Northern France

Cherbourg
Having visited southern France a number of weeks ago, we backtracked west through the Straight of Gibraltar, and headed towards Northern Europe. Luckily, we have a handful of additional stops in France along the way. 

First stop, the town of Cherbourg along the Atlantic coast. 

Cherbourg (pronounced “shehr · boo”) is also known by its full name Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. It is a port city in the Normandy Region of the country. Like most all European city’s, it has a bit of a chequered past. With waring between France and England over ownership during the 14-17th century, and it’s proximity to Omaha Beach (which played a central role in WWII) it is now a quintessential French small town of 80,000.

After poking around a bit, we partook in a crêpe jambon-fromage(ham and cheese crepe) and an eclair before returning to the ship. 

Some questions came up about my fixation with merry-go-rounds. My mother loved Carousel. Also, in the olden days (gosh I love that term) Carousel were powered by, wait for it…,horses. They were used to train knights. So there you have it! Oui!
🙂

Le Havre
We spent the following two days in Le Havre pronounced “luh” ·“HAAV” ·“ruh”) the major port city where The  Seine river (flows through Paris, and) meets The English Channel. The name translates to “the harbor”. This “Normandy Region”  city is the primary port for the city of Paris, which lies 2 hours east by train. 

We visit Paris for a couple of days. We have been lucky enough to have spent the better part of a week in Paris previously, and were looking to our return visit. However, as luck would have it, we were arriving on the opening day of the Olympics. Now while that sounds exciting, we know from our previous visit that this is one of the world’s busiest cities. By our calculations, that likely means that this week, it will be the world’s most beautiful parking lot. This was confirmed over the last month as the ship’s Paris bound excursions began getting cancelled, one right after the other. 

Mont Saint-Michel 
On our first day, we crossed The Seine (pronounced “sen”) on the Normandy Bridge. Interesting, in the past, European rivers were a primary vector for attacks, and the Seine has forts along its banks all the way into Paris. But our destination took us northwest, to a (hopefully) less busy  coastal area. 

Our destination was Mont Saint-Michel, which is known as a “tidal island”. Located in Normandy, 2 hours from Le Havre, the island is ~1/2 mile from France’s  NW coast. Well, at least sometimes it is off of the coast. You see, during the day (as the tide goes out) one can drive to the island. But you better leave early, or you’re spending the night!

Not that that would be a bad thing, because the island is home to the phenomenal Mont Saint-Michel Castle and an Abbey where the monks live. 

2024 marks the castles 1,000th birthday, which was being celebrated during our visit. Which was being celebrated during our visit. One of the celebratory events was to be somewhat bizarre. The Bishop’s scull was to be on display.

Now I know what you are thinking. “I need another story like I need a hole in my head.” It is ironic that you would think that! Anyway, the story goes something like this.  

Goes without saying that it was a long, long time ago, in a place far, far away… Anyway, the Archangel Michael came down, and told the local Bishop (in his dreams) to build the castle with an abbey on top. The bishop ignored Michael. (I know how he feels.) So he did what any reasonable Archangel would do, and he came back in a second dream, angry it’s time, and was once again ignored. During the third dream, Michael poked the Bishop in the head with his finger. The following morning, the bishop found that he had a hole burned into his skull. Well now, who can ignore something like that. Hence, the Bishop sent a team up the mountain of monks up the mountain to build the castle. This was in 700AD. 

While it took several hundred years to build the castle, the Bishop does get to have his skull on display every thousand years or so. And you thought this was going to be another silly story…

The local stone masons were paid by the stone. To keep track, they put their mark on each stone as they laid them. Keep in mind that there are tens (hundreds?) of thousands of stones, because this castle is huge. The number 8 guy must have laid the most though. His number was everywhere!

Anyway, the tide around the island can be quite dramatic. Generally, it only goes out about a half mile, but during full moons in the springtime, it can go out as much as 9 miles. And when it comes back in, it can be fairly rapid, and as high as nearly 50 feet! 

In the past, there was a road and even a train rail leading to the castle. It was very dangerous. It is said that the tide travels nearly at the speed of a galloping horse. Also, there is quicksand. 

While there is now a bridge from the mainland, in the olden days, locals would tell folks traveling across the Mount Saint-Michel bay that one needed to have their affairs in order before the journey. 

They had told us it was 300 steps to get up to the Abby at the top, but I counted 401 on the route we took. Most of the way up were stone staircases on the outside of the castle, but the way down was through the inside. 

An Abbey is a place of worship used for chanting by the monks. It was pretty, but the giant stone patios off of the halls high above the castle’s ramparts were especially cool. (One would think there would be some sort of castle terminology for a patio, but apparently, that is not the case…)

For whatever reason, we never saw the popes skull (so I guess it is not true that you can believe everything that you read on the Internet) but the monk meditation areas and the other rooms in the huge castle were awesome. 

Also, there was this cool giant wheel, similar to a water wheel, inside the castle. It was located in a great hall near the top of the castle. It had a long rope attached to it that hung over the side of the castle. It was designed so 1 or 2 monks could walk on it, pulling the rope up, allowing them to lift food and other items up without having to carry them up hundreds of steps. A monk-powered elevator. Go figure…

We enjoyed a glass of French champagne at a pub in the castle’s bailey before returning to the ship. 

What a delightful day!

Honfleur
On our final day in France, we ventured out to Honfleur (pronounced on · fluh) the one time home of the turn of the century impressionist painter Claude Monet. 

We were excited for this destination, because the night before, a half-dozen fellow travelers who had spent the day there said it was the prettiest town they had visited on the entire trip. 

Located on the banks of the Seine, Honfleur is often referred to as “one of the most picturesque places in all of France”. And so we headed out, camera in hand, for a day of pictures and a bite to eat. 

We were not disappointed! It was almost like someone had frozen time in the late 1940s. Such a quaint little place. And I have to say, this is probably the  best smelling place we have been to this far. 

We enjoyed a couple of awesome French cocktails along the way. If you ever get a chance to try an Panaché shandy, check it out! This French recipe calls for equal parts blonde beer and lemonade. I this is a coincidence, because it is also equal parts delicious and refreshing categories!

So we were hoping the have Snoop Dogg carry our drinks out to our table at the cafe, but apparently he was booked. Anyway, after a tasty snack or two, we bid France a fond Adieu. 

Next stop, England, home of yet another story…

Au revoir my friends. Merci beaucoup. 
– Mike
“25 years and my life is still
Tryin’ to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination…” – Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes), What’s Up