We caught the train from Bruges to Lille, another very early start, eventually arriving at Lille around 10am. The only time I've ever been pissed off at a French person for being an arsehole was at Lille, and of all places, he worked at the information desk. He was extremely unhelpful, but I managed to speak enough french to get the idea across that we were looking for ways to get to Lesquin Aeroport.
He pointed in a vague direction essentially telling us to "fuck off that way", another man in the queue was much more helpful despite not being paid to be helpful, and gave us better directions. We were still a little lost, but another person working at a travel store was very kind and actually walked us all the way over to where we needed to go and told us how the shuttle worked. As we boarded the shuttle bus we were hearing what sounded like gunfire and shouting coming from the train station area. Wondering what the hell we were leaving behind, we clambered on to the bus. Oh yeah, taxis were on strike at this point, we were originally considering cabs, and found loads of them, but they had no drivers in them. It was a small hiccup overall and we eventually got to Lesquin Aeroport.
At the Avis a very lovely lady told us that despite our booking they unfortunately didn't have an automatic car available, but if we didn't mind waiting she would arrange one. She made us coffee while we waited so I loved her immediately. We eventually got our car, a bright red Citroen C3, diesel.
This is where I got to try my hand at driving on the opposite side of the road. The first hour was the most stressful, Nicky told me later that she wanted to vomit, but we got through it, no near misses, everyone still alive. Once we were on the highway it wasn't so bad except the constant need to concentrate about where the car needs to be in the lane. Everything else felt fairly naturally except when I was reversing at which time I kept looking for the transmission with my left hand.
So we drove a couple of hours south and eventually arrived at Giverny. It was an interesting drive in as to get there, at least the way the GPS took us, we were driving on this small road which might have fit 2 small donkey carts side by side, which was 90km speed limit, in between 2 wheat fields feeling about as far from a town as you could get. Suddenly Giverny popped out at us.
We'll cover what happened at Giverny in another post.
After Giverny we went on to our accommodation for the night, a lovely old Chateau called Chateau De la Madeleine, owned by a couple who are slowly renovating it, they've been at it for 15 years now. There's still a lot of work to go but you can really appreciate what it's original condition was, there is an adjoining chapel that has been there since 1131. Wow.
Our room was great, the bathroom was huge and we had our own private terrace. The couple were friendly, though the wife needed to maybe remember that guests don't necessarily enjoy seeing saggy boobs hanging everywhere.
We had dinner at a lovely local restaurant, I got to try Ris De Veau for the first time, which is the throat from veal. I gave it a go, the flavour was very good but the texture was a bit chewy.
The next day we pushed on to Le Mont Saint Michel. Lots more driving, but nowhere near as stressful as the day before. This place was everything I hoped it would be. For the Harry Potter fans, the whole place is like Diagon Alley, with a gigantic Abbey at the top. We enjoyed a beautiful Cidre Pression and Tarte aux Pommes because, hell, we were in Normandy. The place we stayed was very cute, though we ended up with 2 single beds pushed together. It was still very nice and was like a cosy little home rather than just a bedroom.
Late evening the first day and the morning of the next day we really explored the town as it was well after and before the tourist busses all left and turned up. I really recommend doing it this way as it's much more romantic and peaceful. This place is a must see though, the Abbey is awesome and the whole little town is just really cool.
After our explorations we pushed on to Paris!
It might be a bit late now, but whenever you are driving in another country just remember that the driver should be closest to the middle of the road. If the gutter is rolling by your driver's side window, swerve to the right quickly!
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