever there!!!

I have no idea how long we were there, just watching the elephant seals, but it must have been close to an hour. I could have stood there all afternoon!

As beautiful a sight as it was, the BFF’s husband’s sister was waiting for us in Paso Robles, so off we went. Dinner was to be at Odyssey World Cafe. Amazing menu! https://www.odysseyworldcafe.com/

After dinner we went by the Allegreto Resort, where the (wait for it!) BFF’s Husband’s Sister’s Husband (whew!) works. What a place. Incredible art, fabulous ambiance! I tried to take photos of the exterior but it was dark and the lighting was creating problems so I gave up🤩

This is a cross section of a great Sequoia tree (and the tree fell all by itself – it was not cut down). It’s so massive the room was constructed around it. It’s also incredibly old. Those little brass plaques on it name several significant events in history that this tree stood during. Events like the construction of the Great Wall of China (214 BCE) and the beginning of the Roman Empire (197 BCE). Dude.

The main purpose of our trip north was a well kept secret up till this point. I was quite excited when I found out what we were doing, as I had read about it – we were going to Sensorio! This is an art installation by Bruce Munro – 15 acres of fiber optics lights set on a hillside outside of Paso Robles. It was a stunning visual display that photos only begin to capture.

If you find yourself in the Paso Robles area you really need to go see this! It’s kid friendly, big enough to enjoy, but not so big that you get tired of it. The artist even has plans to enhance it and change it up some. What a fantastic experience – we are so grateful that our friends went to such great lengths to arrange this!!

Once upon a time, long, long ago, the Husband was a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines. Both of our sons were born during that time, so they had lots of air miles on them from a young age. This was back in the day when you could meet the airplane or accompany someone to the gate. He has great memories of his flying days, with very few unsettling ones, for which we are very grateful. Just a few years after he stopped flying, Alaska experienced one of its very few (thank God) tragedies. On January 31, 2000 Alaska Airlines flight #261 crashed off the Ventura County coast. Some of the members of the flight and cabin crew were people the Husband knew and had flown with. Since I had made several trips to Ventura in the past, I had been to the memorial that had been erected, but he had not been there. We (the Husband, Daughter and I) made a solemn pilgrimage to the site to pay our respects🙏.

Enough heavy stuff. We were able to enjoy our evenings (so nice to not be working until late in the day like we have to when in Europe – although I will happily make that sacrifice to be in Europe!) and have some fun experiences. When we lived in Ventura County, a family favorite thing to do was to go to Golf ‘n Stuff – one of the best miniature golf places ever!

And on another night:

Now for some beach photos 💖 I am definitely happiest when I’m at the ocean. And I will always prefer the Pacific.

We had a 6 AM (6 AM!!!) flight out of LAX to Guadalajara Saturday morning, so we elected to depart Friday afternoon, driving down Pacific Coast Highway from Oxnard all the way to Los Angeles. What fun it was! I did resist stopping at Neptune’s Net for a snack – although it was difficult🤩 The drive was beautiful, traffic wasn’t…awful, the Daughter ignored everything I tried to show her. Sigh.

We had a nice evening at the Courtyard hotel right outside of LAX, which meant that we didn’t have to catch the shuttle until 3:45 AM. How…thrilling.

And then we were off to Mexico. Can’t wait to show you!

Time has certainly flown by! Christmas has come and gone, and we are on the west coast (the proper coast) now. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Oldest son, Daughter in law (of the elder order? Need to differentiate between DIL – one for each son) and the Grandson. New England was kind enough to keep most of it’s nasty weather for a time when we weren’t there, which was immensely appreciated. Due to various influences only the DIL and I went to church on Christmas Eve (which also happens to be her birthday). We were all in various stages of the plague as well. Ugh.

Normally, when we are in Connecticut, we take the time to explore a new area, but with Christmas we elected not to do that this trip. It was the daughter’s first trip there though, so she and I took a long drive one gorgeous afternoon. This way I was able to show her a few interesting and pretty sites nearby .

Right after Christmas, it was finally time to head home!

I know this is a super short post, but a lot has gone on, without much time to devote to writing. It’s been good to spend time in the Pacific Northwest again, but we could have done without Snowmaggedon 2020…especially when there isn’t a lot of snow removal equipment. I’ll post more on that shortly.

That is one thing to be said for this lifestyle…it is never boring. As soon as you develop a routine and comfort with a place, it’s time to move on. That has its positives and negatives, though mostly positives. And you learn to be flexible – like learning how to find baking soda. It’s readily available in Ireland and the UK, but once you’re in continental Europe it is a whole ‘nother story. For example, I finally (after searching store after store) found it in the cleaning aisle. It is somewhat logical as baking soda is an outstanding cleaner – it was just rather odd to make banana bread after finding it among cleaning supplies. Where was I? Oh yeah, back to being flexible. We had a well thought out plan of taxi to Rennes with all of our stuff, train to Montparnasse in Paris, taxi to our hotel at Orly. Reservations were all made, we know what to expect. And then the President of France announced that he intended to make changes to the French pension program and all hell broke loose. The French tend not to be happy unless they are angry about something, and oh boy, were they angry! Demonstrations in the streets, massive strikes, it was France at its best/worst. It also meant that we had no idea if our train and plane would be operating. Ugh. We were able to arrange a rental car that we could drop at Orly airport (it involved getting to Rennes airport to pick up however. Thank you to our fantastic Airbnb hosts for driving me there on Friday morning), and monitored our flight everyday to see whether it was leaving – fortunately it was.

Once our very nice Ford Kuga (Ford Escape in the US) was acquired, driven back to Dinan, negotiated through the extremely narrow medieval alley that was not designed for a modern SUV, then drove said Kuga through the medieval gate and down the crazy cobblestone hill! We loaded it up and hit the road. The advantage to this trek? We were going to drive nearly halfway across the widest part of France – through the Loire valley no less. I have to admit that it was a gorgeous drive, HOWEVER…let us talk tolls. The west coast is not big on toll roads. There are a few, but not a lot. Not like the east coast. And then there is Europe. The approximate 200 km that we were on the A11 for cost 37€ (about $40)!!!!! Dude, that is a lot of money. At least the motorway is really nice.

The other advantage to this drive: I got to stop somewhere I have wanted to go for a very long time but couldn’t imagine when/if I would get there – Chartres.

And thanks to Google Maps (have I told you that ours is named Dana? I don’t know why I picked that name), we took at nice drive through the medieval core of the town. Not designed for driving a Ford Kuga through. I’m getting quite experienced at this.

There has been a cathedral on this site since the 4th century. Seriously. The current structure is mostly from the early 12th century, although there are bits of the earlier churches integrated into it. It is astounding. It still has many stained glass pieces from the 1100s. I don’t know how to even begin to tell you about this cathedral. And thank you to the French Revolutionaries for not damaging this place (much).

The most incredible part of the entire place, structurally speaking, was this (in my oh so humble opinion):

These pictures do not even begin to do the place justice. This cathedral is special. I’m going to say something possibly heretical: it may be more beautiful than Notre Dame de Paris. Not necessarily the exterior, I don’t think anywhere can top Notre Dame for the sheer beauty, but the interior is beyond anything I could have imagined. Now, I’ve not been to Saint Peter’s in Rome yet, or the Duomo in Florence (this spring!!), so my experience is limited. I will be back to this place though – and spend a full day exploring it. It was a bucket list item for good reason. We are so fortunate that we get to go to these places!

After that incredible experience, I had the joy (dubious joy) of driving in the outskirts of Paris. Never in the city itself. Nope. I am a confident driver that is able to flex with many situations, but three places strike fear in my heart: central London, central Paris, and Massachusetts. So, we skirted around Paris to Orly airport. We have flown in and out of CDG in the past, this was our first time at Orly. While not as big as CDG it was a very pleasant place – for an airport!

We stayed at the Novotel right outside Terminal 4, so it was an easy morning hauling our bags over to the airport. Three people, 4 large bags, 3 backpacks! Yep, we were able to eliminate the small suitcase!!!! Yay! And once the Daughter delivers the two massive bottles of Game of Thrones whisky (that we have been traveling with since Northern Ireland) to her friend this weekend we will have a lot more weight to work with.

