For the 4th of July we decided to head north to cooler weather. We had really enjoyed our visit to Bar Harbor in 2016 so we looked to Maine again.
Ogunquit is closer to Boston and Delta has a direct flight to Boston so that was it.
Our flight from Memphis to Boston was 3 hours late but that let us hang out with our daughter's family as they were departing for their holiday.
I had reserved a Budget car in Boston and that was one of the worst car rental experiences I have had. There was a long counter of agents with a longer line of customers. The signage said Avis/Budget/Zipcar. When I got called to an agent, he had a radio squawking loudly. I asked him to turn it down but that didn't help his heavy accent. I agreed to whatever he wanted just to get done. When I got to the garage, they just asked me what kind of car I wanted.
The car I got had so many phones in the CarPlay app that it wouldn't accept my phone. Then Google Maps gave me a convoluted route out of Boston (but it was rush hour).
We were late planning so many of the hotels were already booked. Rather than playing with the hotels web sites, I started just calling them. That worked. When I called Beachmere Inn, they had Room 108 available for the days we wanted. That is the 3rd room from the ocean with a private patio and kitchenette.
The ocean view was as incredible as promised. While we didn't cook in the kitchenette, we enjoyed the refrigerator for drinks and snacks. The Beachmere Inn really has a "family" feel. The owner, Sarah, stopped by and chatted with us on our patio. The Inn has been in her family since 1937. Her brother, Skip, runs the excellent Blue Bistro restaurant on the premises.
The Beachmere Inn is a short walk to the "hopping" area of Ogunquit. From the Beachmere Inn to just beyond Shore Rd and Beach St is an eclectic collection of restaurants and shops. The restaurants vary from Italian, Greek, and, of course, seafood.
Our first night we had dinner at Nikanos. We actually chose Nikanos because it had parking. While the food was wonderful, the service was slow.
On the second day, we explored the area down Beach St and had lunch at Ogunquit Beach Lobster House. There seemed to be a pattern of good food and slow service. For dinner, we walked 4 minutes to Surf Point 360 at Anchorage by the Sea. They gave us a prime table with a clear view of the sea shore. The lobster roll was the best we had.
The third day, we drove down to Kennebunk and Kennebunkport and shopped and dined in Dock Square. Another tourist recommended The Pilot House to us and it was a winner. We just had haddock sandwiches for lunch but they were great and the service was outstanding. After lunch, we wandered around Kennebunkport and happened onto the Bush compound at Walkers Point.
Back at Beachmere Inn, the family in the adjacent room had been coming to Beachmere Inn for almost 30 years. They recommended Jackie's Too in Perkins Cove for dinner. That was the best meal of the trip. Out table overlooked Oarweed Cove and our waiter, Dylan, was the best of the trip.
For our last full day, we took it easy sitting on our patio reading books and eating chocolate. I combined my morning walk with a visit to Village Food Market for sandwiches. The Beachmere Inn had ice cream on the green mid-afternoon. With fireworks that evening, we had dinner at the Beachmere Inn's Blue Bistro. Both food and service were great.
Ogunquit had an awesome fireworks show on the beach and the best place to view it was Room 108 at the Beachmere Inn.
The drive back to Boston was better and our flight home was on time. The airport at Boston could stand a little sprucing up like La Guardia.
Here are geotracking maps of where we went in France. Although they seem fairly coarse, zoom way in and you can see tremendous details.
I used my iPhone 14 Pro and myTracks app without any in-app purchases.
In myTracks, I set the Time Interval to 60 seconds. Then each morning before we would leave the hotel, I would "Start short time recording" for 16-20 hours. This would cause it to automatically stop recording and create a daily track file. I never had trouble with battery life but I would check it around dinner.
When we returned, I exported each track to e-mail that I then sent to myself. From that e-mail, I saved the resulting .gpx files to my PC.
I used Google My Maps to create a new map. I imported each .gpx file to a new layer and tailored it setting labels and colors.
There is a limit of how many layers you can add to a map so I created a separate map for each segment of our travel.
Once I had added all the tracks to a map, I marked it for sharing so that anyone with the link could view.
I also found a technique to extract the GPS track data from a Google Maps Timeline. Leave me a comment if you want that technique.
The final destination of our trip was Bayeux in the Normandy region.
Friday morning, I walked from Hotel Pont Royal to the Hertz office at Carrousel du Louvre. This walk took me by the Louvre's Pyramid.
Hertz provided me a Citroën C5 Aircross.
The drive back to the Hotel Pont Royal was interesting. I tried to use my Garmin GPS with current maps. But it didn't know about the Olympic closings. It wanted to send me across Pont de la Concorde but all of Place de la Concorde was closed.
I switched to Google Maps and got back to the hotel.
The drive out of Paris was even more interesting. It wasn't the maps this time but the route. Google Maps sent me around the Arc de Triomphe. Talk about traffic circles!
This isn't my video but you get the idea.
It's about a 3+ hour drive to Bayeux, mostly autoroutes. We encountered construction delays in both directions and 4 toll plazas. I used my tap Visa card at each plaza with no problem. Pick a lane with this symbol.
Once out of Paris and settled in, we began thinking about lunch, While the autoroute had rest areas called "Aire de Service d'Autoroute" with McDonalds, that wasn't what I had in mind for lunch. I had envisioned a leisurely drive through the French countryside but found myself on a busy highway.
So I took the next exit from A13 for Évreux and simply chose a direction, left. We came across Au Bon Accueil (web site, Facebook). That was just what we were looking for.
