We're Back!!

SUNDAY, 9/9:

The clouds finally broke just as we flew over Lake Superior and just as U2’s “A Sort of Homecoming” popped up on my iPod’s shuffle.

Coincidence or not?  You hafta wonder. . .

Greetings from Chicago, where we’re waiting four hours for a flight to Marquette after spending the last 9 hours flying from Paris.  I always like the flight back to the U.S., if only because I get the window seat and get to spend most of the time staring out at the window, satisfying my inner geography nerd.  Unfortunately, the clouds started as we were over England today and with one exception stayed until, like I said, we flew over Lake Superior.

Bummer.  But I do have to marvel at the timing of their departure.

The one time the clouds DID break, though, we were right over Greenland, which means I got to spend 20 minutes studying the topography of glaciers and ice sheets from 35,000 feet.  It was actually quite neat; I got to see how glaciers move like rivers (only, of course, at a glacial pace) and I was also able to observe how they create icebergs when they finally start to melt after reaching open water.

See?  Geography nerd!

Other than that the day’s been mostly uneventful. We did have one interesting moment when everyone in our terminal was stopped in their tracks at Charles de Gaulle airport.  We were told to wait in line, heard an explosion a few minutes later, and then were told to go on our way.  As it turns out, whenever they find a piece of luggage just sitting unattended, they blow it up.  No, really.  They put it in a little bomb box and detonate it, blowing up any potential explosives and, of course, everything else in the luggage.

Oh, and they also fine you 450 Euro if they figure out to whom the bag belonged.  So don’t leave your luggage unattended in Paris!

Okay.  I said yesterday that I had a few pictures I haven’t posted that I wanted to.  You ready?

This is how they deliver mail in cities in France—

Here’s the newest restaurant in Bayeux—

Restaurants all over the place are starting to cater at American and British tourists, in fact.  Here’s one right outside of Carentan=--

This is the view from the church at La Pernelle, which sits several hundred meters above everything else, including the coast—

Here’s the car, an Opel, we drove for 2,260 kilometers—

And finally, here are two flower shots, one from Avranches—

and one from Bayeux—

As always, Loraine and I thank you for following along, and hope you enjoyed it.  We also hope you’ll join us in a mere 51 weeks as we join the legendary Tony the Tour Guide to ramble around eastern & southern Germany, with a side trip to Poland.  Make sure your virtual passport is up to date by then!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Bye Bye, Bayeux

SATURDAY, 9/8:

I’m glad to see Mr. Attard is still around.

I do not know Bayeux resident Robert Attard.  I wouldn’t know him if I saw him in the street, and I certainly could not tell him apart from any other Jean, Francois, or Henri I’d come across.  However, every time we go to Bayeux, I look to see if he’s around.  You see, Robert Attard lives just a few doors down from our hotel.  The first time we were in Bayeux in 2004 we were walking down the street when we came across Mr. Attard’s name, which I noticed because of his address on the Rue St. Patrice—

Yes, I know, I’m a dork.  But anyway, every time we’ve come back to Bayeux and take our first walk down the street, I always look at see if Mr. Attard is still living at 107 Rue St. Patrice.  I’ve thought of leaving him a business card or sending him a letter explaining why I look at his mailbox every time we visit, but some people think I’m strange enough as it is.

So I’ll leave it at that.

I’m writing this from the Paris suburb of Roissy-en-France.   We spent one last Saturday morning in Bayeux, where we went to the market and I picked up breakfast—

Loraine managed to make one last animal friend—

And I managed to take one last beauty shot of the city—

We then left and made the three hour drive through Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport, where we dropped off the rental car without a scratch (well, with nine or ten scratches, but they were all on there—and noted by Avis—before we picked it up).  We then hopped on the hotel shuttle bus to Roissy, which is why I am writing from here!!

Roissy-en-France is a unique place.  While it’s several hundred years old, the only reason it exists today is because of 5,000-some hotel rooms that ring the city (including, I might add, the one I’m writing this in).  Because of the complexity of international travel, a lot of people find themselves needing a place to stay close to the airport in order to catch an early morning flight (we among them).  And Roissy, just a few kilometers from the airport, fits that bill to a “T”.  They seem to embrace their place in the world, too.  They know that most people who visit are just here for a few hours, and so they always have this big photo display in their public gardens, which gives visitors a chance to enjoy (while jets fly overhead) a little fresh air, a lot of plants, and some very interesting photo displays—

That’s one of the works from this year’s exhibitions, celebrating women of the world.  They change it up every year; my personal favorite was in 2009, when they had 80 aerial photographs of French landmarks blown up to the billboard size you see above.