The Husband discovered a boutique, all business class airline that flies between Orly and Newark. When we bought the tickets months ago they were flying an A321neo and a 757 (ick) on the route and the tickets were super reasonable. We also bought tickets on it this spring (using France as our entry point on the way to Florence). Well, in the meantime, they added a couple of new A321neos, got rid of the 757s (yay!) and dramatically increased their prices (boo). We are glad we bought our second round of tickets way back when because I would fly La Compagnie again anytime. It was fabulous. The business class seats were so comfortable (lay flat), the food was fab, and the crew was wonderful. The Daughter is now thoroughly spoiled.

Newark, New Jersey. Not a place I ever envisioned going. What an armpit airport. And were we ever grateful to have Global Entry!!!!!! The lines were unbelievable yet we just cruised through. If you travel much you want to get Global Entry.

We got our rental (Ford Edge – also known as Grandma’s blue car. The poor Grandson will be so confused if we get a different colored car) and headed towards Connecticut. We got a glimpse of New York City – one of these days I will get there!- missed a turn, which gave us the opportunity to driving through the Bronx and Yonkers. I was surprised at how non-big city it felt. Lots of trees. Interesting. After 3 hours of driving ,we were so grateful to finally arrive at the Son’s house! Since arriving we have had freezing rain, snow, and frigid temperatures. This freezing rain thing is really awful. It should just snow and not mess with freezing rain. Illogical.

I just realized that I forgot one other photo from France. Rather than redo the entire freaking page to include it I’m going to tack it on here at the end. These trees were all over in Brittany and Normandy (maybe other places too, but we didn’t go to those other places, right?). We call them truffula trees – as in from The Lorax – as that’s what they made us think of:

And what was my first place to go after we got here?

If you’ve been reading this blog since the beginning you might recall my rant regarding the distance to the nearest Costco from the Oldest Son’s house…and obviously Costco read this and made certain to correct the problem before we returned to the US…this Costco opened just last month…15 minutes away!!! Oh happy day. Plus they were kind enough to use the same floor plan as our home store. My heart sang.

We are looking forward to Christmas here in New England and then off to the West Coast!

It’s our final few days in Dinan.😢 The two months we’ve been here have flown by. While we are excited to head back to the US, see friends and family and replenish a few supplies, we will be sad to say goodbye to France. A bientôt. I have to say, though, seeing this place at Christmas time has been very special! For weeks, we have watched the lights being put up all over town – we were like little kids waiting for them to be turned on. For even more awesomeness, there is a small marche de Noel (Christmas market) that started this weekend! Plus, last week the temperature dropped down to -2°C (28°F). Fortunately, it has warmed back up as our winter gear is all in Connecticut!

Last night, we were in the main part of town (up the hill) doing a little Christmas shopping and enjoying the atmosphere. Most of Brittany seemed to have the same idea. It looked like the height of tourist season with so many people in the streets! It was festive and rather fun.

The Christmas market is small, like I said above, but it gives us a feel for what they are like. I think there are many similarities with Christmas markets I’ve experienced in the US, though with one major difference — you can buy a cup of mulled wine and carry it around with you!🍷 Europe, in general, doesn’t have a problem with open containers/bottles/glasses of alcoholic substances in public. The intoxicated driving consequences are far more strict and, to my understanding, you don’t get to get off on a technicality, which is good. Back to the Christmas market…there I was, carrying a cup of spiced red wine (vin chaud de Noël), enjoying the sights and the sounds and watching children’s eyes light up as they looked around at the festive atmosphere! One of these years we will have to spend Christmas in Germany, though – I hear it’s pretty spectacular.

Now we will move on to photos from all around town😁

Hopefully, these photos give you a feel for what this town is like. It is so cute and the lights just add another layer of beauty. I know many other towns in the region go all out too. Maybe this is common all through France! Wouldn’t that be fabulous?

Now, to cross our fingers, light candles, say prayers, dance naked in the moonlight (okay, no) for the transport strike to end before Friday…or that could end up being an interesting post.

The next visitors were the Cousin (her second visit to see us!) and her Husband. Funny…you go to France, announce that you have extra space, and people come to see you! Not that we mind. It is so good to have people that we care about come to share these adventures with us. We revisited many places that we enjoy taking people to: La Roche aux Fees, Corseul, Fougeres, Mont St Michel (I’ve now been there four times!), but the big thing that we did was spend a few days up in Normandy. We made a quick tour (one night) through Bayeux on our first trip here. This time we were going to focus most of our time on WWII sites (with a bit of my beloved Middle Ages/Medieval, of course). The Husband of the Cousin studied history in college and has a particular interest in WWII – this gave us an excellent excuse to organize an itinerary around some of these places.

It’s only about a two hour drive from Dinan to Caen, which was our first stop. I firmly believe in starting at your furthest point and working your way back. Not sure why I feel that way, but I do. Caen is a major city in the Normandy region, both in ancient times and today. It was the home of William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy, King of England, builder of the Tower of London, first monarch crowned in Westminster Abbey, to name a few of his accomplishments), who is buried in the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen. It was also the sight of a major battle, the Battle of Caen, during the early days of the D-Day invasion. The city was massively damaged during the battle in July 1944, but the Allied forces eventually won the city’s freedom. A fabulous museum/memorial was constructed in Caen as a reminder of the fragility of peace. If you find yourself with the ability to go to the Memorial de Caen ( https://www.memorial-caen.fr/ ), please make certain that you do. The explanation of WWI, and how the populace of Germany was susceptible to Hitler’s influence and how WWII came to be was the best I had ever seen. So much was there that we had never heard of! I think getting the perspective of a place so directly affected by the wars was invaluable.

Seriously, this place is worth going out of your way to visit. But plan to spend a lot of time there! We took nearly 5 hours to go through it, and we rushed through the last bit! I had hoped to get to Abbaye aux Hommes before they closed for the evening, but no such luck. Caen would be nice to spend a few days in sometime – I’ll add it to the list!

We were staying in Bayeux for the next two nights at the same hotel we were at on our last visit – Hotel Reine Mathilde ( http://www.hotel-bayeux-reinemathilde.fr/ ). They were kind enough to give us a suite! That king size bed was heaven after all these months in a double bed. The Cousin and her Husband were in the room right across the hall. And the water pressure was heavenly…one thing that Dinan and its ancient pipes lacks.

I’ll get into more about Bayeux in a bit. For now I’m going to move onto Saturday and our continued exploration of some of the WWII sites in the area. After an excellent breakfast(oh Lordy, smoked streaky bacon American style! Crispy! I think I’m a bit homesick…), we went out to the coast (which is only about 15 minutes outside of Bayeux) to Longues sur Mer which is the location of one of the few intact German gun placements at the Channel Sea. Longues sur Mer, on French road signs? Long s/mer. Turns out that many of the town names are so long that they have to abbreviate them! Have I told you that the surest way to annoying a French person is to call that body of water the English Channel? It is the Channel Sea. Back to the original subject…big, nasty looking guns. These are at the far north section of Omaha Beach, just south of Gold Beach. My official photographer failed me though – he did not get a photo of the gun that obviously sustained a direct hit from the battleships in the water. What does he get paid for????? Oh right, he doesn’t. Whatever.

Once we were done wandering amid the big guns, it was time to head a little further south down the coast to the Normandy American Cemetery. This is the one that you hear about, and see the rows upon rows of white crosses (and Stars of David). The previous time that we were here, it was late in the day on a gorgeous spring day. We were too late to see the the visitor’s center that time. I am so grateful that we had this second opportunity and were able to go through the displays. This talked mostly about the various people buried in the cemetery in addition to stories about D-Day itself. Once we were done inside we made our way to the cemetery.

It is hard to wrap your brain around what happened here. It’s incredibly peaceful and beautiful. What these people went through is unimaginable.

The following photos were taken on our first trip (May 2017):

We did not continue down the coast to Point du Hoc where a contingent of US Army Ranger battalion scaled a 100 foot cliff to remove the German defenses that were firing upon the ships and soldiers. I think we had reached the saturation point. So, on to cheerier subjects!

Bayeux. I love that town! Let’s start with a few photos🤩

Fortunately, Bayeux was not damaged in the war. There isn’t much that still exists from the time of William the Conqueror…mostly the cathedral and the Bayeux Tapestry. The Tapestry is incredible. Amazing. Stupendous. No photos though. The way it is set up to view is rather clever. Each person has an audio guide which takes you through each panel – this makes it easy to understand what you are seeing and keeps the people flowing through. What is the Bayeux Tapestry? So glad you asked. After William was crowned King of England in 1066, his brother Odo (the bishop of Bayeux) had a very long panel made of needlework that documented William’s journey to becoming King. If you really want details on that bit, it’s fascinating history that I will refrain from explaining too much of here. I can hear all the eyes rolling. Back to the Tapestry. Once completed (likely by a group of nuns) it hung in the cathedral for about two weeks each year. It miraculously survived nearly 1,000 years! Stunning.