No one spoke English and my Google Translate app struggled with the menu. Finally the waiter realized that we were having trouble and began to bring out prepared plates for us to choose from! It was the best meal we had in France - 63€.
We rolled back into the car and proceeded to Bayeux.
In Bayeux we stayed at Domaine de Bayeux (web site). We chose a room in their Orchard facility. This is a modern, almost austere, building but very well equipped. It is 100 yards behind the original facility past a beautiful garden.
I had made dinner reservations for that night at La Rapière (web site) several months in advance. We weren't the group with the earliest made reservations that night.
La Rapière is down a small alley.
Let me zoom in on that sign.
3 course meal - 104€.
Best dessert in France! Chocolate profiterole with ice cream and salted caramel.
A true wine cellar!
On the way back to the hotel, we visited the Bayeux Tapestry (web site). The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 230 feet long and 20 inches tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy challenging Harold II, King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. It's in a quiet museum just across the street from Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux.
Saturday morning Brigitte Simon with Unforgettable Normandy met us at Domaine de Bayeux and guided us on a all day tour of the American beaches, Utah and Omaha.
Brigette is a local and a friend of Nadège at Domaine de Bayeux. We hadn't anticipated the crowds already gathering for the 80th anniversary of D-Day upcoming in 5 days but Brigette knew all the backroads when we encountered a closure. She even knew how to get to all the good parking spaces.
We started at Sainte Mère Église where paratrooper John Steele became entangled in the church steeple.
This is a stained glass window in that church honoring the paratroopers.
The whole area was full of restored jeeps and soldiers in uniform, many on active duty from the nearby bases.
Just across the way, a fence still shows the signs of the fierce battle that took place there.
Brigette had made us lunch reservations at Le Roosevelt (web site) where Brigette knew everyone.
Le Roosevelt occupies a building that the Germans used for a telephone exchange. They had painted false windows on the bunker in an attempt to disguise it.
Following D-Day, the U.S. Navy used it as a communications center.
Everywhere were American and French flags.
A German anti-aircraft gun.
These are bomb craters. Brigette said that some of the nearby farmers let the cattle use them for watering holes.
This huge slab of concrete was expelled from the German ammunition dump when then attacking American forces blew it up.
This is Pointe du Hoc where the Rangers scaled the cliffs.
Pointe du Hoc is between Utah and Omaha beaches. The Germans had an observation post here where they could see both beaches.
This point used to be connected to the mainland but has eroded. Recently, half of it fell into the ocean.
This is looking out the slot of the German observation post. That's Utah to the left and Omaha to the right.
This is the cliff that the Rangers scaled leading the charge onto Omaha.
There were several active duty Rangers standing there looking at the scene. I can only imagine what was going through their minds. I approached two of them, patted them on the back, and said "Rangers, Lead the Way!" to which they replied "All the Way!" I got chills. Trish had tears.
The cemetery is located on a 172.5 acre cliff overlooking Omaha Beach. There are 9,387 graves of American soldiers who died in France during World War II. That is only about 40% of the casualties as the rest were returned to the United States.
Back in Bayeux, we had dinner at Le Volet Qui Penche (web site). The locals weren't as thrilled about it as we were. They called it a "bistro."
During the summer, they have outdoor dining on the bridge.
Only 2 courses - 75.25€. Very nice atmosphere but they forgot our cheese plate appetizer.
Sunday we drove an hour and a half further west to Mont Saint Michel (web site). The roads were a mixture of local roads (wider than Irish) and autoroute.
Mont Saint Michel is a magical island topped by a gravity-defying abbey. For centuries one of Europe’s major pilgrimage destinations, this holy island is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The history of the Mont Saint Michel begins in 708, after the archangel Michael appeared to the bishop Aubert three times in dream. Saint Michael asked him to build a sanctuary in his honor on an island.
The view of Mont Saint Michel from the walkway bridge. The parking is 1.5 miles away but a shuttle takes you to within 450 yards.
There are 350 steps to reach the top but there are plenty of restaurants and ice creams shops along the way.
We planned on having lunch in Crêperie La Sirène. It's above a gift shop.
I had read that they began serving at 11:45 but don't take reservations so you needed get to the gift shop around 11:20 and wait. We got there at 11 and climbed right up to the creperie.
You can look down onto the cobblestone street below.
He was cooking our breakfast.
Soon, it was packed!
We had breakfast crepes, dessert crepes, and then cider!
This is what we saw on the way out!
The tidal basin was full of people walking and riding horses.
We were about half way up the Mont.
We made it to the very top in front of the abbey.
This statue of the Archangel Michael depicts him holding scales, a lance, and a demon beneath him.
This alabaster altarpiece depicts the traditional scenes of the Passion of Christ: arrest, flagellation, crucifixion, entombment, and Resurrection.
This is a most lifelike stature of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child.
Beautiful stone columns in the abbey.
This is a monk-powered wheel used to draw water up into the abbey.
The gold-tipped pinnacle of the abbey depicts the statue of the Archangel Michael and the dragon.
Back in Bayeux for dinner, we just wanted junk food. Even junk food in France is wonderful. Although many of the restaurants were closed on Sunday, we found Pause Pressée that hit the spot. They even had a menu in English.
Monday morning we loaded up and motored back into Paris and CDG and back to Memphis
After Ireland and Scotland in 2022, I said I wouldn't take 7 people back to Europe. Then I took 5 people to another hemisphere with New Zealand in 2023. Now in 2024, I took 6 people to 4 countries. Let's see where we go next.
