We stayed at a quaint little B&B called Ferme Saint Joseph in Beauvoir with views of Le Mont Saint-Michel. The hostess of the B&B had asked me to call her on arriving at the bus station so she could pick us up. She must have so nearly hung up on us as we speak through a French vocabulary of about 10 words expressing that we are now, currently, at this moment, at the bus station. When Marie-Brigette arrived in her Volkswagen truck with her Golden Retriever, she quickly apologized (she had nothing to apologize for) and got us started on our one night stay. It was a lovely B&B which we just hope we could stayed a few more days in.
The rooms are simple but the view is to die for.
Exterior view.
A street scene in Beauvoir. As you can see the sun is on full blast still but it had felt much cooler the following days, possibly because we were at a higher latitude and also the heatwave had receded slightly by then.
After applying half a bottle of SPF80 lotion, and armed with an umbrella capable of shielding an entire family, we started the long walk to Le Mont.
Low tide at the Mont
Later that day, we rented 2 bicycles from Marie-Brigette and went to the local Carrefour to replenish our supplies of suntan lotion.
Breakfast the following day was also a pretty simple affair, we were joined by other guests at the B&B. When we told a group of Belgian retirees we thought the roads in France are too narrow, they joked and laughed amongst themselves for a good 15 minutes before uttering something to the lines of 'we don't build our roads for gigantic gas-guzzling American cars'. Another 20 minutes of laughter followed which must have been Marie-Brigette telling them how she thought we were phone scammers and how she almost had to change all her banking passwords.
When asked how are we to leave the B&B, and upon knowing we are taking another train from Pontorson, Marie promptly offered to drive us there. We were so grateful for her help during the stay and wished we would be back soon. The S.O. and I agreed that we should spend at least 2 days here on our next visit.
We took a local train to Caen, a quaint town in Normandy, which we would be staying for 1 night.
The interior of our hotel. Saw the manager bought rolls of baguette from the baker downstairs the following morning when we ran short for breakfast.
Some sightseeing and swimming later the day to work off all the excess calories. Needless to say we ran out of suntan lotion, again.
I mentioned being in France a decade ago for a month-long exchange program. Back then I stayed with the Nocarts, whose youngest son was likewise taking an exchange program in Taiwan. The Nocart matron, like Marie, spoke only French while I spoke about 8 words of the language. Through food and internet translation apps, we became good friends to this day. So when the S.O. wanted to visit France I made plans to visit the Nocart family. The mother lives in L'Aigle, a small town with only 3 daily train services; while the brothers live in Bordeaux, which sadly I won't be going this time.
Although transport was rather difficult for L'Aigle, the S.O. had been very supportive of me visiting. When the train schedules were still not updated a few weeks prior to our departure, he even suggested we drive there, which was rare for his frugality, and looking back it would be best we do not drive ever again on French roads.
All in all it took 2 hours of train to L'Aigle for us to meet about 3 hours with Claudie, then another 2 hours of train back to Paris Montparnasse. It was all worth it to meet an old friend.
Thanks to Google Translate for keeping communication open between us.
When it was time to leave L'Aigle the S.O. was feeling melancholic, saying he wouldn't know when will be the next time Claudie and I would meet.
Back in Paris: Le Bourget for Concorde