Monday morning we packed and took the Metro during rush hour to the other end of Paris, which was challenging though not as bad as I’d feared. Got the rental car. I had reserved a midsize with manual with Europebycar - they gave us a Jetta station wagon with automatic and a GPS navigation system – no complaints there. Leaving Paris we had two options. I wanted to see Chartres, as my uncle had told me it was worth going out of the way to see, so I had laid out a route. On the other hand I also realized that might not work out, so I had also laid out a route directly to Bayeax. Immediately after leaving the Port Maison we entered an immense traffic circle ... and were forced out onto the route to La Defense. I didn’t dare try to turn around, and eventually we survived driving through Paris. The toll booths were another matter. Toll was just under 5 euros. The booth had a slot for what we assumed was a 5 euro bill – the first 2 we tried did not work. At this point we were fairly panicked, as someone was in back of us and we fealt rather foolish (or at least I did). I inserted a credit card into the more or less unlabelled device that looked like a card reader, but that didn’t work either. Hit the ‘help’ button, they didn’t speak English, which was no real surprise. Eventually we made a credit card work and escaped the horrid tollbooth of misery and despair. After a three hours we reached Bayeux, found free parking, had the worst meal we have ever paid for (note – if you are making your living selling microwaved ‘cheeseburgers’ to unsuspecting tourists’ kids, you should probably figure out how long it takes to cook them so you don’t serve them still frozen in the middle). As we were eating and wandering around Bayeux it rained hard on us for the first time since we arrived in France, discounting some showers in the car on the way to Bayeux.
Bayeux canal
Bayeux Mill
Went and saw the Bayeux tapestry. The tapestry is 70 meters longs and tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The museum features a movie on the tapestry to give you some clue what you are looking at, then an audioguide to give you a clue as you walk down the length of it (and also help keep confused tourists moving along for crowd control). Considering this was 500 years before the Renaissance it was quite impressive. Then went to the Bayeux Cathedral, which was ok but nothing terribly special.
Bayeux Cathedral
Eventually we found our bed and breakfast Les Mas Normand – very rural setting. The GPS navigation system really helped. Very nice couple Mylene and Christian who spoke English well, their 12 year old daughter Faustine, and their dog. The kids loved playing fetch with their dog, and Faustine joined them. We went to Arromonches to see the renmants of artificial D-Day port, saw the very touristy town, and had our first sit down dinner of the trip – three pizzas and Dusty got saumon (salmon poached with pork). After dinner we drove down the boardwalk at Gold Beach near our B&B, then the kids played with the dog again. Our hosts took the kids to a nearby farm where they saw a horses, cows, and a donkey.
 Les Mas Normand -
Côte Ouest is on the 1st floor (second floor US)
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 Les Mas Normand
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