TRIP REPORT: 13 Nights, France, Belgium, Luxembourg

After lunch, we were struggling with fatigue. Something in our schedule would have to be cut out. I asked DS to choose as he had not been to Paris before. He chose to skip Sainte-Chapelle. It was still too early to check into the hotel so we stopped at La Petite Perigourdine. I had a Campari and DS had a beer. We checked into the hotel and took a 3 hour nap. After the nap we were feeling much better and took the metro to the 7th. I enjoyed visiting my old neighborhood from my previous trip. I had made reservations at La Septieme Vin. We had a great dinner: bottle of wine, foie gras, escargot and boef bourguignonne. Not enough room for dessert. We then walked to Champs de Mars and enjoyed the 10 pm sparkling of the tower. Metro back to the hotel and a good night's rest.

DAY TWO: We had 9:30 timed entry for the Louvre. There was a bit of a line, but we were given a short cut, I think because of my walking stick. My knees are shot and the stick triples the amount of walking I can do. I received some very good advice (thanks again, Pam!) about navigating the Louvre. I had a route planned out and written in my journal. It worked out perfectly. We entered the Denon wing and took the first left to the Greek antiquities. We took a side trip to view the Islamic art rooms. I love the tiles. Back to the Greeks and Romans, Venus de Milo. Side trip to the Sphinx and the Medieval Louvre. Apollo Room, Winged Victory. We stopped at the Mollien cafe' for pain o chocolate, tea, coffee and juice (26 Euros). Then to the Raft of Medusa, Lady Liberty, Mona Lisa (drive by) and Napoleon. Then to the large salon with the large sculptures, then to Near Eastern Antiquities/ Palace of Darius. Then to the Vase of Eleanor and then finally to Rembrandt. We ran out of energy so skipped the Napoleonic apartments. I was pleased with the plan and we didn't get frustrated or wander in circles.

For lunch we walked to the Breizh Cafe' and had Crepes. DS had ham, cheese and egg and I had white asparagus, veg and egg. Yum! We shared a chocolate and banana dessert crepe. We took the metro to the Arch de Triomphe and did some wandering. We had dinner at Le Flore en L'Ile. DS had salmon and I had goat cheese salad. We did some more neighborhood walking.

We walked about 6 miles each day in Paris.

BAYEUX: The next morning we took an 8:40 train from St. Lazarre to Rouen. We picked up a rental car from Hertz at the train station. We drove to Honfleur. This was our only day of bad weather. It was cold and rainy. We had lunch in Honfleur at Le Maison Bleu. We both had Fish and Chips. We walked the town seeing Rue de la Prison and Eglise Sainte Catherine. We then headed for Pegaus Bridge. Thanks again to Pam for this suggestion. We visited the museum there. After that we headed to our hotel in Bayeux.

Hotel Reine Mathilde: This hotel was recommended here. Sorry, I can't remember who. Three star hotel. Decent sized room with carpeting, a bit run down. Tiny bathroom. Staff was great. 562 Euros for 4 nights. They have an on site restaurant that is very busy. Great location within view of the cathedral. I would stay here again. There is free public parking about 0.3 miles from the hotel.

Will take a break and continue later.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your experience in Luxembourg and Belgium!

I hate to put a break in your TR BUT!!! So glad the Louvre route worked out for you! See what I mean that the floor plan map doesn't really show when there are "half-levels" like where the Sphinx is located? It was fun figuring out for you! And happy you saw the Vase of Eleanor....I mean our eyes have looked at a vase that Eleanor/Alienor d'Aquitaine held in her hands. That just blows my mind. AND the Rembrandts! They are kind of off in the corner and usually don't have much crowd around them.

Also happy you enjoyed the Leon Monet exhibition. And you are right. Restful and does not require a lot of brain work to look at those lovely works!

"We had 9:30 timed entry for the Louvre. There was a bit of a line, but we were given a short cut, I think because of my walking stick."

A few years ago I was with a friend who was using a cane and we were shocked at how often we'd be pulled out of line when the line managers saw the cane. Very kind of them!

I'm glad you got to Pegasus Bridge. Amazing to me they landed those gliders so close to their target. Shocking, really.

Looking forward to the rest of your Bayeux time and then onward!

Thanks for posting!

Loving this TR so far! I'm planning a trip to France and England next year so I will hang onto this for future reference.

I had to laugh when you said there was a long line at immigration at CDG, though - par for the course!

@Pam,
Your suggestions were so important to my trip. I use your Hogwarts staircases reference every time I talk to someone about the Louvre. My first trip to the museum was positive, but I wasted so much energy walking in circles. DS hasn't been that interested in art museums up to now, but our experience at the Louvre was so positive that he is now more interested. He was the one who wanted to see the Rembrandts. He was talking to my sister today and he told her that even though there were up to 30,000 people at the museum the same day we were and the line in front of the Mona Lisa was long, he had the Rembrandts all to himself. He called it "my own private Louvre".
Going to the Pegasus Bridge memorial and museum was also very positive. TBH, I had no interest in WWII. It is still too close and I just wanted to avoid thinking about it. This trip I focused on hearing and reading about individual soldiers and their stories more than the battle tactics. That strategy started at the Pegasus museum where the displays included personal stories and possessions of individual soldiers. Because of my background, I also focused on the medics and their kits. I also loved seeing the sample glider and what was left of an actual glider.

@Mardee, I enjoyed your packing report, but I haven't read your TR yet. It is great to exchange experiences. Every time I read a TR, I learn something that makes my next trip better.

Bayeux cont'd
After we figured out where to put our car and walked around a bit, we had an early dinner at the hotel. DS had cod and I had a Croque Madame. We also had Cafe Gourmand and with some difficulty was able to substitute a chocolate chaud for the espresso. We tucked in by 9 pm, spending some time calling home, reading some news and playing a few games on our phones.

