Saturday, October 15 we went on a 9 hour Overlord tour of D-Day sights. In 2014 we did a DIY version and going on this tour we saw many things I was unaware of before. We signed up for the all day Utah Beach and Omaha Beach tour, but they combined us with the Band of Brothers tour. It was a great. Our guide, Yannick, has been interested in D-Day and WWII since he was 14 years old and is very enthusiastic about his job. He really made history come alive. What we saw and heard was inspiring, tragic and emotional. They love Americans in Normandy and American flags are flying everywhere. They haven’t forgotten how we saved them. I’m sure it’s the same in the British and Canadian sectors.

Friday, October 14 and once again it’s time to move on. No matter how long a trip is there’s never enough time to see everything. I have enjoyed Brittany and wish I could have seen more. Another thing that made this stop extra nice was our apartment. It was so comfortable and had everything we needed.

On our drive to Bayeux, our base in Normandy, we made a stop at Le Mont Saint Michel. Many people go out of their way to get there and love it. It’s a pilgrimage site. We went there in 2014 at this very same time of year and we were disappointed. Or underwhelmed. Or less than impressed. It was very crowded and lined with souvenir shops and overpriced places to eat. It just felt a bit tacky. We had no desire to go back. But…it was on the way, so why not? Maybe we would feel differently this time. It was raining on the drive and when we arrived there. We got there just after 10:00 and were hoping we would beat the crowds. And tour buses. And school groups. We saw all that. It wasn’t looking good and we actually had a brief conversation while we were waiting for the shuttle about just leaving. But we had just paid for parking and we decided to stick it out. We got on the shuttle (after about a 25 minute wait) and made it to the island. Even with all the people there they seemed to be more disbursed after getting through the gate. The groups of kids were noisy, but we tried to avoid them as much as possible. It didn’t seem as tacky as it did before. We both decided we liked it much better this second time around.

We continued our drive to Bayeux and found our apartment. The location is great and it has secure parking. Other than that it’s very disappointing. We have been lucky to find moderately priced places to stay that were comfortable and always provided all or almost everything we needed. This place is lacking in so many things, and I suspect someone lives here normally. There’s a room that’s locked but has a large keyhole. It’s obviously a bedroom. The refrigerator is full of food and one shelf was left empty for us. There wasn’t a coffee maker, electric kettle or toaster. We definitely won’t be cooking here. Anyway, there’s nothing we can do about it so I just need to get over it. There are a number of restaurants just down the street from us, but being a Friday night and not having reservations we had trouble finding a place. We walked down a small street and found a place and were very happy with it. We both had delicious gallettes. Feeling full we walked back to the apartment, stopping on the way to make dinner reservations for Saturday night.

Thursday, October 13 we stayed in Dinan for the day. Thursday is market day and I’m a sucker for markets. It wasn’t the best market I’ve been to, but it wasn’t the worst either, so it was all good.

After the market we went to the tourist information office to inquire about walking tours. Nope, but we could do a self guided one. I think it must be the time of year because no one seems to have tours. We walked to the château located near the tourist office, but in October they don’t open until 1:30. We continued to walk until we reached the path that would take us up to the ramparts. We walked along them until we couldn’t go further. We got some great views.

It was raining off and on and by the time we made it back to the apartment in the afternoon we decided we were just going to relax the rest of the day. We had bought some food at the market and warmed it up for dinner. I think we needed a little down time and a rainy day is meant for that.

Wednesday, October 12 we went to St. Malo. When planning this trip I was torn between basing there or in Dinan and Dinan won out. Knowing that today might be the last dry day we have in a while we decided to go today instead of tomorrow. Wow, we loved it! I immediately started second guessing the decision to stay in Dinan. It has all the things I love; old buildings, history, the water…

We walked around the ramparts that surround the old center and got some great views.

We decided when we left to go back to Dinan that we had made the right decision for where to stay. Part of that is due to the great apartment we are in. We spent more time walking around our area of Dinan when we returned and saw some unexpected things, like a horse at the end of the street. We also stumbled across a park-like place where we saw goats, bunnies and a variety of birds.

Tuesday, October 11 after spending two nights in Vannes in southern Brittany, it was time to move north. After the nightmare of getting to where we were parked there was no way I wanted to drive the car back to our apartment, so we walked with our luggage to the car. Thankfully we pack light.

We stopped in Carnac on the way. Carnac has over 3,000 standing stones, the largest collection of such stones in the world. They believe the stones were erected around 3300 B.C., though some may date back to as early as 4500 B.C. They stretch for about 4 kilometers and we concentrated on just one section. The large stone field is fenced off so we walked around it. Many of the stones are in rows.

We left the stones and went to the beach. I imagine it’s quite busy here in the summer, but this time of year it was quiet. We enjoyed some time there on this beautiful sunny day.

We headed north to Dinan and met our host for the apartment we rented at the parking garage. We are staying in the medieval part of town on a pedestrian street. She showed us around this fantastic place, old and with character, but modern at the same time. She provided many extra touches to make our stay comfortable.

We walked around looking for a good place for dinner and ended up going to a restaurant that is a one minute walk from our door. We both had delicious scallop crepes. Mine was with mushrooms and Jim’s was with leeks. Yum! I forgot take pictures.

