I didn’t expect northern France to be so pretty!

Despite the cold, the quaint, picturesque views from everywhere made traveling so enjoyable. I stayed in Bayeux and Calais. Bayeux is the cutest town ever, and Calais is… welll…. not. But, driving to Calais was really nice:)

bayeux

cheese! so good, so cheap!

landscape

cathedral

I randomly ran into someone I work with in Bayeux! I got off of the train from Paris, and I was walking a mile to my hotel. On this tiny street, ahead of me on the sidewalk, walking towards me was someone who looked a lot like a guy named Tommy, who I work with. So I yelled, “Tommy?!” And it was him. How in the world this happened, I will never know. I don’t work with that many people. And, of all of the places, in all of the world – there was Tommy, there with me😂 5,000 miles away from Houston!! He knew I was on sabbatical, but he didn’t know anything about where I was going or planned to be. He was in Normandy for a relative’s 50th(?) anniversary… not sure, either way, he was there with his family, and it was the most random concidental thing in the world that I saw him there😆

what the whaaaaa???

More Bayeux and France prettiness…

church

bayeux building

picturesque

canal bayeux

bayeux street

cathedral bayeux

french normandy architecture

just half of the tapestry…

old old old buildings

old old buildings

Leaving Bayeux, traveling east, I drove on part of the Cider Route – this is where they make a lot of the French hard cider (which I guess exists and is good..?) and also pommeau (apple brandy + apple juice).

Cider Route!

field

my farm:)

horsey

my farm

house

I stayed in Calais because I train from the station there to Belgium the next morning. It was kind of trashy:/ Hotel was fine, and most likely haunted…

creepy hotel

creeeeeeeper

calais

train to… belgium!

Next up: Seester Time in Belgium