And then there is my favorite building. One of my favorite churches of all time…the Bayeux Cathedral. There are still parts of the original cathedral (consecrated 1077) within the current structure. Most of the existing building dates from the 15th century. It is graceful. It is humbling. It’s nearly perfect in the way that Notre Dame de Paris is nearly perfect.

Underneath the church is a small crypt, likely part of the earliest church on the site (could be as old as 6th century). At some point it was filled with rubble, so when it was rediscovered in the 1800s it was in a remarkable state of preservation.

There is a wonderful light show inside the cathedral during the Christmas season. It tells the story of the Bayeux Tapestry with images and lights, but uses computers to create the images and color. It’s amazing! We were fortunate enough to be there the first weekend that it was performed.

What a spectacular opportunity that was! These pictures don’t even begin to capture the magic.

On our final day with the Cousin and her Husband, we drove them from Bayeux to the train station in Rennes with a quick stop in St James (along the A84). Until I was planning this trip I did not realize that there are American cemeteries all over Europe. It makes sense, I just hadn’t thought about it. There is one in Brittany – quite a bit smaller than the one in Normandy however (gratefully?).

It was a wonderful (and educational!) visit with the Cousin and her Husband. And it is difficult to believe that it is time to pack and make the Grand Migration. This time: stateside! I hope to get out this weekend and get some photos of the amazing Christmas lights that are up here in Dinan. It is gorgeous!!

It’s about time – or time management. I get on these “let’s distract myself” tangents and then I don’t make the time to write the posts that are floating around in my head. I could blame work (many things in my brain on that), but, really, it’s only me to blame. Sigh. Alrighty then. Onward and upward. Right ho. Oh wait…I have to go make dinner…

Last week the Mother unit was here. It was great fun to show her around and take her to some of the sites that she had only seen in photos. Midway through her time here (from Berlin, where she’s been living to be closer to the Brother and his family) the Husband went to Berlin! He and the Brother had long ago planned to attend a Shinedown/Alter Bridge concert together and were excited that the time had finally arrived. Anyway, back to the Mother’s trip here. The Daughter had gone to Scotland to visit a friend for a few days, and the Mother had timed her arrival into Paris to coincide with the Daughter’s arrival back there. They thought it was great fun to meet at CDG and take the TGV (France’s high speed train) to Rennes together. The Husband and I picked them up at the train station, brought them back to Dinan – then watched the Mother’s face as she tried to take in the absolute cuteness of this place, especially our street!

We took the Mother to Fougeres and La Roche aux Fees (the incredible megalithic site). The next day we were off to Vitre, Mont Dol and Dol de Bretagne. We were in Dol on our first trip to Brittany but had not returned this trip. Sorry to the Best Friend and her family…we should have taken you there! I had forgotten how much I liked it. In particular, the cathedral. It ranks in my top two favorite churches ever (tied with the little one we stopped to see on our way to Saint Malo). I had forgotten how incredibly beautiful it is. Not so much on the outside – it’s actually lopsided and sort of grungy looking. Inside though, inside is stunningly beautiful.

The church that is standing now is mostly 12th-13th century, with a few bits of the 8th century building. It’s hard to explain why it’s a favorite. It’s not that there is something super outstanding (like Notre Dame de Paris and its flying buttresses), it’s just the overall thing. And its bits. Seriously. It is spectacular.

Another stop we made that day was at Mont Dol. To someone from the Pacific Northwest it’s a bit more of a bump in the land. Unfortunately, there was a lot of fog out at the coastline – I had visions of beautiful photos of Mont-St-Michel in my head – but, nope. We did get a couple of beauties of other things though! The hill was important back into Roman times – there is a small chapel, dedicated to the dead of WWI, that is built on the site of an ancient pagan temple. Also at the top is Tour Notre Dame, topped by, surprisingly, a statue of Our Lady.

Also on top of the hill is a large rock known as the Devil’s Imprint – or something much prettier in French that I forgot to write down. There is a cute legend attached to this rock:

The Devil was angry when Mont St Michel was built and dedicated to St Michael. The Devil and St Michael agreed to compete for ownership of le Mont. The Devil claimed the Mont was his and it was decided that whoever could jump the furthest would win. The Devil fell into the River Couënon but the air lifted St. Michael’s wings and he was swept to Mont Dol. St Michael hit the Devil so hard that the Devil hit this boulder with his tush and left a big dent!

Of course, we had to take the Mother to the Roman ruins in Corseul! She was properly astonished at the Temple of Mars, but we made an additional stop that we hadn’t made before. In the town of Corseul itself (the temple is a little out of town) one of the Roman roads and a few buildings are visible🥰

There were remains of a few houses, but it just wasn’t possible to properly capture them in photos. Which was too bad, because when you’re standing there it is so obvious what you are looking at! Corseul nicely gives wonderful explanations as well, so it helps if you can’t picture what a building would have looked like.

We definitely kept the Mother busy during the few days that she was here! We also trekked (if you can consider driving down the motorway a trek) back to Mont St Michel and I drove her up to Bayeux. She spent the next several days exploring Bayeux, Caen, Rouen, plus other sites related to D-Day – it is Normandy after all!

Next post: next visitors and we make our own explorations of several D-Day related places…and I’ll even try to get it up in a timely manner. Try.

Here we go again…I let time get away from me. So, we need to bounce back to the weekend before this last one. Honestly, during the week we don’t do anything. We walk all morning (got to try to mitigate the damage of incredible bread, fabulous butter…and pastries. Oh the pastries. I have got to stay away from the patisserie) and work through the afternoon and evenings. Whoopee. So you would think that I could get a simple thing like a blog post done. Apparently, that is an unreasonable expectation. Anyway, back to the weekend before last…it rained. It didn’t rain a little. It rained a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. We have been so fortunate with the weather here in northwest France. Considering that it is mid November, we have had a lot of sunny weekends. The trees are mostly gold or bare of their leaves. There is a misty layer in the mornings (being right on the river). It’s gorgeous. But the weekend at hand was miserable. However, we had a car, and there were places to see! The Daughter elected to join us on our journey up to the coast even. I’m pretty sure that I have mentioned in the past my fondness for Asterix comic books.

If you’re not familiar, you should be. Asterix is a member of a Gaulish village during the time of the Roman occupation. And Gaul is…Brittany🤩. The region is also called Amorica. Asterix’s village was never conquered by the Romans – this was due to a magic potion, but let’s leave that bit alone – and he has a lot of fun at the expense of the Romans. There is a lot of play on words (the village druid’s name is Getafix) that I very much enjoy. The village of Asterix is a fictional location (although there is evidence of a village that was not conquered by the Romans. However, there is no evidence of a magic potion being involved), but the writers of the books were influenced by place that they enjoyed visiting, the town of Erquy. This has been a place that I have thought about visiting since I was quite young and I finally got to do it…on the rainiest day of the year so far.

The town of Erquy didn’t have any big signs that said “we are the village of Asterix” – which I guess is a good thing. It was a cute town that was pretty much closed the day we were there. We were pretty desperate to find a place to have lunch (and Google was failing us as none of the hours posted were correct) when we stumbled upon the perfect little restaurant. If you find yourself in that remote corner of world I can’t recommend Chez Sylvie enough ( http://www.chez-sylvie-erquy.fr/ )!

Now that I have thoroughly educated you on Asterix, what else did we do that weekend? We finally went to Vitre. We’ve known about Vitre since our first trip here, but just did not have the opportunity to go there. The old center of town is very cute – not really as charming as Dinan – but very cute. The Chateau is very imposing! We did choose not to tour the inside as many people stated that it didn’t seem worth it. When you have a limited amount of time in each place (as we still do, even though we are here for so long. There will be places that we would like to get to that we won’t just because there is not enough time) you have to prioritize. But the exterior of the chateau did not disappoint!

It was a quick stop, but we did take the time to wander the streets in the medieval section – strangely enough, that’s the same area that the chateau is in. Imagine that.

