Off to Normandy

Up, well kind of early on Sunday, breakfast and packing to leave the apartment at rue Lalande. Off to the Gate Montparnasse to get the rental car. And it turns out that the rental car that we have (the budget kind, Enterprise) is off site, over the hill (literally a bridge over a main road) and through the woods (well, through the parking lot for a long distance) to finally find Enterprise and the kindly David who helped us. We could see the Tour Montparnasse, where we began, about a mile away in the distance. If only we had known the correct address, but anyway we found it, and he gave us an Opel Mokka, a small SUV so lots of room. It's a manual, so Barney dries carefully back to rue Lalande, where we score a parking space n the delivery spot. Down come the suitcases, we see Stephanie coming to prepare the apartment for the next folks, and off we go. Some harrowing moments getting on the Peripherique, but eventually we get out to the A13 toward Bayeux. Soon the office buildings and apartment blocks turn to green fields and stone farmhouses.

We arrive in Bayeux around 5:00pm, and Barney is having fun driving through the narrow medieval streets, and the "something is close" buzzer keeps going off when we go by other cars. We find 16 rue Chanoine, where we're staying, and ring the bell. Jerome and his partner Sebastien greet us and take us through the main gate into a large and very lush garden. Large trees and carefully tended flowers are everywhere,. Even though the fronts of the houses go right up to the narrow sidewalks, behind those fronts are beautiful gardens. The gite we have rented is lovely, the second floor of an 18th century house built party into the original medieval wall, and Jerome and Sebastian live on the other side of the building. The apartment is beautiful, with a huge bed, enormous bathroom, modern IKEA kitchen, and a sunroom that looks out onto the garden.

We unpack and settle in, then go walking around the area to get some bread at the one boulangerie that is open late on Sunday, and then to the cathedral, where a concert by the French Army chorus has just ended. We walk through the cathedral, and when most people have left (we are long past closing time), I sing the Faure "Pie Jesu" which has a nice sound there. We leave to look for dinner, and find La Assiette Norman, a very nice yet simple place with affordable specialities ... an appetizer and plat and dessert plus aperitif and cider cost about 50 euros.  The waitresses are all young and very nice, and almost everyone in the restaurant is speaking English, either with American or British accents. Back at the gite, we fall into the very comfy bed and sleep until 8am the next morning.