DAY FOUR:
We were met at 8 am outside our hotel by Thierry, a guide for Overlord Tours. We prepaid for tour #12, which is a private guide in a minivan in the morning and a tour of 101st Airborne's Easy Company, while riding in a Willy's Jeep in the afternoon. The cost was Euros 650. The extra cost is due to the Jeep. Thierry was excellent and we got a great value from the day. I really felt that the experience in the Jeep made things seem more vivid. I had a very emotional response. I did watch Band of Brothers prior to the trip. I want to say that I think the show is very important, again to make the war more personal. We were able to visit exact spots of events that we saw in the show. I understand that some veterans/ families of veterans felt that these particular soldiers were given credit for single handedly winning the war, but I think learning the individual stories makes the history more digestible. One of the things that I learned on RS tours was the importance of having a qualified guide that you can personally interact with. DS had a particular interest in Carentan. Thierry took extra time to take us through Carentan and show us particular buildings where Easy Company fought and stayed. It was a fabulous day.

That evening we had dinner at La Rapiere. We had an amuse bouche of beetroot puree with shallot cream, prawn soup. DS had beef and I had sea bass. We had the apple ice cream with calvados palate cleanser. DS had a strawberry tarte and I got the cheese plate. Yummy, great service and atmosphere.

DAY FIVE: We slept in until about 9 am. We visited the Bayeux tapestry (embroidery). We enjoyed the audio guide narration. The rest of the museum wasn't much to see. We also visited the Bayeux Cathedral and walked through the shopping district. We got pistachio macarons at a bakery. Not very good. We had lunch at the hotel. Fish and Chips part 2. Pretty good. After lunch we went back toward Carentan and visited Dead Man's Corner museum and D-Day experience. They have a 3D movie and a C47 plane simulator. Prior to getting on the plane, cont'd

Prior to getting on the plane, you are debriefed by a hologram of Robert Lee Wolverton, commander of the third battalion, 506 Regiment, 101st Airborne. During the debriefing he recites his famous prayer that was quoted by Ronald Reagan on the 40th anniversary of D-Day:
"Men, I am not a religious man and I don't know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask His blessing in what we are about to do:
God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy.
We do not join battle afraid.
We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that,
if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.
We do not know or seek what our fate will be.
We ask only this,
that if die we must,
that we die as men would die,
without complaining,
without pleading
and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right.
O Lord, protect our loved ones
and be near us in the fire ahead
and with us now as we pray to you."

This was chilling. The plane is the fuselage used by Band of Brothers during the filming. The windows have screens so you see other planes getting shot out of the sky. I won't tell you how the landing goes....
We had dinner at a kabab place across from the hotel.

DAY SIX
We slept in a bit again this morning. We visited the Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux. We had purchased a combo ticket at the tapestry museum the day before. We enjoyed the museum. My favorite parts were the propaganda posters and the display dedicated to the engineers.
Then we headed to Pont L'Eveque. We had lunch at Bouchon Normand. No English here. Nice atmosphere, but the beef was extremely tough. Then we headed to The Calvados Experience. It is a cute procession of rooms with movies played on the walls explaining the apple growing, cidre making and then the Calvados making process. Then at the bar there is a tasting, followed of course by the shopping. I had asked the forum about bringing back wine. But DS didn't fall in love with wine, he fell in love with cidre and Calvados. He purchased 2 bottles. We then rushed to the Overlord museum near Omaha Beach. We didn't have very much time here. We had dinner at La Manufacture in Bayeux. Fish and Chips Part 3. It was my favorite of the 3.

ROUEN
DAY SEVEN
We need to get the car back by 11 am and it is about a 2 hour drive. We don't get started until a bit before 9. Everything goes smoothly until we get into town. The GPS takes us to the front of the train station and we drive around for 15 minutes on one way roads until we can find our way into the garage. I didn't mention that Hertz gave us a free upgrade to a luxury sized car because the agent was late in waiting on us. This was nice on the highway, but we had trouble driving and parking in Honfleur and we had trouble getting the car into the garage and parked. We made it to the office at 11:15. There were 2 gentleman there. I will never forget this. One of the men looked at me sternly, crossed his forearms in the shape of an X and stated "FERME". DS handed over the keys. No English, no receipt. It worked out, but I should have at least taken a photo of him with the keys. I later received an email receipt. We spent the rest of the day walking the streets of Rouen. I loved seeing the cathedral as I love Monet's paintings of the light on the cathedral. We had Italian for lunch and had dinner at La Couronne. I enjoyed the atmosphere here, but my meal was subpar. Thankfully, DS states this was his best meal. I had an overcooked pork chop and DS had the beef. Dessert was yummy. I had chocolate and DS had a Calvados souffle. One day in Rouen was enough for us.
contd.

Radisson Blue Rouen Centre: This was our first business hotel of the trip. It was less expensive than the boutique hotels in the old town and it was right across the street from the train station. It is a modern hotel and very nice. I paid Euros 142.

BELGIUM
DAY EIGHT
We took a 9:22 am train from Rouen back to Paris St. Lazarre. We were going to take the RER E to Gare du Nord, but it wasn't stopping at St. Lazarre on that day. I know there was a bus route, but we ended up walking. We had less than an hour to make the connection. We had enough time to buy some lunch at the station and get aboard the Thalys train to Liege. It was a smooth and uneventful trip.

Ibis Styles-Guillemens
Our second business hotel. It is decorated with cartoon characters. Modern and nice. I paid Euros 285 for 3 nights.

We walked about a mile to the old town area and had dinner at Huggy's Hamburger Bar. There was sausage gravy on my hamburger, pretty good!

CONT'D TOMORROW.