After leaving Vitre, we had another couple of stops. We had a beautiful drive through the French countryside (the rain had finally stopped for a bit). What a gorgeous place this is. Now, me being me, I have to stop at churches. I am getting a bit pickier…I’m not very interested if it’s newer than 1600. It’s not that I don’t like them or admire them, or feel the spirituality, it’s just that when I’m prowling churches there’s a certain “old feel” that I really love. I’m don’t even remember how I heard about Saint Marse de Bais, and even though it is practically new (built in the second half of the 1500s), I was intrigued. The church is really lovely and the Great War memorial in it is humbling. Bais is a tiny village, maybe 1,000 people, but the list of the people who were from the village and died in the Great War, was astonishingly long.

On the way from Bais to our next stop, we encountered this along the side of the road:

Our last planned stop of the day was a step farther back in time. The Brittany region has the largest concentration of megalithic stones in Europe! Not until we were planning our original trip did we have any idea of the extent of the megalithic sites here. The largest dolmen in the world happens to be just an hour away from us. After winding our way through back roads, past farms and around tractors, we were at our destination, La Roche aux Fees (Rock of the Fairies). Not only can you go right up to the rock grouping…you can go in it!

Keep in mind, this structure is somewhere around 5,000 years old. How did prehistoric people get these rocks to this location? How in the world did they get that top stone up on top of the supporting stones?

This was one of those places that can render you speechless. There are many menhirs about (you can be driving down a road and see one in a farming field!), but this dolmen is something incredible. I am so glad we found out about it.

Our final stop was one of those spur of the moment decisions. We were driving down the motorway and saw a sign for Chateaugiron – it sounded appealing so we chose to drive over there. It’s a pretty town with a nice medieval quarter. The chateau is still in use as the hotel de ville, or city hall! They also appear to have an excellent sense of humor, as there were some leftover Halloween decorations still up🎃

It was a fun way to end our adventures for the weekend.

Up next: the Mother comes to visit…and very soon the Christmas lights will be turned on!!

After a thoroughly enjoyable weekend with the Best Friend and her family, we elected to have a quiet weekend in (this is Husband-speak for not spending any money). We wandered around town a bit and walked down to Lehon again, but otherwise did nothing of any interest at all. We were finally able to get a table at a creperie we have been dying to try (Creperie Ahna) – that was nice. Since we didn’t do much, there is a shortage of interesting photos to share! So, consider this the outtakes/blooper reel. Or the photos that didn’t make the cut for their blog pages, but I really liked so I want to use them (No Daughterly-unit, you may not edit that sentence. It is exactly how I want it!). Without further boring dialog…

Hopefully, one or two of these photos made you smile, or think, or cringe! There will be new adventures next weekend to document…and another pilgrimage location for me (you will have to wait to see what I am referring to!).

Le Mont Saint-Michel. Impressive. Stunning. Soul stirring. Inspiring. Every -ing thing. We are fortunate that this was our second trip to this amazing place. Some people wish their whole lives to go to this place — some have never heard of it. But it’s not a place that you would forget if you have been there.

Legend has it that the Archangel Michael appeared to the Bishop of Avaranches (just to the east, across the bay) in the year 708 and instructed him to build a church on the island (it’s really just a huge hunk of granite). The building continued over the next 600 years or so. The abbey is a mixture of building styles that manage to look cohesive.

The bridge you see in the photo above was opened in 2014. Prior to the construction of that bridge, you could not access the island by vehicle during high tides. And, prior to the opening of the current parking lots and if you didn’t pay attention to the tides, your car could wash away! As it is, when there are “supertides”, as there was Tuesday of this last week, even the bridge is submerged. The shuttle bus is free and, if you stay overnight on the island (as we did), the parking is free too.

The Best Friend, her husband and the Goddaughter came to visit us for a week, so it was fun to take them to this incredible site. It was one of the places that we went to on the first trip and I couldn’t wait to go back! We stayed overnight the first time too. I know, I know, it’s ridiculously priced and the restaurants are expensive, but the experience of being on the island when there are very few people there is unique and special. We stayed at La Vielle Auberge. Great views from the upper rooms. Beds are too firm and the room is firmly stuck in about 2002 though. Auberge St Pierre is where the Best Friend and her family stayed. It sounds much nicer and also has wonderful views.

The abbey itself. What a fantastic place! But, before I get to photos, there was a wonderful opportunity that presented itself and I am so glad we took advantage of the situation! While we were touring the abbey, one of the big rooms (used to greet important guests to the abbey in medieval times) was set up for a concert. We heard the musicians practicing and they were doing Gregorian style chants. What a perfect place to hear something like that! We all decided (other than the Daughter, who had had enough) to attend later that evening. The group was from the Ukraine and was composed of five incredible talented singers and musicians (https://concertsrussesproduction.com/artistes/kouban/). It was a very enjoyable evening and I am so glad we had that opportunity. Leaving the abbey afterward was interesting: walking through the incredibly ancient rooms, with no one else around — they are a little dark…and then the stairs down. Yeah, I haven’t talked about the stairs yet. There are no elevators/escalators on the Mont. And you don’t get all the way up that hunk of rock magically.

And finally, I saw this little one as we were having lunch and had to take a photo! –

On Sunday, after we left the abbey, we decided to take our guests to another favorite location: the fortress at Fougeres. It wasn’t too far out of the way on this trip, and isn’t a spot a lot of Americans get to unless they are spending a little time in Brittany. We absolutely loved this place. Likely still our favorite castle 🏰 I’m not going to go into a ton of history on this one — you’ve had your fill above I’m sure! To summarize: built mostly in the 11-13th centuries, with a little 14-15th century additions. Incredible place, with an amazing amount still intact. I wish the manor house was still standing, but it gave up to the ravages of time about 200 years ago.

If you ever find yourself in Fougeres, on a Sunday, at lunchtime.. also starving and every single place is either full or closed, then there’s a lovely Chinese restaurant! It’s up on the main hill from the fortress and was surprisingly good food!

Ugh. How does time get away from me so fast? I still haven’t talked about all of the weekend before last – but I want to talk about the weekend that just happened! What to do???? Finish weekend before last. Duh. Now that is settled…

Sunday was another beautiful fall day here in the northeast corner of Brittany. The leaves are changing colors and some trees are bare already. The nights are definitely chilly! The crowds have dissipated – mostly. The Husband and I chose to set off to the northwest of Dinan, up on the the Cote d’Emeraude (Emerald Coast). Our friend, Samuel, had another brilliant suggestion of a place to stop on the way to the coast that he knew would make me happy. About 20 minutes from Dinan is a very ancient town called Corseul. How ancient? How about this –

Yep, real live Roman ruins! Oh man, was I in a happy place. As you can see, it’s just the foundation and part of the inner sanctum that remain. However, what is there is fabulous. It is unbelievable how perfectly straight the walls are. I know the Romans had incredible engineering, but this is impressive. Corseul was the main Roman administrative town for this region, so it was a fairly major area. The town was founded in 10 BC and was a thriving place until the 3rd century, when it was burned by raiding barbarians. Stupid barbarians. Back to the temple: it was constructed in about the 1st century and was visited by at least one emperor, possibly Nero. It must have been a thing of beauty when it was whole.

We wandered about the site for quite while as we were the only ones there. The site is surrounded by farmland and sits up on a little hill. So peaceful!

Time to move on to the main stop. We meandered our way up the coast to Plevenon to see Fort la Latte.

Fort la Latte began in the 14th century, with many changes and additions through the 18th century. It is in an impressive defensive position! And soooo beautiful. I couldn’t stop gushing about the color of the water. The Channel Sea (I might have mentioned this in a previous post: it is not the English Channel here, it is the Channel Sea. Quick way to make a French person very testy with you is to call it the English Channel) is so clean and clear here. I could have stared at it all day.

We also stumbled upon a gorgeous restaurant in the village of Frehel. Again, in the middle of nowhere and n what was old farm buildings. Best steak frites. Mmmmm. The entire day was one pleasant surprise after another, from the temple to the fort. We already knew that we loved Brittany, but as we have the opportunity to explore and see more off the beaten path places, we are falling more in love with the beauty, both natural and historical, that surrounds us here.

First off, let me start with this:

Please note that the steering wheel is on the left side of the car – as God intended it to be. I, of course, kept trying to get into the drivers seat from the right side. Ugh. This car is also an automatic! I did not ask for one – I’m fine with a stick shift – but this was nice. I tried to put my left foot through the floor several times while looking for my imaginary clutch, though. Every time I turned a corner, I had to repeat to myself “stay right, stay right”. The scene in Hitman’s Bodyguard kept playing in my head : Ryan Reynolds smashing into a car and stating that it is a three day adjustment period every time you switch driving position.