That was neat.

Seeing as how it was 90 degrees and sunny today, after we dropped off the rental car we spent quite a while just wandering around Roissy.  We even managed to catch the tail end of a wedding!

In France, they decorate the car of the bride & groom up with flowers, and then the newlyweds lead a caravan of family and friends throughout the town, honking their horns as often as possible.  The happy couple must’ve been a popular couple, as well, as their caravan was quite long and quite loud!

We also spent some of our time looking for a Renault Twingo.  Just because of the name it’s our favorite car in France; add to it the fact that it’s small and very eco-friendly and just makes it even better.  Well, after seeing hundreds of them all throughout Normandy, the only one we could find here is being used as a delivery car for the local sushi restaurant—

Anyway, that’s what a Twingo looks like!

We leave Paris tomorrow around noon here, get into Chicago around 2 Central time, and then have to spend four or five hours at O’Hare waiting for our flight back to Marquette, where we should land just before 10.  If I did my math correctly—which, as we all know, is always a very iffy proposition—that means we’ll have spend approximately 16 hours from the time we head to the airport from the time we land.

Ah, the things you go through for chocolate fresh from the source.  (Speaking of chocolate, be sure to read my P.S.)

Since I have the time and the battery power, I’ll try to write another blog from the plane tomorrow and upload it from Chicago.  I have a ton of pictures I haven’t used yet, and many (hopefully) interesting things left to share.  But for one final time from France. . .

(jim@wmqt.com)

(p.s.—Okay, here’s the chocolate reference.  Because Tony the Tour Guide knows us a little too well, the first question he asked when we ran into him yesterday and he saw we were carrying a bag was, of course, “Is that your chocolate?”  No, it wasn’t.  But before we checked out today we left Tony a little “gift” at the front desk.  We hope it was yummy!)

C'est Le Monde Petit

FRIDAY, 9/7:

You will never ever ever ever convince me that this is not a small world.

Ever.

Our last full day in Normandy took us once again from one side of the region to the other.  We started the day by driving to what’s known as the Suisse Normande; basically, it’s a park-like region of the area that some people say resembles the Swiss Alps.  And while the hills are nowhere near as big as the Alps, it was a pretty area, and we did get to drive on a narrow road with rock walls towering 20 or so meters over us.

You don’t get to do that every day.

While there we stopped at a 13^th century church/graveyard in the town of St. Benin because it provided an overlook of the area.  The overlook was okay; the headstones in the cemetery, though, were something else—

I don’t know if there was someone in the area who specialized in those types of headstones, but they were everywhere you looked.  It was kinda beautiful and kinda creepy at the same time.  I kept expecting Tim Burton and/or Johnny Depp to pop out and surprise us.

From there we went to the edge of France.  In fact, we went as far as you can go without falling off.  Now, that’s not really saying much; there are many areas of France where you can only go so far before you fall off.  But Loraine noticed on her roadmap a point of land called Pointe de Brèvands that allowed vehicular access, so we drove up, got out of out car, walked a few feet, and came to the edge of France—

I know; kinda anti-climatic, isn’t it?  But if you kept going the next land you’d set foot on is the southern shore of Great Britain, so in a way, we really did go to the edge of France.

After a few more stops we headed back to Bayeux one last time and spent a while just wandering around.  In fact, that’s where your Bayeux beauty shot of the day comes from—

If you’ve been following along with these trip ramblings over the years you may remember that the cathedral in Bayeux was built starting in 1077 to commemorate William the Conqueror’s conquering of England.  It’s a huge building; in fact, you can see the steeples while driving on the coast seven miles away from here.  I was just at the right angle to get it all in one shot; there are very few places around here where you can do that.

Oh, we also went to Bayeux’s public gardens, where your flower shot of the day comes from—

There’s also a huge tree in the middle of the gardens that was named “France’s Stately Tree of 2001”.  Yes, they give out awards like that over here; no, I don’t know why.  Anyway, the tree, a weeping beech, has gotten so large that they actually have to use cables to hold the branches up, lest the tree collapse under its own weight like a deflated meringue.  Can you see the cables?

