Long Weekend in Normandy

Last week, Matthew and I spent a long weekend in the Normandy region of France with some great friends.  Claire's aunt owns 2 apartments in a house in the beautiful city of Trouville-sur-Mer.  She and Bertrand invited us and a Dutch couple, Mark and Silke, to travel with them to Trouville for 4 days and 4 nights.  Bertrand, Claire, Lisa, and Imanol left early Wednesday afternoon so that they could stop by Claire's aunt's house in Versaille to pick up the key.  Mark, Silke, Matthew, and I left Wednesday evening when they all got off work.  We all arrived in Trouville around 1am.

The house in Trouville where we stayed...just the first floor. :)

After sleeping in a little on Thursday morning, we headed down to the beach.

 Mark and I walked with the kids on the beach while the others went for a run.
After showers and lunch, the kids took naps.  Matthew and I took that opportunity to walk around Trouville and explore.

After nap time we all drove to the neighboring beach village of Deauville.   Although we had beautiful blue skies, the wind was blowing  close to 50 mph!  You could even see the sand blowing across the beach.  Mark bought a kite, and without any effort, it took off!  The hardest part was trying to pull it back down!

Friday we woke up and were on the road early with our destination being Mont Saint-Michel, a two hour drive from Trouville.

Mont Saint-Michel is a rocky tidal island about 1/2 a mile off the north coast of France.  The population of the island is only 41!  "Before the construction of the first monastic establishment in the 8th century, the island was called "monte tombe". According to legend, St. Michael the Archangel appeared to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, in 708 and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. Aubert repeatedly ignored the angel's instruction, until St. Michael burned a hole in the bishop's skull with his finger" (Wikipedia).

As we parked our car, we noticed all of the warning signs telling us that if we did not move our car by 7:30pm, the tide would come in...and our car would be gone!

 We ate lunch on the island and spent the day exploring the village and abbey perched on top of the island.

Saturday morning, I wasn't feeling so great, so I opted to stay at the apartment while the others headed to the beach to build sand castles.  Matthew was the self-proclaimed 'Sand Castle King', and apparently his castle was impressive enough that some Japanese tourists stopped to take pictures of themselves in front of it!

 

Saturday afternoon we drove to the nearby port village of Honfleur.  It was packed!  But it was a beautiful day, and it was the perfect place to walk around.  Besides the picturesque port, Honfleur also boasts the largest church made out of wood in France, the Sainte-Catherine church.  

 

 

 

Sunday we packed up and cleaned up the apartment and were on the road by 10am.  Bertrand and Claire were headed back to Versaille to give the apartment key back to Claire's aunt.  Our car decided to stop by the village of Chartres.  We had driven through Chartres on our way to Trouville, and the cathedral had been all lit up.  It was stunning at night, so we decided to stop and take a closer look on our drive home.  We ate lunch at a little cafe right beside the cathedral and then walked through the church.  It is in the middle of a renovation where the stone is being cleaned.  The difference is amazing.  The uncleaned stone is nearly black, while the cleaned stone is nearly white.  It is going to be absolutely beautiful when they finish.

 

 

You can see the difference in the light colored/cleaned stone at the top and the dark/uncleaned stone below.  What a difference!