Misadventures in France 2010 – Part 3

Day 3 we were still at the Manoir I mentioned in Part 2. We woke at a reasonable hour and headed down for breakfast as it was supposed to be included in our room charge. Only no one came to serve us.

There were boxes of dried cereal, a single croissant, and half a pastry on a plate. There were glasses for juice and cups for coffee, but no one came to assist us. We even called into the home but to no avail.

Nothing else to do but to start our day coffee-less. Off we went to check out the La Route du Cidre, another driving circuit through the beautiful Norman countryside which included apple cider, Calvados, and pommeau producers. We started the route in Beuvron en Auge where I met the world’s friendliest Frenchman.

At the entrance of the town is a store called La Cave de Beuvron where my husband and I stopped to buy some local products. From the moment we entered the store until we left the owner conversed with us about the products, the weather, California, his awesome car, you name it.

I was in total shock. In all my years of living and visiting France no one has ever been that friendly. It was refreshing and endearing. I wish I had taken a photo of him, but I did not want to push my luck. Instead, I took plenty of photos of his property that were adorably staged.

We walked through the rest of the town and stopped for a crepe. It was a good crepe, a great crepe, but really bad service. My husband lamented that it is a shame that you have to go to Paris to have a crepe that is both good and served well. Sigh.

The route du cidre is a great drive, I highly recommend it. The homes and farms are beautiful, the countryside is so green, so enchanting.

Having had such good luck with that route we decided to continue with another, the Route des Moulins, but we quickly realized that it was not as well organized as the other two routes he had driven over the last two days, and we lost our way. But no matter we ended up in the town of Fontaine-Henry which presented us with a lovely chateau to visit.

We were in luck we had arrived just when the tour for the day was beginning. The chateau had been built and added onto over 4 different centuries and both the inside and outside reflected that. I found it an odd collection of items beautifully housed but woefully displayed.

Being that the chateau was located close to the coast and in the Normandy region, the Germans had, of course, occupied it during WWII (they weren’t stupid). Amazingly, the only damage was 2-3 bullet holes in one of the stairways which were from Canadian soldiers, and a ‘no-smoking’ warning painted in the garage where they stored German gas.

It was a nice spontaneous stop and we enjoyed the visit immensely. Nearing the end of the day we decided to head back, the next day we would be heading to Brittany.