Now, onto the business of how you’ll never convince me it’s not a small world.  When we were walking back to our hotel after cruising the streets of Bayeux we noticed a bus parked in the lot.  There have been a lot of tour buses here in the week we’ve been around.  We’ve seen buses from Holland, buses from Italy, buses from Germany, buses from Great Britain, and even a bus from Sweden.  As has become our habit, we walked over to the bus to see from which country it came.  That’s when the door opened, and that’s when our friend Tony Cisneros—the gentleman we refer to as “Tony The Tour Guide” in these blogs—stepped out to greet us.  You may remember Tony; he was our guide last year in Belgium and Germany, and he’ll guide us again next year when we return to Germany.  Tony has a tour group he’s taking around battle areas, and they just happen to be in Normandy the same time we are.  In fact, he’s been reading these every day (thanks, Tony!) and wondering if he’d come across us.

Well, he can wonder no more.  And just so the whole world knows the planet is indeed a very small place—

From left to right is Loraine, Tony, and some dork who snuck in the shot.  Afterwards Loraine and I could not stop marveling—nor stop laughing—at the random coincidence of it all.  It’s a small small small small world, people.  The more you see of it, the more you’re convinced of that fact.  Oh, and don’t forget—Tony’s company is called Alpventures, and you can check it out at www.alpventures.com.

Tomorrow’s both a happy & sad day; happy because we get to go to Market Day again here in Bayeux, and sad because we have to leave Bayeux, drive back to Paris, drop off the rental car, and spend a night in Roissy before flying back to Marquette on Sunday.  I can’t believe the time has gone by so quickly; it seems like we just got here yesterday, instead of a week ago.  Sigh. . .

That’s it until tomorrow.  I now have to go see if all the chocolate and cereal I bought fits into my suitcase.  If not, I may be throwing some clothes out.  And yes, I’m serious about that.  You actually think I wouldn’t be?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

On a Clear Day You Can See Mont St. Michel

THURSDAY, 9/6:

We bought, ripped apart, and ate a pig for breakfast this morning.

No; we really did, and I have a picture to prove it which I’ll show you in a little bit.  But seeing as how it was sunny and 75 today, we took a road trip and visited the town of Avranches, which now rivals Bayeux as our favorite place in Normandy.  Yes, I know it’s shocking that we could have a place we like as much as Bayeux, but Avranches is it.  In fact, I think it would make a good sister city for Marquette.  It has a lot of hills, a hospital, a ton of bike riders, some magnificent churches, and flowers everywhere.  In fact if there’s one thing Avranches loves, it’s flowers. 

Well, flowers, and George Patton.

They have a HUGE memorial to General Patton right in the center of the city.  In fact, it’s called Patton Plaza, and I’ve joked before that the 52-foot monument was based on the size of Patton’s legendary ego.  But like I said, they love George Patton in Avranches.  Don’t believe me?

That’s a bust of Patton (in the plaza) with the Patton Boulangerie (bakery) right behind it.  What you can’t see is that next to the Boulangerie is the Patton Pizzeria, and across the street from it is the Patton Hotel.  And no, I’m not making that up.  I couldn’t make it up if I wanted to!

Like Bayeux, Avranches has one main street on which most of the businesses sit.  Unlike Bayeux, it has the remnants of a 1,000 year old castle (Avranches being founded by some dude named D’Avranches, who helped William the Conqueror conquer England in 1066), as well as an incredible public garden that overlooks the Mont Saint Michel, France’s biggest tourist attraction.  From the public garden, in fact, comes today’s flower picture!

See the butterfly on the flower?  There are a zillion of them in Avranches, including this one that Loraine coaxed onto her hand—

She had better luck with the butterfly than yesterday’s horses!

Anyway, Avranches is a very cool place, and if it ever does become Marquette’s French sister city, I volunteer right now to become the city’s official ambassador.  You don’t even need to twist my arm.

After Avranches we scooted a little south to visit another German war cemetery.  This one is the only war cemetery I’ve ever seen that has crypts instead of graves (almost 12,000 of them, in fact), and it has an even better view of Mont Saint Michel than you get from Avranches’ public gardens—

We then made our way back to Bayeux via 100 kilometers of winding roads and up & down hills that were not only fun to drive but offered breathtaking views everywhere you looked.  So for those of you who doubted we could actually take a “vacation”, guess what?  We’re actually on vacation!