The last time we were here, we skipped Saint Malo. There just wasn’t enough time. So, we figured we had better go there early on! As is the case in this country (Europe in general), this is an old town. Like 1st century old. The Romans founded it and called the town Aletum. It, like most of Brittany (Amorica for the ancient Romans), rebelled against Roman rule in the early stages of the decline of the Roman Empire. A monastic settlement was established there in the early 6th century, dedicated to a follower of Saint Brendan, Saint Malo. The city eventually became very prosperous and heavily fortified. During World War II, the German Army was firmly entrenched in the city and, in order to retake it, the American and British armies heavily shelled the city – pretty much destroying it.

The residents of Saint Malo painstakingly rebuilt the city, striving to replicate the original as much as possible. They did an amazing job!

The cathedral was beautifully restored, with a surprising amount of the old still present. This, of course, is important to me. It was also very educational! As an American, my knowledge of Canadian history is spotty. I knew a French dude must have been involved in finding/naming/establishing European settlement there – the province of Quebec doesn’t speak French for no reason. But I didn’t know much about it. There was this guy by the name of Jacques Cartier and, in May of 1534, he sailed up the St Lawrence River. He is the one who named Canada. I suspect that he wasn’t any better than Christopher Columbus in his treatment of the native population, but he was a product of his time (sadly, all too true). Anyway, he was from Saint Malo! He is buried in the St. Vincent Cathedral. Also buried there is Jean de Chatillon, the first bishop of Saint Malo in the 12th century.

Something very different caught my eye as we were walking through the cathedral. In a little alcove is a glass coffin. The only marking on the coffin is a little name place that says Saint Celestin. It took a bit of looking to find that Saint Celestin was a 2nd (2ND!!!) century martyr. But that was all I could find out, no idea if the amazing condition of the body is due to wax covering or anything like that. The body is dressed in clothing that I would guess is changed out every century or so-

We stopped for lunch while in Saint Malo at a lovely restaurant called Les Terroiristes Associés . Outstanding chocolate mousse too 🙄

Just south of Saint Malo is the little village of Saint Suliac. Our friend, Samuel, had recommended that we stop there and we are so glad we did! Tiny little place with quite the history. The main focal point in the village, as it is in many French villages, is the church. This area has had a settlement since the Roman times but little of that period still exists. There is the remains of a Viking encampment, but it is only visible when the tide is out. We weren’t that lucky. But we did get to see the beautiful village church. The Husband ranks it in his top 5 favorites and I have to agree. It has some seriously old bits (8/9th century), but it wasn’t just that. It just had a good…vibe. Good juju. Whatever. It felt like a good place.

I had intended to make this one post for the whole weekend, but I am realizing how long this one already is! Don’t want anyone falling asleep. If anyone is reading this thing still…I did warn that I was going to write about more old churches than any one else would care to read about…Anyway, I will get to work on part 2. Hopefully, I can get that done right away as there is lots to talk about for this week and the upcoming weekend! Mont St. Michel!!!!

Life in Dinan has already settled into a nice routine. In the mornings, we drag ourselves up the hill, run any errands (like grocery shopping) that need to be done, drop off the bags at the flat and continue down the hill to walk along the River Rance. We have had a specific bend in the path that we used as our turn around spot. We knew there was another town that wasn’t much further, but hadn’t ventured there yet. Last Saturday, it was an overcast day, but the temperature was nice, we didn’t have any other plans for the morning, so we decided to walk to Lehon. Annnnddd…Lehon was just around that bend. Really. As soon as we rounded the corner, there it was. Pathetic.

I should add that it was totally worth the additional effort though! What a super cute village. Lehon itself is larger than Dinan and contains the regional hospital, but the historical village was what we were after. It sits right along the river and it is beautiful. As you approach the village, the river has a manual lock that is really pretty –

After the lock, you cross a little bridge and you are in the most adorable village – peaceful and serene.

This town has existed since the 1100s. It sits in a very defensible position on the River Rance with a high hill perfect for a fortress. The Lords of Dinan built the fortress over the next century and it was in use for a long time. Being on high hill means that you have to go up a high hill!

After that hike you are rewarded with a beautiful view –

We wandered about in the fortress for a bit. Of course, the Husband had to play fort: going inside every possible space, climbing up everything. I swear, he’s like a 7 year old when we go to these places (he says 9 year old)!

We headed back down the hill (so much easier than going up. huh) towards the abbey. The abbey is…gorgeous. Not fancy. Really, none of these ancient stone churches are fancy. But breathtaking in its simplicity.

This poor abbey has been through a lot. I believe it was originally built in the 9th century. Destroyed at least once by the Vikings (pesky Vikings!). Somehow they got their hands on the body of Saint Magliore – rumor has it that it involved a spot of grave robbing. A victim of bad management, horribly desecrated during the French Revolution, and on. Fortunately, it is lovingly cared for now!

After our little exploration in Lehon, we came back to Dinan and headed up the hill into the town. By the time we got home later that afternoon, we had walked almost 20,000 steps (a whole lot of them being seriously uphill)…and my knees hurt.

Okay, I know this post was a bit perfunctory. Sorry. I’ll do better later. Maybe.

Two and a half years ago, the Husband and I acknowledged (rewarded?) ourselves for 30 years of tolerating each other with a trip to Europe. Visiting the Brother and family in Berlin was a given, but we wanted to go somewhere else too. The best price to Europe was a flight to Paris and, after much discussion, we chose to visit the Brittany region of France. Brittany is Celtic, fiercely independent, and revels in its uniqueness. It is also gorgeous. I’ve not been to the south of France (Yet. Soon.), so I can’t say it’s more beautiful here than there, but the rolling hills, cows, sheep, apple trees, and beautiful villages that are seemingly untouched by time are amazing. This area was only slightly touched by the wars (okay, Brest and St. Malo might argue that statement. They were pretty much leveled), and make my historian’s heart sing. But back to our original trip…on our last full day in Brittany we asked our host (Samuel. More on him shortly) where we should go that day — somewhere not too far from his house in Combourg. He suggested that we go to Dinan, so off to Dinan we went. Oh, were we glad we did!! We were here for just a few hours and promised ourselves that we would return. Promise kept.

Dinan is a nearly perfectly preserved medieval town. That includes its walls (about 2.5 km of the 3 km of walls are still standing and you walk can on top of a lot of it), defensive towers, four of the gates, some of the cobblestone streets, wonky walls and buildings and beautiful churches. Enough of my rambling – where are the photos, you may ask? Wait no longer and remember, this is a real town: people live and work here. These buildings mostly date from the 13th-15th century (outer edges are more 17th-19th centuries)🥰🥰🥰

Let us begin with our house, which is one of the newest houses on the street (seriously). Our host purchased the house next door and a dilapidated garage that had once been a house, but was now ruins. The town was very open to them rebuilding the house as it had been, as long as the strict rules were followed. Which is why this house, which is 13 years old, looks like it belongs. The house across the street does have a date plaque on it (I love that this was often done, it makes it so easy to know how old somewhere is!) – 1463. Therefore, we have an old looking house, but we also have plenty of power outlets! And our windows are straight.

The street we are living on, Rue du Petit Fort, runs from the upper town to the lower town (the port). It is a gain of 75 meters (246 ft) in elevation, so you can imagine that it is quite the hill and there are bits (like right at our house) when it gets quite steep! No warm up before our walks anymore – we just head up the hill! Believe it or not, we are frequently passed by people running up it. Impressive not just from the steepness aspect, but because it is old, uneven cobblestones with a drainage ditch down the middle! What is the drainage ditch for? Well, there’s not always been indoor plumbing…

Thursday morning, Samuel came to Dinan to do a historical walk of the town with us. We met Samuel, and his wife Liza, when we were here before. They have a B & B in their house in Combourg (we stayed with them for several night during that trip) and provide guided tours of many areas of Brittany
( http://visite.bretagne.free.fr/index.php/en.html ). Samuel is a native of the region and speaks English along with several other languages. Liza is Russian, so she provides even more languages! They added to their family with a baby girl last spring – we will get to meet her one of these weekends😍. Back to the tour – Samuel took us several places we hadn’t even thought of going, like along the outer part of the walls. It’s very interesting how many houses are built into the walls!

