Settling in

Typical weather for our stay in France
see all photos »

I woke up at 4:30 today. I have no idea why. I woke everyone else up around 7. We had breakfast and cleaned rooms. We needed to be on the road by 9:30. Connie and Alicia Hicks had the best room. Yeah - less to do. :-) We arrived in a small village outside of Rouen at about 9 that evening. It was a very long bus ride. Next time I may change the arrangements and spread the accommodations out through France.  I was able to talk with my husband today - that was good.

We were not able to get into our rooms until 10:15 that evening. There were some problems. At first there were not enough rooms, then there were not enough beds in the rooms and then Harry did not have a room. The lady at the front desk was becoming increasingly frustrated. Being in France, she spoke only french. I don't. So we used drawings and charades and the like to communicate. I was able to get the rooms going and we called the travel agency to see if they could clear it up. Then one of the room keys did not work and another room had a defective commode. Then we started talking dinner. Finally, she called the chef at home and we spoke with him. He spoke some English. Now I want to study french. I felt so bad not being able to communicate in their own language. It seems that we were supposed to e-mail our dinner order in for the special 3 course meal. We did not know this - it was not in any of the paperwork. So we took the buffet the next night. It worked. Finally Anthony arrived. He was our contact and the hotel manager. He spoke English. When he arrived, our travel agent called and Anthony assured her we would be taken care of. Eventually we settled down for a good nights sleep after we wished Jason a Happy Birthday! The next day we are headed to Mont St. Michel and the beaches of Normandy.

And the wheels on the bus go round and round and round and round...

Things to come
see all photos »

Frau -

PS That is it for today. (7-6-07) Hopefully, I will have the rest of the trip inputted by the end of the weekend. I have Mont St. Michel, The beaches of Normandy and the Cemetary, and then 2.5 days in Paris.  Not too bad. Sleep well and I hope everyone had a good 4th of JUly.