Now, back to the pig.  Yes, we did buy, butcher, and eat a pig for breakfast.  Would you like to see it?

The bakers here in Bayeux do wonderful things with marzipan, and this pig is no exception.  Its body is actually made of a cake topped with a thick chocolate cream, which is then covered with a pink marzipan body, ears and curly little tail.  It tasted as good as it looked; so good, in fact, that we went back down to the bakery after we returned from Avranches to purchase another.  Sadly, though, they were sold out.

Guess we weren’t the only ones craving le cochon today.

It’s kind of hard to fathom, but tomorrow’s our last full day in Bayeux.  I can’t believe we flew out from Marquette a week ago, nor can I believe that we’ve seen almost every single thing we’ve wanted to see (and then some).  Tomorrow, we’re revisiting some old haunts, and might check out a river and the forests around it.  So until then. . .

(jim@wmqt.com), future ambassador to Avranches, Manche, France.

Swinging Dead Cats

WEDNESDAY, 9/5:

Loraine and I made a new friend today.

More on that in a bit.  Today was the day we were thinking about hanging around Bayeux for part of the day, just to see how the locals live.  There is a second market day here on Wednesdays, and we thought we’d head down there, check things out, and see what else there was to see during a typical Wednesday.

Unfortunately, this morning WAS typical for Bayeux, in that fog from the Channel drifted in and covered everything with a steady mist.  Not only that, but the Wednesday market wasn’t anything like the big Saturday one we so love.  It was filled mostly with second-hand junk dealers smoking non-stop, so we instead high-tailed it to a couple of grocery stores and did what we do best—buy chocolate:

Don’t worry; I didn’t buy this all today, and it’s not all for me.  In fact, a big chunk of it is going out as gifts to family and friends.  But since we talk about chocolate (and buying it) so much, I figured you might like to see what a typical haul looks like.

By noon the mist finally cleared and the sun came out, so we did one of the things on our “typical day” list.  We grabbed a very yummy sliced-tomato and gooey cheese baguette (sandwich) from a local shop and strolled along the Bayeux River Walk—

The Aure River runs through Bayeux (it’s the one that’s been featured in a couple of the beauty shots I’ve posted of the town) and for a couple of kilometers there’s a trail along it that you can follow.  And that’s what we did today, all while munching on a delectable sandwich.

Life can be good at times, you know?

After the river walk we decided to head out of town for a little while, lest I get rusty at driving (and it’s a pity sarcasm doesn’t travel well in the written form, isn’t it?)  We were trying to make our way to a forest to do a little hiking when we found ourselves taking a wrong turn.  Don’t worry; that happens on occasion, and usually when it occurs, so does something kinda cool, like today, when we were breezing down the wrong road, noticed all kinds of very tall trees, and something else, as well. 

We often joke that you can’t swing a dead cat in Normandy without running into a World War II monument, and we were proven correct again on that wrong road when we came across a monument we knew nothing about, a monument to an infantry company that lost 33 men (10 killed and 23 wounded) while trying to cross the presently itty, bitty Elle River on June 12^{th, 1944}.  The whole affair is new to Loraine, so it’ll give her something to research when we get home.  And right next to the monument was our new friend—

There were actually four horses in the field next to the monument; this was the most curious of the quartet, I guess.  Being a horse freak since she was a little girl, Loraine knew how to get the horse’s attention—

The funny thing about this?  The horse wouldn’t take one blade of grass from Loraine, the life-long horse lover.  Yet it would take handfuls from me, who knows nothing at all about horses.  Old men in Normandy like Loraine; I guess Norman horses like me.

Speaking of that World War II monument, here’s today’s flower shot—

One of the things we’ve noticed on all of our trips is that each and every memorial, no matter how insignificant or how out of the way, always has fresh flowers on it or growing next to it.  It’s a very nice thing, and something the people who live around here take very seriously.  And speaking of fresh flowers, the roses Loraine was given by Mr. Renaud yesterday are still in our hotel room, and making it smell a lot less like a hotel room than usual.

Tomorrow, we hope to buy a pig.  But until then. . .

(jim@wmqt.com)

A Few of My Favorite Things

TUESDAY, 9/4:

People who know me (or who’ve been reading my daily blogs for a long time) know that three of my favorite things in the world are eating chocolate, walking on a beach, and hanging out with Loraine.

