France travel notes

We are midway through travels of our first French vacation. In the past few days, we’ve been to Giverny (Monet’s gardens), Mont Saint Michel (1000 yr old monestary/church on an island), Omaha Beach and the American War Memorial/Cemetery (WWII, D-Day), and lots of amazing little villages and towns, some extremely old. We’ll have many pictures and stories to post in a couple weeks once we’re back home and settled, but we leave again tomorrow and must get to laundry and packing. So in the meantime, here’s a few observations from our first time outside of Paris in France:

-French people LOVE their picnics. It’s interesting when traveling... there are rest areas and picnic tables aplenty along the major roads, but very few little towns with fast-food restaurants like in the States. You stop at a rest area around lunchtime, and you are literally surrounded by people having picnics. Baguettes, cheese, wine, meats, and berets are everywhere! Actually no berets... in 4 months the only people I’ve seen wearing berets are goofy-looking tourists.

-Not only do the French love picnics, but they will literally pull of the road, lay a blanket in the grass, and take a nap.

-The French way of curbing speeding is strange. There are these little radar boxes that check your speed, and if over they take a picture of your license plate and you get a ticket in the mail. Seems like a good idea, until you see the GIANT signs that are a couple hundred meters before every radar box warning you it’s there.

-Telling a British person your son has a “bloody nose” may get you a funny look in return.

-Rural is rural. From the USA to East Africa to France, there are dirt roads, one-lane bridges, and cows that randomly take over the road.

-Cows in France are really big.

-I wanted to take a night picture of Mont Saint Michel, and I had to wait until 10:20pm for it to get dark enough! I’d heard it can be light here till almost midnight in the summer. I’m starting to believe it.

-It’s entirely possible to feel more spiritual depth standing on a beach where thousands of people died than standing in a 1000 yr old church on top of a big rock. The God I know inhabits the hearts of man, not buildings, so I guess this makes sense.

-Saying that a particular region of France is known for its cheese is like saying a particular State is represented by a star on the USA flag.

Hey Grandpa, you think engineering school will take me?