Now I have figured out how this blog works

Jumieges towers
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So..to continue.  We had this wonderful breakfast in Lyons-la-Foret.  Every French breakfast is LOADED with carbs.  Everything is so fresh!!! Here is a typical French breakfast: a bread plate with 1 crossiant each, and a ton of sliced baguettes, two types of jam in cute, little round dishes, some kind of cheese either goat cheese or clottted cream, coffee with hot milk and youghurt or some fruit.  The butter must be fresh because I have never tasted butter like this before.  Yummmmm.

Wild flowers at Jumieges
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We left Lyons-la-Foret and programmed the GPS to take only country roads.  Again we were amazed at the beautiful countryside.  Every house, whether large or small, has flowers growing in the front yard, in window boxes, and in hanging planters.  Each village has flowers growing everywhere.  Even the hospital rooms in Bayeux had individual window boxes full of flowers such as Geraniums and Impatients.

Our next stop was the most amazing site I have ever seen.  At first I wasn't that excited thinking, "well how many abbey ruins can you see?"  I was so wrong.  As you can see in the photos, even though most of the abbey is in ruins, the architectural structures are unbelieveable.  This abbey was constructed in 634 and thereafter was destroyed and resurrected a number of times.  Unfortunately, the French Revolution took its toll and after that the church was left in ruin. When walking around the ruins you can still see the minute details that went into the building of this site.  Words cannot express the majesty of what we saw.

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Another note on churches:  Every litttle village has a majestic church.  Even the smallest village will have a church that is awe-inspiring.

After Jumieges we both really needed to use the restroom.  Since we were on country roads we didn't see any gas stations and at that time we weren't even sure that restrooms existed in French gas stations.  Finally, we decided to stop and have lunch just so we could use the restroom.  Well in France there is no such thing as a fast lunch, so we settled into our 2 hour repast. The funny thing was the waiter/owner did not speak word of English.  He brought over a little chalk board with items written on them.  I knew that canard was duck and poulet was chicken, but I had no idea what else was on the menu.  So I just started pointing and here is what we ended up ordering.  Madeline had a mixed salad with toast points and melted goat cheese and it was tasty.  I had cantaloupe marinated in port wine.  I didn't love it but it was still good.  For the main dish I had steak with some kind of herb butter , and some fries.  Maddie had pork (she gave it to me and it was great) and some noodles with butter.  We both had creme brulee for dessert.  After that lunch we learned that if we need to use the restroom, it better be at a tourist attraction or we will have a 2 hour lunch.

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Briefly we stopped at an active Benedictine monastry hoping to catch some chanting monks, but we only saw one and he was in his silent zone.  I did get one picture of him, secretly of course, and the abbey was really pretty.

We drove a lot that day and ended up in Bayeux.  Our hotel, again, was small and had a lot of personality.  Every French person that we have met has been kind, helpful, and warm.  In fact, I would say that the French are more polite and helpful than any American salesperson I have ever met.  We have had such a positive experience all the way around!!