Bella, Gabe and Josiah

We packed up all of our stuff and headed to Menou. On our way, we stopped for a bathroom/coffee break at some random little town that I don’t even know the name of, but it was super cute. Rather than eating on the bench, Gabe was worried about the sun and chose to eat on the shade in the parking lot… This was a common view on our drive. At lunch we found a tv playing Spongebob at a gas station. Another super cute town. Then we got to Menou, to the gypsy wagon. It wasn’t really a gypsy wagon, it was a roulette, but it looked like a gypsy wagon, so we called it that. It was the best airbnb I’ve ever stayed at and the kids still say that this was their favorite thing to do in France. There were some donkeys that the boys got to feed. They mastered this parking lot game. There were no restaurants nearby, so our hosts made us a picnic dinner with local ingredients. Then we sat and read Harry Potter until it was time for bed. It was perfect. And Josy was clearly very relaxed while reading… ...

Our next stop was Puy du Fou, which is a French theme park with a bunch of shows and exhibits about French history and culture. It was incredible. We did not get to see all of the shows due to time constraints, but what we did see was amazing. First, we had breakfast by the river. Then we headed to the park where the boys admired the carousel  before all the windows of the town square opened and they all started playing instruments. That sounds odd, but it was amazing! I’m confident that Gabe wanted every single weapon in that store. People were herding the pigs through the streets. This tower had an amazing bell concert. We went to a very old village and watched the blacksmith at work. We went to a Viking show that included a Viking raid, half the village catching in fire and the boat rising through the water. We went to a village from the middle ages. We saw a King Authur show (which did confuse me a bit as I thought that was British, but the translations were working for that sh...

It was a pretty quiet day. We drove from Coutances to Chanverrie, which meant leaving Normandy. That was actually pretty sad, as we fell in love with Normandy. The boys also didn’t want to leave the chickens. But our place in Chanverrie may not have had animals, but it had a quiet peaceful river in the backyard.  

When we started passing this trip, I knew that I wanted to go back to Mont Saint-Michel. I loved it when I was here 13 years ago and I wanted to go back and show the boys.  First, however, we had to get breakfast and that involved walking into Coutances where we found a big church. This was our Airbnb. A cottage in a garden… …guarded by chickens. Two of them were named The Fluffy Twins by Josy. Then we drove to Mont Saint-Michel. On the walk in, Pat informed me that this place was on his main bucket list. I’d had no idea. I thought we’d just planted this part of the trip for me, not for him… As a side note, the other two were Uluru, which we did last year, and Petra. Um, I’m pretty sure we are not going to get an three checked off this year… There aren’t many words to describe this place. It’s amazing! At the top, inside the Abbey, we found the horse from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. I did not expect that. Inside the Abbey was a replica of the moon. That’s a giant fire pla...