This town continues to reveal more secrets every time we walk around. We will spend this weekend exploring here, so expect more photos next week😁. This place is completely enchanting. The Husband keeps singing from Beauty and the Beast … 🎶bonjour, bonjour, bonjour bonjour bonjour! There goes the baker with his tray like always🎵… but it does feel like a place at Disneyland. Except it’s real. And really old. So cool!

I do know there’s a town with Roman ruins just about 20 km from here. Oh my! My first Roman ruins!!! Giddy. And if you’re a fan of the Asterix comic books (would you be surprised to know that I am? hahaha), the location of Asterix’s village would be not far from here. Oh, this is going to be a fun two months!

After five months on the island of Ireland, it was finally time to make a major move! Time to leave the ease of being in English speaking countries (okay, so English is a loose term for some of the speaking we have heard) and have new adventures. Time for me to brush off my little bit of French and return to an area we fell in love with a couple of years ago: lovely, lovely Brittany. But we will get to that in a bit. First up, the journey –

Getting from Belfast to Rennes is probably pretty simple in the summer (people in the UK love to go to France), but not so simple in the fall. We had a couple of options (some of which included propeller planes — not my favorite) and none of which were speedy. It’s not very far to get from there to here, but it wasn’t going to be fast! We decided on an early morning flight out of Belfast to Amsterdam, then a flight from Amsterdam to Rennes – late afternoon!

We had Colin pick us up Friday evening at the house in Larne (We got to know Colin after he had driven us back and forth from the airport when we went to Germany over the summer). We stayed at the Maldron Hotel right at the airport, which had a surprisingly good restaurant! At 4:30 the next morning, we were walking out the hotel doors, across the path and into Belfast airport. Ugh. I am not an early morning person. Everything went smoothly from there and we were in the air to Amsterdam!

The flight was quick (about 70 minutes), uneventful (best kind of flight) and we had a great sunrise over Europe. Amsterdam. I was at the airport there on my first trip to Europe but had never gone into the city. Since we had such a long layover we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see at least a little bit! But first, Schiphol airport. If you aren’t familiar, this is one of the major European hub airports. The place is massive. And the shops!! Oh wow. Good thing I knew that we could not possibly carry anything more. And that is no joke. We had to buy a fourth suitcase in Larne. And then on Friday, I went back into town and bought a larger fourth suitcase! They all ended up being over 22kg too. Yikes. We will need to get this figured out before heading back to the US in December! Not sure what happened, or what grew. I don’t even have my industrial strength hair dryer. Anyway, back to Schiphol. We people are obviously not the only people to take advantage of a long layover as the luggage drop area is very well set up! We left all of our stuff there, hopped in a Tesla taxi (yes!), and headed into the old city center. Yes, I know the train is much cheaper and very convenient, but we had a limited amount of time and didn’t want to waste any of it.

First stop was some breakfast (found a super cute little place called Pluk. Highly recommend it, but I couldn’t tell you where it was, other than near a canal), then we wandered our way over to the Anne Frank house. As we were walking there, I swear my head was on a swivel, trying to take everything in! Probably my favorite movie with a great chase scene through the canal area is The Hitman’s Bodyguard – the Husband and I kept saying “do you recognize that spot?”

The Anne Frank house. I wished now that I had taken a photo of the actual entrance to the house. It’s a new, modern building that probably has an excellent educational opportunity. And I really was planning to go in. But then, we saw the crowds. This was early October! There were swarms of people everywhere. Yuck. And again, we didn’t have a lot of time. So we walked to the front of the house and took a photo.

One thing about Amsterdam: it might not be legal to smoke weed on the streets, that doesn’t mean it isn’t everywhere!!! It would be a cheap way to get high I guess, just walk around and inhale. Since we didn’t want to show up at the airport glassy eyed, we did try to avoid it🤪

Sightseeing expedition complete, it was time to return to the airport. Honestly, at this point I was getting hardily sick of airports. But we soldiered on, retrieved our bags, got checked in (grateful to see that none of the checked bags had gained weight during their stay in the luggage check area, as the limit is 23 kg), went through security…and stayed there for a bit. We were all scrutinized. We have so much miscellaneous crap in our backpacks, security personnel were very interested in us. I even got the full pat down. Sigh. But, we were finally headed to France! Yay!

We were met at the airport by our wonderful driver, William. The drive isn’t too bad, about 50 minutes. By the time we arrived at the house, we had been traveling for 14 hours, only 2 hours and 20 minutes of it was flying time! It is so pretty once you’re out in the countryside. If you’re not familiar with French regions (departments), Brittany (Bretagne) is in the northwest part of the country. Normandy is the next northern region. Brittany is a huge agricultural and dairy producer for France. They also grow a lot of apples, although Normandy is more famous for their apples (Breton and Normandy ciders are fabulous!). The weather is a little warmer than the Pacific Northwest, but it is green and lush due to frequent rains. There is not as many evergreens here, so I’m guessing the hillsides will be gorgeous in about 2-3 weeks as the leaves change! Brittany was also mostly left alone in both world wars (except for the poor city of Brest on the far west coast. It was decimated), so it retains its old villages and ancient buildings. I will do a post soon on Dinan, but until then, here are a few photos –

Nope, not whiskey on the rocks (which is a horrendous thing to do to a good single malt whiskey, BTW), but a weekend of whiskey and rocks. The Oldest Son, his Wife and the Grandson have come to visit us here in Northern Ireland.😍We gave them less than 24 hours on the ground before packing up and heading out west for the weekend. We rented an MPV (which is a minivan to the norte americanos), negotiated who was sitting where, and headed across the country… Which took us a little over an hour.🤣

Our first stop on the journey was the Dark Hedges. I have no idea if anyone knew of this cool road prior to Game of Thrones. Well, someone must have known of the road for the location scouts to find out about it, I guess. The poor farmers. This was quiet, rural land until the world found out it existed. In the 18th century, there was a manor house here (now a golf course) and the family who owned it wanted a grand entrance, so a line of beech trees was planted –

We headed to Bushmills village right after seeing the Dark Hedges as we had an important appointment…a tour of the Bushmills Distillery. Now, let me explain why this matters – way back when, maybe 20 or 25 years ago (I wish I could remember the circumstances but, nope), I tried the green label Bushmills and discovered that I really like Irish single malt whiskey. Over the years I have developed new favorites (Powers John’s Lane…mmmm!), but that Bushmills 10 year old will always have a fond place in my heart. So, to go to Bushmills Distillery made me happy. Sadly, there is no photography on the tour (too much alcohol fumes in the air😁), so nothing to show for that. But the Husband had set up an extra special treat – we were doing the private premium whiskey tasting with one of the whiskey masters. There’s a job I could get in to, being a whiskey master. We were taken to a special room (no, no padding – be quiet) that was beautifully set up-

We started with the blends, which I had never tried, being the whiskey snob that I am. And I discovered that one or two drops of water can completely change the whiskey! Wow, what a revelation. After the blends we had a mystery glass to try – Johnnie Walker Red. It was like licking the inside of a chimney. I don’t like Scotch whisky (notice the absence of the e) anyway, but I really didn’t like that stuff. Then, we were on to the good stuff – the single malts. We had the 12 year reserve, the 16 year and the 21 year. Oh Lordy. Yummy stuff. If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods, and you like Irish whiskey, make certain you do this tasting! It’s not inexpensive, but it’s not too bad, and the experience is wonderful.

Once we finished the tasting, we were very glad our rental house was walking distance! We had a quiet remainder of the evening to prepare ourselves for being tourists in the morning.

Note to others: take the train from Bushmills when you go out to Giant’s Causeway. I misunderstood and thought we drove out to the train station, then took the train to the causeway itself. Nope. Boo-boo there. We still parked in the train station parking lot, which is waaayy better than parking in the Causeway parking lot. Just…don’t. The roads are narrow and full of big buses. Nobody can go anywhere and gridlock ensues. But, Giant’s Causeway. So cool. So otherworldly!

There is a bus that will run you up and down the hill, which is helpful with a little one! We did walk down however. It’s a nice walk (downhill).😎Crazy place.

Our next point on the tourista express was Dunluce Castle. What a spectacular location! I really need to go back and watch Excalibur. I believe it’s the castle used in the beginning of the movie. I think it’s also a locale for Game of Thrones. It was probably quite a site when it was intact! The Earls of Antrim eventually had possession of it (it changed hands a few times) until 1639, when the kitchen, along with many of the kitchen staff, fell into the sea. It was decided that the place was too decrepit to keep up, and the family built Glenarm Castle, which we stopped at the following day.

