French Reconnaissance Part Trois

 

Exploring Veules-les-Roses

On December 24, I slept in. Big surprise. I made myself a lovely packaged coffee (brought from Cambodia - SUCH a brilliant idea), and nestled back into bed for a while. Then I set out to see if I could find some food, other than the rice crackers I had also transported from Cambodia. 

I very quickly discovered that the villages in Normandy all have specific market days. Market day in Veules-les-Roses is Wednesday, so I was in luck! I bought homemade gratin dauphinois (scalloped potatoes with cheese), award-winning cheese, a hat, another sweater, garlic, potatoes, and eggs, all from little stalls set up in the street. I bought milk and butter in a little corner store, and went into the bakery for bread. I found out that the bakery would be open on Christmas morning, and that they served coffee. I was set! I also visited my air bnb landlady who happens to work at the tourist office. She gave me SO much information (she's the one who told me about the market days). I stopped into another little cafe, and had a viennoise coffee (topped with whipped cream). 

I did a zentangle, and listened to the local people laughing and talking. 

Love this jacket! - Way too small for me, though. 

The building where my air bnb was. On the other side is the sea.

I often light a candle when I visit churches, for the people I have loved and lost. 

Veules-les-Roses is technically on the English Channel, on what is known as the Alabaster Coast. 

On Christmas morning, I slept in again. On my way downstairs, a sweet chunky little black cat stopped me for a big cuddle. I'm pretty sure my sweet Sammy had something to do with that. 

I walked to the patisserie, and had a cafe au lait and a pain au chocolat, and did another zentangle. 

The place was busy! I bought a baguette and went back to the apartment. I happened to check my email and discovered that my next air bnb had been cancelled. This was a bit upsetting. 

I bundled up in as many layers as possible, and headed off to the shore. It was very very cold. 

French Reconnaissance Part Deux

 

Finding Normandy

While in Lille, I bought a French SIM card for my phone, planning to use it for directions while I was driving. I picked up my car, and once again depended on a kind stranger to help me find the rental car in the underground garage, exited, and discovered that my new SIM card didn't work. I was driving in Lille traffic, so I just hoped for the best and got myself on the highway heading to Paris. At least I know I was sort of heading in the correct direction (south). 

Before long, I was desperate for a coffee. I knew I didn't want to stay on the road to Paris for too long, because I was heading towards the coast. I pulled off to find a little town, and thank God I found the town hall. I rushed inside and explained to the lady behind the desk that I was lost, and I was trying to find the Vimy memorial. She sweetly printed out some maps for me. 

When you visit the Vimy Ridge Memorial, you are technically standing on Canadian ground. The land was given to Canada by France in 1922 as a gift. During World War I, 66,000 young Canadian men (many of them boys really) died in Europe. 

The Battle of Vimy Ridge happened in April 1917. The Canadian Corps captured heavily fortified German positions, and possibly turned the tide of the war. However, more than 3,600 young Canadian men lost their lives in this one four-day engagement. 

Inscribed on all four sides of the memorial are the names of over 11,000 young Canadians who died in the war, but whose bodies were never recovered. 

After a somber visit, I needed coffee, food, and a toilet, STAT. And I was lost again. I found a gas station/market combo and rushed in. No toilet, no coffee, no wifi. A customer gave me some rough directions. As I was following those directions, I saw some very interesting ruins up on a hill. So I detoured. And thank God I did, because I saw a restaurant, and I heard voices inside!

I rushed in, and blurted out to the waitress that I needed to use the toilet. After that emergency was taken care of, I sat at a table. There would be no food (French rules about when and what you eat) and no wifi, but there was tea. And the waitress brought over her ipad to help me plot my trip to Veules-les-Roses. She assured me that it was a beautiful village, but far. I fiddled with the SIM card on my phone, and discovered that there was step I hadn't taken when I put it in. I got it working!!!!!

When I set off again, I had directions. Hallelujah. When I finally made it Veules-les-Roses, it was dark, and I was tired and hungry. I had rented an Air bnb for the next 7 nights. When I got into the building, I couldn't find the apartment I was renting. I also had to drag my suitcases up several flights of stairs. I sent a message to the owners of the Air bnb saying that I needed help. Daniel, one of the owners, came right away, helped me carry my bags upstairs, and got me into the apartment. Daniel called his wife Annie because she speaks really good English. I didn't want to chat, I just wanted to crash, and hopefully find some food. I wasn't rude, but I certainly wasn't sociable. 

