MY TRIP TO FRANCE. Part Nine: Beautiful Valognes

Monday, June 4, 2012 

Day Nine    

My favorite of the paintings in the Hotel restuarant.

Climbing down the stairs of our Hotel.

I have enjoyed a little scripture study on this trip.  I took my large scriptures with me.  I figured I couldn’t go through this trip without using them.  I am marking my Book of Mormon just a few minutes each morning since Friday.  Starts the day right.  Also Rachel and I have been praying every morning and night.  It means a great deal to me.  There is little doubt but that it helped the weather yesterday!!

More celebrating, re-enacting, parading.

We enjoyed our free breakfast of croissants, ham and cheese deli sliced, orange juice.  Some nice paintings hung on the wall and I snapped a few photos of them.  Scenes of Paris and people in an impressionistic style.

On our last walk in Valognes.  Rachel may look French, but I told her I was taking her home with me!

The High School.

So we found out that EuroStar train tickets to London are too expensive, and we have decided we cannot afford to go.  We cried because we have already purchased the tickets to Les Misérables and the disappointment is high.  We had planned to go on Wednesday.  It has been my dream to see the musical because the book (unabridged) is my favorite of all literature.

Many of the sidewalks were very narrow.

This house was tucked back behind a wall.

Within the hour we have gone from not going to going!  Rachel found a cheaper train ticket $270 instead of $500 for me and for her it still may be $430.  At this rate we can split the cost.

The train station in Valognes, almost one mile from our Hotel.

Update.  The $270 ticket was for arrival June 6 and return June 11.  We can’t do that.  IWe need to come back on the same day or no go!  The website causes some confusion but Rachel’s confidence is high.  I’d say this is the most up and down emotional roller coaster yet.

The local library.

Wisteria over a wall is one of our favorite gardens.

Finally, we are booked!  Rachel was able to speak to a gentleman in the UK on the phone about our ticket problems.  He spoke in an Arabic accent but was clearly understandable as well as incredibly helpful.  He not only got the ticket dates all straightened out, but he also got us seats together.  Our original seats were not even on the same car.  Rachel and he struck up a great friendship (as our family is prone to do) and he told us that Les Mis will be totally worth it.

I can't read French but I knew what this meant!  It is the sign on the hospital grounds.

The old hospital, the church behind it is actually attached, and looks like the hospital was built onto the church. You know how we have chapels in our hospitals?  Maybe that comes from Europe.

Today is a more laid back day, despite the excitement about the London trip this morning.  We walked up to the train station to get a schedule for tomorrow and stopped at a café for Rachel’s espresso and my hot chocolate.  Then up to Shopi for some food for the rest of the day—snack items, such as some gouda cheese, ham, croissants, a paring knife and baguettes.  We strolled back to the courtyard of our Hotel du Louvre and ate our lunch. 

A community garden next to the hospital parking lot.

We see that nearly all stores and eateries seem to be closed on Monday.  It is almost as if it was Sunday or a holiday.  Not many people out, just children and youth in school and about.  It has turned quite cold today, maybe 51 or so.  The breeze makes it cooler even.  There are clouds in the sky and seems ready to rain but none yet.  This morning the ground was wet so it had rained earlier.

The old part of this cemetary sent us back a few centuries.

The towns continue to celebrate DDay over the next couple of weeks but on the weekend closest to June 6th is the grand holiday and we are so honored to have been there this year.  I couldn't believe I had forgotten to collect some dirt from the Drop Zone yesterday for my sand collection.  I was distressed about it, so the team members told me it was no problem to return to La Fiere for that little errand.  So we drove out to the DZ to collect dirt in one of my little French jelly jars from the restuarant.

This is the Super U of Valognes.

Tonight we just walked around the town.  We got to the end of our street, the Rue des Religieuses and found ourselves at the old hospital which was huge.  There was a very old building and a very modern building next to it.  The old part was three stories high including a church, a morgue, a blood bank and two wings.  The new part was two stories and quite up to date.  We continued walking around it and after some photo shoots we made our way home.

A mechanic shop.

On the way, we stopped at a large grocery store (not very large) and enjoyed it quite well.  It was called “InterMarche”.  You must pay to use a cart by putting a coin in to a box on the handle of the cart which unhooks it from the row of carts.  Upon hooking it back up, your coin is restored to you.  Honestly, how did we get to this point?

The river that went right through the middle of town.

Another street along our walk.

We have been without hot water in our rooms for the last two days so we have not had a warm shower in a while!  It is now restored.  It felt wonderful to get in there and get all warmed up, and clean.  The free breakfast this morning was given as an apology for the cold water.

The church we walked by every day.  One of the corners by it.  This corner is pictured in a history book I saw.  After the war, it was pretty bombed out.  How we will miss Valognes.

We found out that no taxi in Valognes will take us to the station tomorrow morning.  They say it is too early and it is too short a distance and the fare is not worth driving us.  We will have to walk the nearly one mile with all our suitcases to catch the train at 6:00am back to Paris. 

This is taken from my Travel Journal
Most of our trip, Rachel and I have been on foot.