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After visiting Monet's gardens we bought picnicking supplies there and set off for Rouen. Rouen is a charming town, larger than I would have thought. The beautiful Gothic cathedral was a bit gloomy and undergoing repairs on the outside of course. Monet painted it repeatedly (70+ times I think) because the light constantly changes. We walked all around, and had tea at a delightful little tearoom. There are many many half-timbered houses here too- it seems that NEW houses are made half-timbered in a faux-antique style. There's a great city clock. A fair number of visitors even this early in the season. The weather remained overcast and chilly but not raining.
The next day we drove first to Honfleur, which was something of a disappointment. It was a town favored by the Impressionists, with its little harbor painted by many of them. Today the harbor holds yachts, and the town itself seems to be mostly occupied by gift shops, charming restaurants, and so on. Self-consciously quaint. The big wooden church, built by shipbuilders and showing its origins, is charming. But we had good fresh sole amandine in a restaurant overlooking the harbor.
We looked out onto the Channel from the almost-deserted beach at Deauville (or was it Trouville?) which stretched out in front of miles and miles of holiday homes and villas and hotels. We arrived in Caen and eventually found our motel near the War Memorials. Neither of us had any interest in visiting the D-Day sites. By now our jet-lag was catching up with us, as well as our eternal impatience with the many roundabouts on the roads, and we spent the evening "in."
The next morning we drove the few miles to Bayeux to see the tapestries. Bayeux is also touristy but I really loved it, more than the other quaint towns around. The tapestry museum is a model of how such places should be. You see a film about it, you see a "highlights' and finally you have a good audio guide to lead you through. The tapestry is quite marvelous; it too met expectations. You can't take pictures In the museum, but here is the whole thing, finally, online to look at at leisure.
After seeing the tapestries we found a charming little restaurant, apparently completely patronized by locals, and had a nice salad lunch there. Made a quick internet-café stop; these don't seem to be easy to find in France; I guess it's like the US, where most people who want to use a computer have one! And visited the Cathedral, and a shop where women were making the traditional Normandy lace.
On the return to Caen we visited an archaeological dig of a Roman town, which has a rather impressive museum housing its finds.
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