At the end of our weekend we elected to return to Larne via the Causeway route, which runs along the coast. We had heard that it was a beautiful drive – we were not disappointed! The only sad part was that we just did not have the time (and had a toddler in tow) to find the waterfall at Glenariff Park.

The weather was not really conducive to getting many good pictures, unfortunately. I would consider the drive to be a must-do if you find yourself in Northern Ireland.

As we neared Larne, the timing was just right to stop at Glenarm Castle for lunch. This was one of the places I really wanted to see, the walled garden in particular. This is the same Glenarm Castle that the Earls of Antrim built after the kitchen tragedy at Dunluce. The Earl and his family still live in the Castle. It is nearly self sufficient with gardens and livestock. The gardens and a lovely cafe are open to the public. The majority of the food served in the cafe is produced on the estate.

The entire weekend was certainly a whirlwind, but we wanted to give the kids a chance to see as much as possible. It was well worth the effort! And we have an awesome bottle of Bushmills 12 year reserve as a memento.🥰🥰

I laugh just writing that title. Anyone who knows me shudders, I’m sure. As we continue on this oh-so-slightly-crazy adventure, certain things have become common place, like driving on the wrong side of the road – or even more adventurous, I feel, is crossing the street on foot! And, now that we have gotten used to driving on the left, we leave in two weeks for France… where my brain will be even more challenged as I try to speak French. Pray for success😵

Back to the subject at hand…my brain and its thoughts. Cars. See, I constantly pay attention to the cars around me. Now, this is a good thing when driving, except that I’m noticing all the cars going the other direction, along the streets, and everywhere else. It’s pretty annoying because I can’t not see them. And then I contemplate what I see. This all happens quickly. Then, I start talking out loud about it and nobody else saw what I saw. Sigh. See the problem?

The cool thing here is that I notice what’s not readily available in the US. And I find this fun and interesting – maybe you are thinking “weirdo”, pppffftttt…whatever.

Enough on cars. Now for other things that appeal to my brain. Brexit. Does not appeal on its own, but as a living soap opera, it’s quite interesting. Unfortunately, it’s real and it is people’s lives. But that does not mean I can not look for the funny side (and there are many of them) –

Now for some other random items that have appealed to me…

I know this is seriously random, but these are some of the bizarre things that I think about. Expect more posts like this on occasion, sometimes I just have to let it out.🤪

Next post should be a bit more normal – and maybe even interesting – as we go on the road again.

First off, what’s so special about Devenish Island that makes me so full of praise for it? Nothing. And everything. Really, it’s not a tangible something: it’s a feel. I’m sure part of the magic was the culmination of a great day of seeing wonderful things, but we aren’t the only ones to sing the praises of this little island. I was interested in going because there was an ancient Irish High Cross on it, but then we kept hearing the place mentioned by locals. Our curiosity was piqued. We knew that the only way there was by boat. Ugh. Boats and I have a long history of nausea. I want to like them — really, I do — but that bobbing and swaying thing makes me green just thinking about it. I told myself “this is a lake and it is a calm day, it will be fine”. Turns out that I was right (for once…).

When we went to Enniskillen Castle and bought our admission tickets, the lady at the desk mentioned that they had a water taxi to Devenish. I informed the Husband that we would be doing this. He must have realized that I was very serious, as I was volunteering to ride in a boat. Allow me to take a moment here to clarify: this was a boat, not a ship, regardless of what the Oldest Son (who is assigned to a submarine in the Navy) says. Navy says that boats are subs, anything above water is a ship. Again, this was no ship…this was a yellow bath toy.

We had elected to take our trip to the island after our visit to the caves, so we selected the last trip of the day at 5pm. The day had been clear and calm and the light that evening was spectacular. The sky was a brilliant blue, the water was a deep blue surrounded by gorgeous green hills. What a place. Lough Erne (pronounced Lowg) is actually two lakes that are connected and is the fourth largest lake on the island of Ireland. It’s big. Really big. Not Lake Michigan big, but still big. Our cabby captain driver? was a really nice guy whose name I didn’t get. Sigh. And we got to wear super stylish flotation devices. Not. Well, we did wear them. We had a couple from northern Massachusetts, a single guy from Berlin (doing a Game of Thrones drive of Northern Ireland) and ourselves on the boat. All super friendly people – we had some great conversations. Anyway, boat riding itself aside, the trip out was very enjoyable.

It was about a half hour trip and, as we were arriving, the last bigger ferry was departing which meant we had the place to ourselves! Wow. Before I get into what we saw, it’s time for your historical lesson. Stop rolling your eyes and pay attention. In the 5th century, Saint Maloise (Malosh) founded a monastery on the island and it flourished. The monastery was along a popular pilgrimage route and was well known for providing hospitality. There were several buildings, including a small stone structure (still partially standing) that is said to have been the home of Saint Maloise. As late as the 19th century, many of the buildings were far more complete than they are now. That is because, as Enniskillen town grew they, thought “hey! Let’s go get some of that great, pre-cut stone that’s just sitting there unused.” And we all know my thoughts on damaging history so I will be quiet. Fortunately, before it was all hauled away, it was realized what they were destroying and stopped. And the tower wasn’t touched.

So, without much further ado…here is what we saw. With complete credit to the Husband for his excellent photography…

This round tower is the best preserved and finest example in all of Ireland. It is almost perfectly intact. I was sad that we were unable to go in it, but it is understandable, as it was late in the day. This tower was built by master masons and every exterior stone was hand carved to create the round shape. Stunning craftsmanship.

Hopefully these photos are able to convey some of the beauty of Devenish Island and Lough Erne. It was a perfect finish to a wonderful day. I can’t recommend it enough: if you’re in the northern part of the island, come to Enniskillen and Devenish Island. It’s absolutely worth the effort.

We haven’t rented a car since we arrived in Northern Ireland, and it was time for a new driving adventure! The vehicle: a lovely, white Skoda Fabia. For the people who aren’t familiar with this particular brand, Volkswagen has three levels: Audi, VW and Skoda, with Skoda being the bargain brand. For the Fabia, take a VW Golf and remove a bunch of length and width (in Europe, this is the VW Polo: a mini Golf🤣🤣). Then remove most of the ability to accelerate. Not a car that I would choose to drive normally, but it was cheap.

As soon as the Husband was done with work on Friday we set off. The Daughter quickly figured out that the backseat was nausea inducing (especially with roundabouts every couple of miles). Once we got out to the main motorway (dual carriageway, if you want to be precise), she felt better though. It was a couple of hours drive to Lisnaskea, where we had our Airbnb rental for the weekend. Note to the people who put up road signs: when the main road that people might take to a town is closed, it would be really helpful if said people knew this ahead of time. Really helpful. We got to our turnoff (after passing a sign on the previous exit saying, unhelpfully, Lisanaskea exit), headed down the road…only to see the sign (now) saying road closed. Our Dana (as we have named Google Maps. Why Dana? No clue. Random choice) took us on a country adventure. We did eventually get to our destination, so she did not lead us astray. Lisnaskea is not much more than a village, and our house ended up being a few miles outside of it. Out a small country road, then we turned on a smaller country road, then we turned on the gravel path past the green fence. You get the idea. Great house though!! Beautiful, spacious, no one around, gorgeous views. It was wonderful. Although, it was a little surreal waking up the next morning in a room painted gray, as this was almost the exact same color that was in our bedroom at our house (sniff, sniff). But I digress…We quickly dropped off our bags and headed to Enniskillen to find some dinner (knowing, rightly, that food options in Lisnaskea were very limited). We ended up at a lovely pub and had an excellent dinner (and even better conversation) with a local couple who gave us all kinds of tips for the area. Number one among these was go to Devenish Island. I already knew about this place and was hoping we could get out there. We are so glad we did…and it will have its own blog post!

Driving back to Lisnaskea that evening we made certain to make a couple of photo stops. We had spotted these places on the drive in to Enniskillen and the evening light made for some pretty pictures.

The next morning we went into Lisnaskea for breakfast – thanks to our host Shaun for recommending the Kissin’ Crust! Yummo. I also knew that I could continue my ancient Irish High Cross quest as there was one in the town!