Guess who got to do all three of those things at the same time today?

Today was a fantastic day, the kind of day you hope for when you’re going on a “vacation” as opposed to a “trip”.  After a couple of stops at grocery stores in two different areas, we took some of the chocolate and fulfilled a long sought dream of ours—we walked Omaha Beach—

The tide was out, the sun was (mostly) out, and we hopped out of our car at St. Laurent-sur-Mer for a little stroll down the sand, where we saw people sunbathing, people fishing, a lot of seaweed, a couple of interesting dead things, and this—

Now, it may just seem like a Mylar balloon to you, but it has “It’s a Boy” written on it in English, and since they don’t speak English in France, you have to assume that it actually floated here from England itself, about 20 miles away across the Channel.  If it was originally filled with helium I suppose it could’ve gotten away from a new parent, someone who was probably concerned about holding something a little more valuable than a balloon, and then made its way via air and/or tide to France.  It just struck me as a little. . .out of the ordinary to find a Mylar balloon—in English—on a French beach.

Right down the shoreline from Omaha Beach is a town called Arromanches, where right after the D-Day invasions they built a temporary harbor that was supposed to last for nine months.  Guess what you can still see out in the water 68 years later?

Of course, we shouldn’t be too surprised that it’s lasted this long.  One of its designers all those years ago was a Michigan Tech grad!

After our beach walk, we had to go meet a guy, and it was, simply, amazing.  Henri-Jean Renaud was the son of the mayor of Ste. Mere Eglise during the war.  He was 10 years old when the Germans invaded, and he shared with Loraine (and her geeky sidekick) all kinds of stories of what it was like living under occupation, as well as what it was like being liberated by the Allies four years later.  Because there was a temporary American cemetery in the town during the war, and because of her position as wife of the mayor, his mother found herself the recipient of hundreds of letters from mothers of American boys who had been buried in the town.  She took it upon herself to take pictures of their sons’ graves, along with pictures of the towns where they died, to send back to the grieving mothers, and she saved every letter of gratitude sent her way, letters her son still has.  Not only that, but an employee of his father’s, who developed film shot by the invading Germans, kept a copy of every one of those pictures for himself, pictures Mr. Renaud ended up with, so we were able to see some really... interesting photos from that collection, as well.

All in all, it was a fascinating way to spend part of the afternoon.  And Mr. Renaud must have taken quite a shine to my favorite World War II detective, because as we were leaving, he ran back to one of his rose bushes, and presented Loraine with several freshly-cut blooms, which leads to our flower picture for today—

Old guys dig my wife. . .what can I say?

Other than that, we just enjoyed ourselves today, capping it off with our traditional date night in Europe.  The first time we came over here, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and no matter how busy we’ve been on subsequent trips, we’ve always made time for a dinner at an Italian restaurant.  Tonight’s was at Il Bellagio here in Bayeux, where I had an incredibly delicious four cheese pizza.  Two of the cheeses on the pizza were especially yummy, the Bleu and the Chevre, which in case you don’t know is goat cheese.

Oh, don’t look at me like that.  Have you tried goat cheese on pizza yet?  It’s delicious!

I almost feel guilty, because I only took 56 pictures today, but I was kinda busy having fun and didn’t get a chance to shoot a lot, so I hope you’ll forgive me.  I did, however, take another Bayeux beauty shot—

This one, believe it or not, is actually the backside of the beauty shot from last night.  I really don’t think you can take a bad picture in Bayeux.  I really don’t.

Speaking of Bayeux, we’re gonna hang around here for part of the day tomorrow and just enjoy our “home”.  More details then!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Why Yes, That WAS a Viking Ship We Saw Today!

MONDAY, 9/3:

My streak of good fortune is still alive.

Back before we came to Europe in 2008 I bought a little umbrella to stick in my backpack, just in case it ever needed to get used.  Luckily, I’ve never had to use it, and it’s been sitting quietly all these years in the plastic case in which I purchased it.  This morning, though, we woke up to clouds and a fine mist raining down on everything, and by the time we got to our first stop, I was worried that I’d actually have to use the umbrella.  Luckily, though, Mother Nature remembered we had pre-ordered nice weather and got rid of the clouds and the mist, giving us breaks of sun throughout the rest of the day.

Thanks, Mother Nature!

