The journey westwards - Rainy Brittany- 1
The journey westwards
We leave home on Friday afternoon after Jürgen has finished work. The idea is to get through the usual traffic jams between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe already today and to have a more pleasant ride on the French highways starting tomorrow.
We have some minor traffic jams in Germany, but as soon as we enter the toll roads in France, there are significantly fewer cars on the highway and driving is pretty relaxed.
Paying the toll is quite easy as we can use our credit card. Freya has heard that some stations do not accept credit cards, so we bring a bag of coins just in case. During the whole vacation we will only have to use them once - at a toll station where the card reader was out of order.
After 4 hours we arrive in Woippy [↗]. Woippy is a village near Metz and since this is only a stopover, Jürgen had booked a hotel near the highway. If it had been earlier, we would have taken the bus to Metz that stops nearby, but as it is, we just take a look at the dragon statue that we saw while looking for the entrance to the hotel.
But why is there a dragon statue? Well, Woippy's coat of arms includes the Granoully dragon [↗], which, according to legend, was killed by St. Clement, the bishop of Metz.
Next to the hotel is a French copy of McDonald's or Burger King. We have to order on a display like in many McDonald's, but here you can't change the language. But ordering a burger is quite easy, no matter if in German, English or French.
The next day is also a driving day. But first we start with breakfast at the hotel. As usual, it is a self-service buffet, but we are positively surprised by the variety.
Before getting on the highway, we visit the Auchan supermarket next to our hotel and buy some baguette, cheese and sausage for lunch on the way.
To avoid driving all day, we make a stop near Reims. Outside of Verzy is the Faux de Verzy [↗]. This is a beech forest with the largest collection of dwarf beeches in the world. In 1998, more than 800 trees were counted. Since then, the number has decreased slightly. The most beautiful specimens have been saved from competition and fenced into a park-like area on a circular path to become a tourist attraction.
We have visited dwarf beeches in other places and especially loved the ones in the Semper Forest Park on the island of Rügen. These trees have twisted and intertwined branches. They grow wider than tall. With their overhanging branches, they form tent-like crowns.
Since most of the trees are fenced in, it's hard to find a good composition. It would have been much easier in winter or early spring, when the leaves no longer hide the wonderful shapes of the branches. But if you walk along other paths, you will find trees that are unfenced.
Back on the highway, we look for a place to have a quick lunch with the goodies we bought this morning. The rest areas on the toll roads in France are much nicer than in Germany. They all have clean toilets and usually some benches for a picnic. Like the roads themselves, they are not as crowded, especially with fewer trucks than in Germany.
While the weather was nice and warm yesterday, it's much colder and windy today. So it's really a brief lunch.
Back in the car, we now have to take care of it. Already on the last meters of the ascent to the forest the car asked for some oil, but this message disappeared when the car stopped. Now the message is back and we need some gas too.
So the next stop is a gas station, but is diesel the same as "Gazol"? The stations we saw before said "Diesel". A quick look on the internet doesn't give a clear answer, so we better take the next station.
Here they have signs with both names, so it's really synonymous. But now we have another problem. Very often you have to pay at the pump, just like in the USA. But this one doesn't accept Jürgen's gas card. Freya goes to the counter, explains the problem in French - and a super nice woman helps us. The refresher course has already paid off. We also buy some oil and fill it up after a short break with coffee and cake.
We still have a long way to go before we finally reach Rouen. Our hotel is a bit outside the city center, but still within walking distance. So the plan is to get rid of the car, check in and then have a look at the old town of Rouen [↗].
The only problem is finding the parking garage, as the entrance is one block away and on a different street. And of course the only sign is right above the entrance of the garage 😠.
It's Saturday and there's some kind of festival going on downtown. Freya will find out later that it's the "Feast of the Belly" with street food during the day.
But we're not hungry now, so our first stop is the modern church of Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc [↗]. This church is dedicated to the heroine Joan of Arc, who was burned as a heretic by the English on April 30, 1431. In fact, this historic site was a place of execution and shame until almost the middle of the nineteenth century.
The stained glass windows come from the former church of Saint-Vincent, which was bombed during the Second World War.
From here we walk through the medieval streets to the "Gros Horlonge", an oversized clock above a gate, to the cathedral.
The Cathedral of Rouen [↗] is one of the most important churches in France built in the Gothic style. The Norman dukes were crowned and buried here. It's too late for the sun to illuminate this church as colorfully as many of the churches to come, but we admire the windows already, not knowing how many more beautiful ones we will see in the coming days.
The sun sets and the sky turns pink and purple, calling for more pictures of the "Gros Horlonge" gate.
But now we have to find a place for dinner. Freya saw the dessert Baba o'Rhum [↗] on the menu of one of the restaurants. Her first and only encounter with this delicious dish was in Rome. There she ate three portions because it was so delicious. For Jürgen, this is definitely not an argument to go to an overpriced tourist restaurant on the central market square, but Freya keeps nagging him until he gives up.
Unfortunately, we both understand only a fraction of the menu. Jürgen's fraction is even smaller. So it's a bit like the motto: "That's fish, let's take it. You take number 1 and I take number 3. And then we'll see what we get. And of course the Baba for Freya.
And what shall I say, the food was ok, but far from what we paid for it and even the Baba wasn't as Freya remembered it.
It was quite a long day and so we head back to the hotel. Somehow the walk now seems much longer than before.