Back we went to Enniskillen. What a cute town! It had that wonderful Irishy feel to it that Larne is so lacking in. We didn’t have much time (we knew we would have more time later in the day), so we went directly to Enniskillen Castle and the outstanding museum/visitor center there. Other than the historical value of going to this site, there was another, more personal one. The castle was built by the Maguire clan, who ruled Fermanagh beginning in the 1300s. Our family is most likely a branch of the Maguires, Mac Maghnusa, therefore the Maguire chieftains would be distant relatives. The modern spelling, McManus, is found all over the Lisnaskea/Enniskillen area. One ancestor went to America, one of his descendants had seven sons and they all spelled their last name differently (spelling didn’t have consistency until the 1800s)…

To continue our busy, busy day…we were going to the Marble Arch Caves! We had to drive way out into the hills, but it was an easy drive. The caves themselves are marvelous. I have only been in one other cave (Lewis and Clark in Montana), so I don’t have much to compare them to, but, WOW! There is a river running through the caves, which is what carved them out of the limestone. In many areas you can see almost ripple-like areas in the stone from the movement of the water. And where there are pools of standing water it is so still (no wind, right?) the water is as clear as a mirror. Stunning.

Once we were done with our cave adventure we went back to Enniskillen. We meandered along the high street, enjoying the feel of the town. We are discussing basing ourselves there the next time we come back to Ireland as it would be an easy location to explore the northwest corner.

We spent our evening out at Devenish Island, but as I said before, that will get its own blog post. Not a night we will forget easily. Definitely a highlight!

The next morning, after discovering that in really small towns in Northern Ireland even the Lidl grocery store is only open for 4 hours in the afternoon on a Sunday, we had a quick breakfast and made one last stop in the area we were in, Ballymacmanus. Yep, the family had an island. It is now referred to as Belle Isle, which is too bad. Granted, it is not absolutely certain the the Husband is descended from this particular family as there is another McManus down in Co. Roscommon, but this was the largest, and best documented group.

Ballymacmanus is beautiful. There is a 17th century estate on the island that has been converted to a resort. The rooms are in the main lodge as well as in the converted stables. It is very well done and isn’t intrusive on the natural beauty. We plan to come back and stay there at some point!

Our last stop on this great adventure was Armagh. This stop was for me. Unfortunately, we didn’t leave a lot of time to spend here.

The most direct (according to our Google Dana) route from Ballymacmanus to Armagh took us through the Republic of Ireland. It was good to see those Gaelic signs again! I wished I had been better prepared for the switch, as the old border crossings were still there. I couldn’t exactly slam on the brakes as we went speeding past. The buildings were derelict but were a example of neighbors being split. The border went along the county lines, we started in Co Fermanagh, crossed the border into Co Monaghan, and back into Northern Ireland at Co Armagh. Monaghan town was adorable – need to go back there again!

Why Armagh? Those of you who know me, know my love of history. You have my attention between the 3rd and 16th centuries. Because Church history is so intertwined in this time period, it too is a focus (that, and I love the tradition). Armagh is where St Patrick built his church. The one that he built because he wanted to. He was getting old and wanted to settle in one place. On a hill in Armagh, where Queen Maeve had been said to rule from (long story there!) he built a stone church at a time when most structures were wooden. As bishop, this made Armagh the center of the church in Ireland, which it still is today. The church that was built in the 5th century no longer exists (😭). A large part of the current structure dates from the late 1100s. When King Henry VIII pitched his royal fit (not that I have any strong feelings on the matter) and created the Church of England/Ireland in 1534 the cathedral at Armagh was no longer a Catholic cathedral. This wouldn’t bother me so much if there was not so much wanton destruction of irreplaceable historical objects and places along with it. Prime example – one of the relics of St Patrick (his staff) was burned in the 16th century. ARGH! Put it in a museum, hide it in a closet…but don’t destroy it! I know, I know, it was a part of the time. So…back to the original subject…the St Patrick’s Cathedral, Church of Ireland, is beautiful. And has the remains of a high cross. Yea!

Alrighty, fast forward to 1835. A new Archbishop (Catholic) of Armagh had been appointed and immediately asked permission to reside in Armagh – no bishop had resided there since 1534. And he found a way to build a new cathedral. So, there are two St Patrick’s Cathedral in a little town. And they face each other from hilltops. And over the ensuing nearly 200 years they have gotten along very nicely. In fact, the restaurant where we had lunch was a place where both bishops frequently eat – and occasionally they eat together.

I didn’t get nearly enough time in this town. It is on the list of places to return to! The weekend was wonderful, we saw some fantastic places, cute towns, jaw dropping caves, beautiful scenery and met many lovely people. I will try to get the post on Devenish Island done tomorrow (fingers crossed)…it will be mostly photos anyway. It might be one of my favorite places that I have ever been…

Finally. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on how I wanted to approach this subject. Partly because I have some conflicting feelings on the subject. So, sit back, relax, have a glass of wine (2 or 3 – you’ll like my blog better that way), and let me tell you about this town we are currently living in (why do I have the Beverly Hillbillies song in my head now?).

We are sitting on the Antrim Coast at the beginning of the Coastal Route along the far northern coast of the island of Ireland. That little tip of Scotland that you see on the right side of the map is visible on a clear day.

Larne, as a town, has been around for a long time, but as far as I know, there is very little remaining of the old. There are some castle ruins along the little inlet, otherwise the oldest buildings that I know of are early to mid 1800s. The harbor is calm most of the time, so one of the Scotland ferries runs out of here. These are big ship kind of ferries, which makes sense since they are crossing the North Atlantic. I am used to the Washington State ferries…they would be dwarfed by these ships!

Most every morning the Husband and I take a walk. The house that our flat is part of is close to the entrance to the Town Park. We go down a little street, cross the coast road (remembering which way traffic is coming from!), go down a little path and we are at the water! No view from the house though (sadly). The promenade along the sea is our favorite part of our morning walks. It looks different every day. We can tell whether we left on time, early or later than usual depending on where the ferry is!

The tower that has featured in a couple of photos is a memorial to a man named James Chaine. He was a Member of Parliament and apparently did a lot of good for the area. When he died in 1885 the round tower at the beach was erected in his memory. He was also buried in the Town Park…seriously.

After walking along the water we head into town. The main street (called…wait for it…Main Street) is where most of the shops are located. I don’t have any photos of it – it’s not very scenic. What it does look like is British, rather than the Irish style. I’m not sure if this is because it was it was built later, or because Larne was very much a Unionist town. That means that they were firmly on the side of UK/Protestant during the Troubles (and earlier). That does not mean that there are no Catholics/Catholic churches here. In fact, there are two. I’ve asked a few locals and they say that the conflict is in the past. We had a cab driver the other day who admitted he was one of the young guys throwing molotov cocktails at vehicles during the Troubles – all he wants now is peace. There are definitely neighborhoods that feel compelled to “paint” here – something more common in Belfast to denote whether a neighborhood is Republican (generally Catholic) or Unionist (generally Protestant). We have one that we walk through every day.

While there are a couple of proper grocery stores in town, we like to shop at the butcher (who carries a surprising variety of stuff) and the fruit/veg shop on Main Street. We can’t get over how inexpensive everything is here! And the quality is wonderful. The train station is just off of Main Street and is very convenient. Biggest issue we deal with is that everything is downhill from us. Which means, what goes down, must come back up! We tell ourselves it’s training for when we move to France in October. Dinan is the only town on this whole trip that we have already been to. Our house is on a hill. Cobblestoned hill. Oh boy. Anyway, the walks are good for all of us. We have found some of our favorite places to eat of course. The Coffee Doc is great fun and good food. Steady Eddie’s is our Friday dinner favorite. We can get pretty good pizza in our neighborhood. American style, as opposed to European style, which I find interesting, but it’s good stuff. We are still finding new things though, which we enjoy.

I would not say that I love this place, but I like it and it has been a good place to stay. It’s easy to get to other areas and the people have been nothing but kind. They do seem very surprised that we are here though. I don’t think they have many people who stay here more than a few days and as soon as we open our mouths they know we aren’t locals. I can’t even begin to replicate the accent here. It’s like a little Irish, a bit of British and a glob of Scottish all had too much whiskey. This weekend, we are hanging out in town, although I am pushing to head to Belfast on Sunday. I really need to replace a few clothing items. I’m getting to the point where I never want to see a couple of shirts ever again. Yeah, yeah. First world problems, right?