Our journeys in the mist brought us this morning to several beaches of which you may have heard, where we saw some strange things, including this—

Harness racing is huge around here, and the drivers of the sulkies like to train their horses on local beaches, which is what they were doing here.  The beach, if you’re curious, is Omaha Beach.  In fact, they’re riding their sulkies on the beach at Vierville-sur-Mer, which is the same beach on which the fictional characters in “Saving Private Ryan” were landing.  Near there is a place called Pointe du Hoc, where another famous D-Day battle took place.  The thing about Pointe du Hoc is that the French government has left it in the exact same shape the Allies did after doing battle—

Those holes you see everywhere?  Those are bomb craters from U.S. Navy bombardment of the German gun emplacements that you now see as those big chunks of concrete everywhere.  I don’t know about you, but war seems like a mighty fine waste of natural resources to me.

We also headed up the road to Utah Beach, the other American landing beach, where we saw something else that was kinda curious—

In case you can’t quite make it out, that’s a replica Viking ship that sails out of the nearby city of Cherbourg, bringing tourists around to the area where Vikings actually landed and marauded back in the 800s.  It was weird; while driving up the coast I saw what I thought was a Viking boat, and stopped to take a picture.  Then at the tourist information office in another town, we happened across a pamphlet that told about the tours.  I guess you never know what you’re gonna see in France!

You know how we’ve been stopping at a lot of cemeteries around here?  Well, today we stopped at a German war cemetery in Orglandes, where over 10,000 people are buried.  You see a lot of graves there like this—

That translates to “three unknown German soldiers”, all buried in one mass grave.  While we were walking around the cemetery, I was struck by a couple of things.  The first was that most of the people buried in the cemetery weren’t your hard-core, evil, genocidal and maniacal Nazis.  They were just ordinary German citizens who had either been drafted or coerced (or both) into fighting for their country.  What shocked me walking around the cemetery was the number of kids buried there who hadn’t even reached their 18^th birthday.  I don’t know if this is true, but someone once told me that half of all German men between the ages or 15 and 40 were killed in World War II, that HALF of an entire generation died for nothing, died for an insane madman with warped dreams of conquering a planet.

When we were in the Normandy American Cemetery yesterday, we overheard a kid no older than eight ask a very perceptive question of one of his parents.  He simply said, “Dad, why did the Germans want everything?”  I hope his dad explained that it wasn’t all Germans who wanted everything, especially those Germans buried in a place like Orglandes.

Okay, enough with the depressing stuff.  Here’s today’s flower to cleanse your palette—

This was on a bush in the pretty little town of Isigny-sur-Mer, a place that makes butter and cream known around France.  And that leads us into today’s edition of “Food From France”!

(And Jamie LaFreniere, you may want to look away now).

We often tell people about the breakfasts you get here in Europe.  For Europeans, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and hotels always have a great buffet-type spread out ready & waiting for you.  Here’s mine from today—

The butter I put on the crepes, by the way?  From Isigny!

One of the reasons we stopped at Vierville-sur-Mer was because today was their market day, but as we quickly found out, their market day is nothing like Bayeux’s.  Where Bayeux’s market consists of over 100 people selling everything from fresh produce to live rabbits to “Ahh Bras”, Vierville’s consisted of, uhm, one lady selling peaches and apples. 

Not quite the same, if you know what I mean.

We did pick up a lot of produce today, though.  That’s another of the cool things about France:  because farming is so big, and because the government encourages healthy eating, fresh fruits and vegetables are incredibly cheap.  Loraine bought two big, red, juicy tomatoes for 50 cents, while I picked up a huge honkin’ carrot for 15 cents.  And that’s not even mentioning the white peaches and white nectarines we also inhaled!

Finally (and Jame, this is where you need to look away), we found another one of our Holy Grails today.  Back in 2009 we happened across the best chocolate tarts we’ve ever tried (and trust me, we’ve tried a few).  They’re rich, creamy, dark chocolate (made with cream from Isigny!) in a buttery shell with just a hint of anise in it.  In all our subsequent trips, we’ve never come across them again.  But guess what we found at a Super U?

The ironic thing, of course, is that we also saw them at the next Super U we came across an hour later.  Three years without seeing them, and we come across them twice in one day.  I guess that means we’ll be trying them again before we leave!

Tomorrow, we have to go see a guy about a thing.  Details on that then.

(jim@wmqt.com)