FRIDAY, 9/9:
It hit me as we were walking back to
the hotel.
There comes a moment in the final days
of every trip when you start thinking about all the adventures you've
had, and you realize that they'll soon be coming to an end. That
moment happened for me a few hours ago as we were nearing our hotel
after one last walk in and around Bayeux. It was a perfect late
summer day—the sun was out and the temperatures were above 80—and
Loraine and I had just strolled around the city, taking pictures of
kids at a skateboard park and buying a few last items of chocolate.
Heck, we had even discovered a park we never knew existed. It was
one of those perfect moments for which you can never plan but you're
always grateful to have experienced.
And it was probably the final one we'll
have on this little journey.
However, I consider myself to be lucky
as far as that goes. This has been an almost flawless and amazing trip, from the moment our luggage actually arrived on the same plane
as we did to the moment the sun perfectly hit Loraine's smiling face
as we walked into the hotel. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the
world. And while it's soon coming to an end, we'll always these
perfect little memories.
So what exactly did we do today, aside
from becoming way too reflective? Well, we hit the road to see two
things. The first was the town of Villedieu-les-Poeles, a town that
actually reminded us a little of Marquette. It has a history of
mining—in VlP's case, copper--and it now seems to have an influx of
artists to go along with its tourism related activities. In fact,
signs of the town's history with copper are everywhere--
Perhaps not surprisingly, they have
several shops that sell nothing but cookware made out of the town's
copper. Like Marquette, it's also built on a series of hills, which
means that almost everywhere you walked, you would run into views
that caught your eye--
And see colorful flowers everywhere--
Unlike Marquette, though, their
farmer's market has some rather unconventional looking seafood for
sale--
I'm curious. Just what exactly did
that fish do with those teeth?
Oh, and you remember how I apologized
yesterday for lying because I said you wouldn't have to look at Tour
de France stuff any more because we were out of the area in which the
race went, and then I went and posted more stuff before promising not
to do it again? Well, here's yet another apology for yet another
lie, because guess what went through Villedieu-les-Poeles?
Okay, I can now say with certainty that
you won't have to see ANY more stuff related to the Tour de France.
Unless, of course, I'm wrong. Because, as we all know, THAT could
never happen.
After Villedieu, we took a drive along
the Vire River. There are actually whole driving and walking
circuits you can take along the Vire River Valley, and some of the
descriptions sounded nice. But instead of taking one of the
suggested circuits, we made up our own, which led us to a park in the
little town of St. Suzanne sur Vire--
We ate lunch on the banks of the actual
Vire River, instead of just driving around it. The bridge you see in
the picture is an old railroad line that's been converted into a bike
and walking path between towns. Before leaving, we did two more
things. This picture is for Loraine's Aunt Suzanne--
Who may be happy to know we now call
the town Aunt Suzanne sur Vire. I don't think we'll be able to get
the French government to officially change the name, but we haven't
given up hope yet.
Secondly, as we were walking back to
the car, we saw a sign that said (in French) “beware of dog”.
Once we saw the dog, though, we had to laugh--
Maybe the sign should've said “Beware
of hamster”, or something just a little more appropriate.
After we left Aunt Suzanne, we stopped
at a place called “Roches de Ham”, which is a rock where you can
stand and see a view of much of the Vire Valley. We just thought it
would be one of those tacky tourist-trap places, but lo & behold,
the view wasn't too bad--
On the way back from the Roches we saw
this and we (okay, I) had to stop to take a picture--
There must've been three dozen cows in
a field eating, and after my stepping out of the car and squealing
like a 2-year old in delight one of the cows looked up like I was
insane. And who knows. It may have been right.
Then it was back to Bayeux and that
walk I was talking about. Here are the kids at the skate park. Take
a close look, and you'll see one of them, on a Razor scooter of all
things, had some serious air--
And the park we didn't know existed, a
park that is part of the city's river walk. We had strolled down the
walk before, but apparently never went down this far--
See? There are parts of Bayeux we
didn't even know existed, and today marks the 30th day
we've spent here over the years. I guess that means we'll just have
to start soon on the second 30 days!
Tomorrow, we have a few final hours in
Bayeux before we leave, so we'll head down to the market, buy some
berries, and see if that shivering little piglet the farmer was
trying to sell last week is still available. Afterwards we'll head
to Paris (trying to figure out some of the songs we've been hearing
all week so I can share them on the air), return the rental car, play
for a little bit in the Roissy town park, and then see if we need to
throw everything in our suitcase away in order to to make room for
our chocolate.
So until tomorrow from Roissy...
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