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)