I went for a little walk, but the only restaurant open was a no-go for me. Being vegetarian while travelling can be a pain sometimes. Luckily, I had brought some dried noodle packages from Cambodia that just need boiled water to make a 'meal.' When I skyped with my sisters I wailed, 'Where do these people buy their groceries? There are no supermarkets!'

French Reconnaisance Part Une

hotel (Mercure Lille)

A Winter Holiday in France

For many years, I have fantasized about retiring in France. The fantasy usually featured me living with some land where I could house every stray beast that came my way, and bicycling into the village for my baguette and cheese. I decided to finally take some steps towards fulfilling this fantasy by doing a reconnaissance to find the ideal village. 

Window-shopping in Lille is worth the ticket!

I flew from Phnom Penh to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to Paris. It was a long journey. When I arrived at Charles de Gaulle in Paris, the next task of my journey was to find the airport train station. It was much easier than I had envisioned. I had booked a train ticket to Lille, a town close to the border with Belgium. This was based on two recommendations, one from Rick Steve's travel guide. His advice was, that if you are not staying in Paris, to book your train travel directly from the airport. Good call. The second recommendation was from a work colleague who had lived in Belgium. She told me that when she had lived in Belgium, she and her friends often visited Lille because it was so lovely. 

The Kindness of French Strangers

I know that French people have a reputation of being rude, but I am here to say without a doubt that this stereotype is VERY wrong. I was met with kindness and patience throughout this entire trip. At the Charles de Gaulle train station, I approached two railway employees with a question about my train. I started off in French. One of the young men encouraged his friend to use his English with me, which he did, shyly and helpfully. When boarding the train, I had to find a QR code on my phone. The man checking the QR codes patiently took me through my emails to the correct place and sent me on my way. On the train, I desperately needed a coffee. I went to the restaurant car, and the lady working behind the counter patiently took me through the menu, helping me to figure out exactly what it was that I wanted (and needed). 

I could see from google maps that my hotel (Mercure Lille) was close to the train station, so I decided to walk there with my suitcases (after decades of travel, I have still not become a successfully light packer, but at least on this trip I was only heaving two suitcases and a purse). I got lost. Again, I depended on the kindness of strangers to turn me around and point me in the right direction. 

"The Lacemaker" statue refers to a Lillois lullaby.

After checking in at the hotel (again, such patient, helpful people), I set off for a walk. I decided to take a city tour, something I don't often do (I'm not sure why, because it's a terrific way to become oriented in a new city). It was such a good decision! The bus took us to all the different areas of Lille, and the commentary was interesting and informative. 

The next day, I was awake extremely early (jet lag), so I decided to go out to take some photographs while the streets were relatively empty. At this point, I had forgotten about one of the huge differences between northern locales, and countries near the equator. In Cambodia, the sun rises and sets quickly, at around 6AM and 6PM. In northern France, it was DARK well after 7AM. I was wandering around in the pitch dark. It was lovely and calm, but not great for photographing. 

I was starving, so promptly at 6:30, I returned to the hotel for my breakfast. I was the first person in the dining room. I filled up a plate with yummy bread and cheese (to be a mainstay of my time in France), and decided to try what I thought was a hard-boiled egg. No. It was a raw egg, waiting to be cooked on a tiny skillet. Sometimes it takes a few tries for me to figure things out. 

After breakfast, I set out again. A lot of the time (99% of the time), when I am exploring a new city, I pick a destination and never actually make it, or it takes me hours and hours to get there. This isn't because I'm bad at directions, but because I get distracted, and tend to turn down interesting streets, and just want to see what's around the next corner. Not an 'efficient' way of travelling, and it can be exhausting sometimes because I tend to want to check out just one more place before resting, but it's my way. 

I made a pact with myself to make a little zentangle every day when I stopped for coffee. 

Lille introduced me to the extraordinary business hours of France, and particularly of restaurants. Many museums open very late in the day (particularly for someone operating on Asian time), and restaurants have quite strict times when specific types of food are served. 

I spent two nights in Lille, then embarked on the next leg of my trip. I rented a car from Avis in Lille, and set off for Veules-les-Roses, on the Normandy coast.