Our Excursions - France
We drove to France in August 2009, as Péter was scheduled to give a lecture at the international ethology conference in Rennes. We passed through Austria and Germany along the way. We took Fecske, Chili and Remy with us. It was a trip we looked forward to for many months and surely the trip of a lifetime! We fell in love with France and I would move there in a heartbeat! We stayed in a countryside B&B outside of Rennes and made many exciting day trips from there. We were sadly too far from Tarka and Amélie to visit them, but as we were so charmed with France, I think it will not be long before we are drawn back for another visit and it will include Amélie and Tarka for sure!
Our first day trip was to le Mont St. Michel - WOW, there are no words for this incredible island monastery castle built many centuries ago which sits in an Atlantic ocean tidal plain on the northwestern coast. The Mudis were very welcome to tour the entire island, but not the inside of the cathedral itself : ( I don't think they cared, but we were a little sad to miss that. We were there in time to watch the tide almost swallow a few cars as well as a beautiful sunset - Alkonyat time!
The next trip was to the southwestern side of France, we wanted to take the Mudis swimming on the eastern side of the Atlantic ocean since they swam on the western (USA) side two years ago. We stopped in incredibly beautiful villages along the way that our B&B hosts told us not to miss - again WOW is all we can say. The French LOVE flowers, as do Hungarians, but they take their love to extreme measures! We were in awe of these small villages! The first one was la Gacilly.
The second not-to-miss village we passed through was Rochefort en terre and once again, WOW, amazing amounts of flowers growing everywhere. And the freshly baked pastries sold in the open shops.....the smell of them was intoxicating!
Just before we reached the ocean we stopped at Carnac, an ancient Celtic megalithic park. These rows of stones were placed here more than 5000 years ago!
And finally the eastern side of the Atlantic ocean, it never ceases to make me feel small in the awe of its greatness. It was not hard to find a place for the Mudis to swim and play on the beach in north Quiberon. This was Remy's first ocean experience and she was ready for it!
You simply CANNOT go to France and miss Paris! I think the Mudis enjoyed walking the streets in this most grand of cities as much as we did! I will never forget phoning my mom from a bridge over the river Seine, watching the Eiffel Tower and asking her to guess where I was calling her from. Paris is the most incredible city we have ever been in and we will never forget it. It was a dream come true!
