From Brussels to Bayeux, Normandy

Let's see....when we wrote last, we were just leaving for Belgium. We had a great day with an old friend from college, who is now the Deputy Secretary to NATO for the U.S. He travels a lot, but we were able to connect with him by being in Brussels on Sunday when he was off, so he spent the day showing us around Brussels. He took us out to a wonderful restaurant for lunch, big leather armchairs and very elegant surroundings. Nancy had a rack of lamb, and Tom had some Belgian specialty of chicken, waterzoi de polei(?). It was lucious, let me tell you. Then we went to the main plaza and the cathedral and we walked around all the shops and street performers, and we had the famous Belgian waffles they sell on the street (I got mine dripping with chocolate), then he drove us all over sightseeing.
We left the next day toward France, and spent much of the day getting royally lost. In southern Belgium, there were almost no signs, and although we had a map, none of the roads seemed to bear any resemblance to what the map showed, so we spent much of the day going round and round the roundabouts, and playing charades with the locals trying to figure out where we were since no one spoke English. But.....in the process, it started raining, and we were hungry, so we stopped in this little bistro and had a most memorable meal (won't have many of them as the bill was $60, but almost worth it. Mostly we are buying food in the market and cooking ourselves). Tom had a filet with a berenaise sauce with melted gorgonzola cheese and I had a skewer of huge shrimp and vegetables. The shrimp were the biggest I had ever seen, and were whole, with their heads on, and their little eyes on stalks, looking at me. Since no one in the restaurant spoke English and we couldn't understand the menu, we were reduced to looking at what people around us were eating. They were helpful in pointing out on the menu what was on their plate, so all turned out well. French fries here are so wonderful, they bear little resemblance to those at home, and these were super as well. Tom had French fries (pommes frite), and I had little tiny new potatoes, with garlic sauce, to die for.
When we crossed the border into France, road signs appeared, and also looked like what the map showed, which was a big relief. We spent the night in a camping municipal in a tiny village (that's what they call campgrounds in France, and every town and village seems to have one), and were on our way early the next morning to Rouen, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and where there is a famous cathedral, built in, I think 1066.
We drove on back roads to Rouen, through these incredible little villages, with old brick and stone houses, some nearly a thousand years old. Such beautiful country, and virtually everywhere you look it's a photo opportunity. It nearly drove Tom crazy. But the roads were narrow with no shoulders so there are few photos from this part of the journey. It's the harvest season and the farmers were harvesting potatoes, and was so picturesque, it was like a movie set.
We went to the spot where Joan of Arc met her end, and toured the cathedral which was already nearly 400 years old when she was killed in 1431. The cathedral, which was built before 1100 a.d. was incredible. The younger brother of Richard the Lion Hearted is buried there among others, and to look at the soaring stonework hundreds of feet high, and intricately carved, and realize that all that was done when they had no power equipment, no cranes, etc., just seems an impossible job, but it is beautiful in the extreme.
Today, we went on to Bayeux (all this is in northwest France, in Normandy). The big draw here is the Bayeux tapestry, detailing the invasion of England by William the Conqueror of Normandy. It was embroidered shortly after 1066, and is 70 meters long, telling the story of the invasion of England by the Normans in 1066 and the triumph of William. Just so amazing that it is nearly a thousand years old, yet the natural dyes of the woolen thread that makes up the embroidery is still bright and beautiful. It was really neat. Kind of the world's first comic strip, so to speak, although on linen with beautifully embroidered woolen thread rather than ink and paper, but was intended to tell the story of William's triumph to an illiterate population.
Tomorrow we are going out to tour the beaches of the D-Day invasion, Utah and Omaha beaches, and the museums about them. On the way down through northern France on our way to Rouen, we passed through the Somme battlefields of WW I, and several pleasant, quiet cemeteries of the war dead from that war. You could still see the trenches along the roadside where the battle of the Somme was fought, and every mile or so there was another little cemetery where the dead were buried. We stopped at the British one and took some pictures. Even today, the French maintain those little cemeteries lovingly, and they are beautiful and peaceful and full of flowers.
We just wasn't prepared for just how beautiful the French countryside is, and everytime I think things can't get more beautiful, or the food can't taste any better, we're surprised to find that it can.
All is well. We are getting settled into our little living quarters and have a good system going now. Nancy's back is holding up well, but not the same for the knees and hips; arthritis and injury show their stuff from time to time. It is humid, and damp, most days are at least partly cloudy and we have had some showers which might be contributing. She's not willing to admit anything about age.
We have to say that the food is amazing. In the countryside, the cows are standing in lucious green grass, there are green fields with free range chickens, and it is no wonder that the eggs, butter, cheese and meat is so much better than in the U.S. Not much agribusiness food here, just little shops and bakeries and wonderful, wonderful food. The fruits and vegetables are incredible as well. Lots and lots of organic food, although even the regular stuff seems to be grown more or less organically. If you haven't noticed by now, we do enjoy eating. Seems like every time we get lost, it's time to stop, eat and think it over!
Although France is certainly expensive, more than the Netherlands, the municipal campgrounds are very reasonable, and as long as you stay out of restaurants, the food in the markets is quite reasonable. Today we brought home a baguette, and a roasted chicken and stuff for salad, and although it was much better tasting than what we would have gotten at home, price was comparable. Eating out in restaurants is ruinous, but really worth it occasionally because the food is so incredibly good. (Although that $60 lunch almost had Nancy having to give Tom artificial respiration for a minute there......I'm glad he didn't have to see what the bill added up to at the place where his friend Bob took us in Brussels).
Happy trails the solarnomads...tom and nancy