But What Did You DO for Two Months?

Welcome to my random musings about the world, on a weekly-to-occasional basis.

Where we are: Tomorrow is our last day in Dinan; on Sunday we’ll take the train back to Paris, then Monday we’re off to the Faroe Islands.

But What Did You DO for Two Months?

We’ve been in France for almost two and a half months, so in lieu of writing an essay this week, I thought I’d tell you how we’ve spent our time—besides seeking out cheese shops and pastries. France is so much more than the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

While we were in Provence, we went to Marseille a couple of times. It’s the second-largest city in the country, dates back at least to the Roman era, and nowadays it’s a diverse, bustling port city. People of different cultures have been moving into and through Marseille for two thousand years, and everything about the city (especially the food!) reflects that long, varied history.

We spent a day exploring Aix-en-Provence, which is a very pretty, well-preserved ancient university town.

We spent another day exploring Grasse, which is the epicenter of the world’s perfume industry. Every other building was a perfume or fragrance shop; I spent the whole day going from one to the next, buying frivolous things like peony-scented wet wipes. Lee was bored out of his mind. I was not.

We went to Monaco for a day, which is not France, but was nonetheless super-interesting. It’s an entire country the size of a postage stamp, wedged between the mountains and the Mediterranean, and oozing money. Google struggled with navigation, because so many layers are underground. There are stairs and escalators and tunnels going every which way. The Formula One Monaco Grand Prix had finished up just before we visited; I can’t imagine what it’s like with race cars roaring through that dense little city.

We went to a small town near where we were staying to see the Olympic torch pass through. It was a Thursday afternoon festival, complete with music and activities and crowds and security and a parade. It was great fun, and as I told Lee, a once in a lifetime event. Mainly because, ultimately, it was a guy jogging down the street, carrying a (not very large) torch. Honestly, it wasn’t really interesting enough to do it twice (which we totally could’ve).

In Brittany, the first place we went was Saint-Malo, which some of you might recognize from All the Light We Cannot See. I prefer to think of it as my spiritual home. My favorite butter in the world is made by Yves Bordier, and their flagship shop (as well as a restaurant) is in Saint-Malo. We ate lunch at the restaurant, and the bread came with eight kinds of butter. EIGHT. I’m considering (no, really, I am) buying a t-shirt that says buerre de sel. That means ‘salted butter.’ I mean, can you think of better words to put on a t-shirt?

We went to Mont-St-Michel one day, which is every bit as pretty as it looks in the photos, and far more crowded. I can’t imagine what it must be like in the high tourist season. We had a great day, and you should definitely go see it, but maybe not in July.

We spent a day visiting some of the D-day sites on the Normandy beaches; there’s far more there than can be seen in one day, but we started at the American Cemetery and ended at the famous church in St-Mere-Eglise, and it was all pretty interesting. We went the week after the big 80th anniversary celebrations, because we didn’t want to deal with the crowds. When I went a few years ago in October, there weren’t many tourists at all, but week before last it was absolutely heaving, mostly with Americans. The one exception was the German cemetery, which was absolutely fascinating, and had very few tourists, none of whom were American, as far as we could tell.

We spent another day exploring some of the megalithic sites in Carnac, in the south of Brittany. That was pretty spectacular, for those of us who are obsessed with megalithic sites. The Carnac alignments are similar to Stonehenge, but bigger, and instead of being in a circle, these stones stand in long lines. There were loads of tourists, but notably, we encountered no Americans—quite a contrast with our day in Normandy. It (both Carnac and the lack of American tourists) was absolutely fascinating. But don’t ask Lee about that day. He’ll tell you it was a bunch of rocks in a field.

We went to Fougeres, because … well, I had some unfinished emotional business in Fougeres. Maybe one day I’ll tell you about it. But on this trip, we went to see the castle, which is about a thousand years old. I came to a potentially controversial conclusion: if there is a world castle competition, France wins for sheer beauty. Scottish castles are more atmospheric, I think, but French castles are just prettier. I would like to see many more.

We went to Rennes, and liked it so much we had to go right back three days later. It’s full of beautiful medieval half-timbered buildings. It has a great weekly market, plus a daily covered market. It’s the capital of Brittany, so it has all the shopping and life conveniences one might need (I bought new sneakers at a proper running store). It’s just upscale enough without being uncomfortable. And we discovered our favorite-ever crepe restaurant (mustard ice cream!), so we have both decided it’s the perfect city and now we have to live there.

Take care,

Lisa

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