Sunday, October 9 we relocated to Vannes in southern Brittany. On the way we made two stops. First we went to Guérande. We loved this town! Even on a Sunday it was lively. We enjoyed walking through the streets and admiring the beautiful buildings. Before we left we had lunch outdoors in front of a large church. Crepes of course because Brittany is where they come from. It’s too bad we didn’t have more time there. I don’t know why, but I only took a few pictures.

Next we went to Rochefort-en-Terre, another one of France’s Beautiful Villages. I can see why, but we enjoyed Guérande more.

We arrived in Vannes and dropped our stuff off at our apartment. It’s on a small street in the old town and we couldn’t park there, so we followed the hosts directions to the free parking lot about an 8 minute walk away. Unfortunately he didn’t know about some road construction and I’ll just say it was a very stressful challenge to get there. Very stressful. We are only here for two nights and we decided the car was staying parked until we leave. The studio apartment was great, much better than a hotel room. It had everything…except toilet paper and hand soap. We didn’t even notice that until we got back from the grocery store. Thankfully we had bought some TP when we realized there wasn’t going to be enough for our stay in another apartment and I had grabbed an extra little hand soap from a hotel we had stayed in. There was dish soap in the kitchen, so we used that. The host of this place was very attentive and when I told him about lacking those necessities when we left he was very apologetic. He said the cleaning team must have forgotten them. I would stay there again.

On Monday we went to the Vannes tourist information office hoping for a walking tour. They didn’t have one, but gave us a map with 3 self guided walks, which we did. She also suggested we take the little tourist train that many French towns have because they provided commentary. We did that too, and it was a total waste of time. We both thought Vannes seems like a nice place, but it’s hard to tell what it’s like the rest of the time because Sundays and Mondays are typically slow days in France. We struggled to find anywhere to eat and what we did find wasn’t very satisfying.

Saturday, October 8 we went to the château in Chinon, a partial ruin with some intact rooms and museum like exhibits. We then went into town. It was not at all what I was expecting. It was so quiet and most places were closed. I would have thought it was a Sunday if I didn’t know any better. We had lunch at the one place we could find open that was serving food, then walked along the river and through the market.

We got back to Tours and began preparing for our departure in the morning. I enjoyed Tours very much and found it to be a good base for the Loire Valley. It’s too bad we didn’t have more time.

Friday, October 7 we decided to go to Chenonceau, our favorite château. We first saw it in 2014. We invited our new friend, Annette, to join us for the day. We toured the castle and the gardens, then had a small bite to eat at the little cafe. It was as wonderful as I remembered. The château was built from 1514-1522 and was later extended to span the river in 1556-1559. The gallery on the bridge was built from 1570-1576. The château has an interesting and tragic history.

We then drove to another château, Azay-le-Rideau. Much more modest than Chenonceau, but also beautiful with park like grounds.

We returned to Tours and had dinner with Annette again. She was fun to be with and we enjoyed spending time with her.

Here are some nighttime photos of Tours.

Thursday, October 6 we had a private tour scheduled at 2:00 with Véro. I have been following her for a very long time online, where I first knew her as French Girl in Seattle. In 2019 she moved back to France after 24 years in Seattle and was in Paris initially. She was a Rick Steves tour guide that first year. Then the pandemic hit and France had several different lockdowns that were very restrictive. Tours weren’t happening and being the entrepreneur that she is she started teaching French lessons online and doing virtual tours, first around her neighborhood during lockdown, then further afield when she could be more mobile. She started a patreon program that has different levels depending on how much you pay each month and her patrons get additional content that other people don’t get. She is giving private tours to her patrons at a discount if they are in Tours, so of course I jumped at that. Another patron, Annette, was going to be there at the same time so we joined together to split the cost of the tour.

Since the tour wasn’t until 2:00 we decided to go to Château Villandry in the morning. The château was great and the gardens were impressive. Even this late in the year they were beautiful. They must be spectacular in the spring and summer. No photos were allowed inside, but I made up for that with far too many of the gardens.

We returned to Tours and met Véro and Annette for the tour. We spent what seemed to be a very fast 3 hours walking around the historic center and learning the fascinating history of Tours. We ended the tour just down the street from our apartment and we all had a very nice time at one of the local restaurants talking together and sharing a bottle of wine.

After Véro left, Annette joined us for dinner. We had a wonderful time today.

On Wednesday , October 5 we left Sarlat, located in the Dordogne region of southern France, and drove north to our home for the next 4 nights. We are staying in Tours, in the Loire Valley. Our apartment is on a pedestrian street in the old area of town. The apartment is very old and full of details like ceiling beams, wall beams, etc. The bathroom and kitchen are modern, and that’s all that counts for us.

On the drive north we stopped in a town called Oradour-sur-Glane. The original village was destroyed 4 days after D-Day, when 643 of its inhabitants were massacred by Nazi troops. They killed almost every man, woman and child present and then they destroyed the village and disposed of the bodies. Only 6 people escaped and that’s how they know what happened. The village is now a permanent memorial. The new village was constructed nearby. We first walked through the visitors center to learn about the massacre, then we walked around the village. It was very emotional.

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