Trails 2 Travel

  OK the moment any one of my family members or most of my friends have been waiting for... The Disneyland Paris post (and photos) On our last day I had originally planned to see more of the Loire and slowly make our way back to Paris... but we'd already seen all the chateaux we wanted to see and since our hotel for the night was by the airport... we didn't really feel like going back into the city. So what to do? Solution: Disneyland

As promised, photos from our 2 night stay in the Troglodyte (cave dwelling) which was maybe my favorite part of our Loire Valley trip. We had to walk up a short path to the entrance so we looked out over the rooftops of the town, Nazelles-Negron, which is just across the bridge from Amboise.

What better way to start a trip to the Loire Valley than staying IN a chateau yourself? We booked a room in the historic Chateau Bouvet-Ladubay which has 5 rooms/ suites in total and couldn't have been happier!

Next up on the tour of Normandy: Mont St. Michel! (Basically fairytale land in Amanda's head) I'm going to be super real here, as we drove the night before past this area to where we spent the night in the neighboring town, I saw this from pretty far off (It's the tallest thing around) and seriously cried... It had been an emotional day already I admit (understandably so at memorials), but there was something pretty unreal as far as dreams coming true when I saw Mont St. Michel in the distance. Like... this IS the place in France that I had dreamed of seeing since I saw a poster of it surrounded by water lit up at night when I first started taking French... in 7th grade. So while the previous night passed pretty uneventful at the B&B, we were up and out to check out this MUST-SEE of Normandy.

Day 5: Normandy Beaches Utah, Omaha, and Gold Starting with stop 1 near Utah Beach: One of the most notable towns from WWII history:  Sainte-Mère-Église We slept in accidentally until about 10 but fortunately that turned out for the best as it was DUMPING rain as we started out but as we headed for Utah beach, the furthest from Caen, it slowed to a slight drizzle. It took a little over an hour to reach Sainte-Mère-Église which was by afternoon already pretty busy. But luck turned out again in the opening of a parking spot just as we got there so we swooped in and headed out to explore this quaint little town in the light drizzle.  Note: Exploring the town is obviously free but all the parking was paid parking spots.

Day 4 continued: So after we left the general vicinity of Paris it became farmland and some of the prettiest farmland I've seen. For our entire first day, google maps took us on back country highways! Not one toll road in site which was a plus but the downside was there was an astonishing lack of gas stations! Which is how we came to the photo above. We both needed a snack and I needed a toilet so we stopped in a little town at a market where I was informed the public W.C. was right across the road. Awesome! That was it guys. haha Just little stalls with a hole in the ground that neither had toilet paper nor flushing capabilities and the urinals were open air even more so. Quite exciting let me tell you. (needless to say napkins were also purchased at said market haha)

Day 4 Itinerary: Royal Abbey Chaalis, Chateau de Chantilly, small city of Fecamps, Etretat, Caen   Ok I'm again splitting day 4 up into 2 posts. The first 2 stops are less than 30 minutes outside of Paris so consequently totally doable if you are staying in Paris. The other places were along the coast of Normandy and let's be honest I took a million pics in Etretat so it needed its own post.  So to start with, another early morning at 6:30 AM to catch a shuttle organized through the hotel (wasn't attempting the train again) to the airport to pick up our rental car. We grabbed a quick mcdonalds breakfast at the airport and our rental car then were on our way out of the city around 8:45. First stop: The Royal Abbeye Chaalis which I mistakenly thought opened at 9... ya it opens at 10 so we had like 30 minutes to kill when we got there.

Day 3 continued: So we got back to our hotel around 2:30 and decided (after 2 nights of passing out by 8 PM) that a little mid-day rest may be in order. After that (roughly around 4) we headed out to the Musee D'Orsay for a quick adventure before our tour of the catacombs. (at 6) We walked since it was only about 10 minutes and came across this sign on our way. It may not quite be LillIe but it's close ;) so I took it as my name anyways.

Day 3: Versailles, Musee D'Orsay, the Catacombs, and Paris lights  Although for post length's sake, I've split our last day up so this post will only cover Versailles But first a few photos of our addorable and eclectic hotel room we had for 3 nights in Paris! We stayed right around the block from the Musee de l'armee and only a 10 minute walk (or less) to the Eiffel Tower. All in all I thought it was pretty well situated and the cost really couldn't be beat. The hotel is called Hotel Le Pavillon and is considered a "boutique hotel" due to only having 15 rooms, each of which is unique, and in such a great neighborhood!