Mont-Sainte-Michel, France

Sunday, June 6, 2010

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Etretat, France

After a delicious breakfast in Honfleur, we visited Etretat - a beautiful French seaside village with a unique natural arch.

The drive from Honfleur to Etretat was a bly short 35 minutes. We parked our car on the outskirts and walked onto the pebble beach. The weather was beautiful, with hardly any wind.

The downtown was relatively small, with many quaint shops and cafes.

After some time, we decided to get close to the beautiful cliffs.

The cliffs had terrific views, and we were eager to see them close-up.

We enjoyed our short hikes to the top and gorgeous views.

For dinner, we stopped at a nearby French restaurant. It was an excellent start to the French portion of our European vacation.

In the evening, we returned to Honfleur for another night.

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Honfleur, France

Friday, June 4, 2010

For the French portion of our England-France European trip, we started our journey from Le Havre (after crossing the English Channel from Portsmouth to Le Havre using the LD Lines ferry).

We departed Portsmouth, England, aboard LD Lines (Louis Dreyfus) on June 4, 2010, at 08:30 and arrived in Le Havre at 12:45 ( a 4-hour ferry ride) for the price of 63.75 GBP ($88) for all 3 passengers.

In Le Havre, we rented a car for use throughout the trip (on the way from Le Havre to Nice). I reserved a VW Passat 1.8 using National Car Rental, but it was unavailable when we arrived in Le Havre. Unlike most manual cars I had driven, I was offered a French Peugeot diesel; shifting into reverse required pressing a special hidden button. After reading the car's manual, I figured this out (but it was entirely unexpected).

The cost for the 10-day car rental was $1149.04 (which seemed reasonable for the 10 days of car use).

The drive from Le Havre to Honfleur was a short 30-minute drive, but driving in Honfleur was complicated by the narrow, cobblestone streets.

I finally located our Honfleur Bed & Breakfast using my Garmin GPS:

La Cour Sainte Catherine (17th Century Convent converted to Bed & Breakfast)

74, rue du Puits

14600 HONFLEUR

The room cost was EUR 120/night (with breakfast included). Private parking was EUR 9 additional (per night). We stayed two nights - June 4 and June 5.

After checking in our room, parking our car, and dropping off our luggage, we embarked on a mission to explore the town.

We wandered around and ran into a wooden church - "Eglise Sainte Catherine."

We marveled at this little quaint town as we walked narrow, cobblestone streets. How do people drive here?

For dinner, we found a small restaurant that served typical Norman favorites.

After dinner, we strolled to the "La Morelle" channel, which leads to the "Seine " river (which empties into the English Channel).

Saturday, June 5, 2010

After waking up, we strolled outside for a delicious, traditional Norman breakfast of fresh pastries, jam, and coffee. Unlike English breakfasts, their French counterparts are much lighter affairs.

The fresh baguette was delicious with jam and was a perfect start to our Saturday morning.

After finishing breakfast, we decided to spend the rest of the day at the seaside village of Etretat.

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Portsmouth, England

Friday, June 4, 2010

Our early morning drive from Bath to Portsmouth went reasonably smoothly. We needed to drop off our rented Mercedes at National Car Rental and catch the LD Ferry for Le Havre.

On arrival at Portsmouth, I found the National Car Rental offices closed, so I left the car key and paperwork in the Dropbox.

We then proceeded to the ferry terminal to check in for our ferry ride. Our ferry check-in time was 7:30am, and we had plenty of time to spare. 

I would have liked to spend a few hours exploring Portsmouth harbor, especially the HMS Victory - the famous flagship of Admiral Horatio Nelson (who won a brilliant victory over the French navy at the battle of Trafalgar). But, alas, we did not have enough time.

We departed Portsmouth, England, aboard LD Lines (Louis Dreyfus) on June 4, 2010, at 08:30 and arrived in Le Havre at 12:45 ( a 4-hour ferry ride) for the price of 63.75 GBP (USD 88) for all 3 passengers.

As we departed the harbor, I was treated to a beautiful view of Portsmouth harbor.

Four hours later, we docked in Le Havre, France, and our adventures continued in Honfleur.

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Bath, England

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

After touring Stourhead Gardens, we continued our drive toward Bath, where we had a two-day reservation at the Badminton Villa (managed by Heather and Steve Clewley):

Badminton Villa

10 Upper Oldfield Park

Bath

BA2 3JZ

 We checked in and went to bed as we were tired from our drive.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Heather and Steve treated us to a delicious English breakfast in the morning.

The Badminton Villa is a multi-story house with a beautiful garden outside.

We began our walking tour of Bath by stopping at the Bath Abbey, but it was closed.

The Bath Abbey is a beautiful Gothic church with ornately carved windows.

From there, we continued our walk toward the Royal Crescent building.

We decided to stop by for hot tea and cakes at the Bath Bun.

Everyone, including Alex, Inna, and me, enjoyed the delicious, freshly made scones and sandwiches with clotted cream!

After lunch, we decided to visit the famous Roman Baths - the reason for Bath's name.

The Roman Baths were amazingly built, piping in hot water from the ground.

The whole building was ornately designed and must have looked fabulous in Roman times.

A lovely replica of how the building looked in Roman times was constructed and very educational.

After learning about the history of Roman baths, we decided to take Alex to the Victoria Park playground so that he could play.

Alex, being a climber, enjoyed climbing all the exciting structures.

After burning off some energy, Alex was hungry, and we decided to eat dinner nearby, in Tilly's Bistro.

We had a lovely day in Bath but did not have enough time to see all the exciting attractions. 

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