Tripped

The Salmon Mousse

I really thought this guy was going to visit me the other night, and I've spent the last two days trying to avoid him since. In my case, it wasn't the salmon mousse, but the moules mariniere on Monday in Port en Bessin. Fortunately for the rest of our party I was the only one to consume them at this particular restaurant. It only takes one mal moule, but this one had a vicious streak. This also meant my part of the Normandy tour ended prematurely: no Omaha Beach, no cemetery, no Bayeux Tapestry. Ah, well, there will be other chances in the future, I'm sure.

Normandy

When in France ... one must visit classic tourist sites like this one. Extraordinary from afar, ordinary and touristy up close - that's Mont St. Michel. 

We're in Normandy for a couple of days with Eileen's brother-in-law Jim to tour the D-Day sites, while Eileen's sister Beth is on a business trip. But one of the benefits of a trip to the province is that you can also see plenty of other history, including Mont St. Michel and the Bayeux Tapestry. One thing you can't fully appreciate until you spend a day driving around here and seeing them firsthand is what the WWII chronicles mean when describing "hedgerow country." Pictures and film do a good job of capturing it, but can't quite do full justice to how confounding and claustrophic some of the fields are that the opposing armies had to fight through, with root mounds that have built up several feet in many instances.