We spend a few more days in Normandy in 1994 after a week in Paris and a train trip to Brussels and Brugge (#8). Taking a train to Lille we pick up our reserved rental car at Hertz and drive west to stay in Dunkerque.
The next morning we drive out to see the beach where British forces left France early in WW II. It is quite flat and appears muddy out a ways. There are many beach front houses and businesses. We head south to Calais, where we stop to see the “Burghers” monument by Rodin.
We continue south along the coast via Cap Blanc-Nez and Cap Gris-Nez, seeing many bunkers and other WW II fortifications. We stop at the nice Cedres Hotel in Camiers. It is foggy in the morning as we drive all day along the coast, stopping at the Ibis Hotel in Dieppe. Chalk cliffs rise north and south of the Dieppe harbor.
We drive south, but inland along secondary and tertiary scenic roads, stopping for lunch at the Aubergue Vieux Donjon. We had heard that Normandy mussels in season are exceptional; we try them here and find them to be worthy of their reputation!
We continue to Sees and find an attic room in the Garden Hotel which is an old monastery; we have to duck our head going to the bath; the room is quaint, but nice (and inexpensive).
We continue south and east thru SW France (#16) via La Rochelle, the Dordogne Valley, and Quillan to Perpignon where we return the car to Hertz. By picking up and dropping the car in France we avoid the substantial “drop off” fee.
We want to go to Barcelona by train, but there is a strike, so we go by bus. We had also planned to spend a week in Madrid, but the weather has turned cold and wet, and we are tired of travel so we change our tickets with TWA to fly home from Barcelona. For the flight from NY to San Francisco we are upgraded to Ambassador Class, which is always nice. We stay overnight at the El Rancho Motel near the S.F. airport, pick up our car, and drive home to Sacramento.
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