Ali est ici ...

Oh my, it seems May has rolled around again - I think I told you all last year that May is a month of long weekends here in France and many Parisians head out for short breaks away from the city, taking an extra day if they can. So last weekend I hopped on a Normandie-bound train with Karin and Ned and baby Albert, and Karin's parents for some seaside adventures!

Chez Nous

True to her legendary form, Karin managed to find possibly the most perfect country cottage to house us all at Géfosse Fontenay, a tiny little hamlet at the eastern end of Omaha beach - one of the D-Day landing sites.

Utah beach

We spent some time wandering along the coast to visit these beaches that were the scenes of such tremendous loss of life, and eventual victory for the allied forces in the second world war.

WWII tank

It's very hard to imagine that so recently this part of the world was in the grip of such chaos. The relics of war are still there to remind us.

American cemetery

And the memorials to those who were lost are fitting and sobering, and oddly beautiful and peaceful too.

Testing my boots

The French Farmhouse

It's no wonder the French are passionate about their country, when your GPS navigation system takes you on back roads that wind through countryside that looks like this, how could you not be?

Pour une randonée

And in the spring sunshine with fragrant blossoms on the breeze, well ...

Canola fields forever

... everything just seems perfect!

But of course, being just across la manche from England, this part of the world has seen battle before. We slipped over the frontier into Brittany to visit the mediaeval town of Saint Malo.

Pirates in the keep

Saint Malo is a gorgeous walled city built on a promontory, with a portcullis and even the odd pirate!

Les toits

I took the prettiest photos I could manage because in the way of the modern world, Saint Malo these days feels rather like a theme-park-come-shopping-centre.

Wooden doors

Tourist restaurants abound and all of the usual suspects in chain-store land are at street level for your retail pleasure. We stayed only long enough to find the ...

House of Butter!

... and offer praise at the temple of Jean-Yves Bordier. We left laden with beurre flavoured with algue, piment d'espelette, et sel fumé, some crème fraiche, some fromage pont l'evecque du region and some full-cream, unpasteurised, straight-from-the-cow milk!

Assorted delights de la mer

And perhaps to check out the local catch (not so much for me, but it did whet the appetites of other members of the entourage).

Hungrily, inspired by our shopping adventures, we set out for lunch at Cancale - following a tip from Mez, we reserved a table at Le Bout du Quai and dined quietly in style with a view out to Mont Saint Michel in the harbour.

Yes, it is foie gras

Always offered as an entrée at your finer dining establishments in France, and also locally grown - this foie gras came with pain de mie, a honey-flavoured bread that I would say is texturally somewhere between dense toast and cake, and, rather unknown to the average Australian palate, but in fact, delicious in this combination.

Ned's bounty

As you can see, Ned was very pleased when Jo wasn't able to polish off her box of fresh sea creatures - two entrées is just pure decadence!

Duck with blackberry sauce?

And how delighted was I with this dish?

Yes please!

Sadly, I actually failed to eat the aubergines - they were bitter and rubbery with tough skins, and simply inedible. And I've just become the obsessive fan ... tant pis, alors!

Verrine?

Ali: Verrine? Verrine?, Monsieur c'est pas une verrine! C'est un vrai BOL!

Translation: "Small cup-sized portion of delicious trifly-thing? Monsieur that is certainly not a small cup-sized portion of delicious trifly-thing! That is a horse-sized portion!"

Another dessert battle, another mediaeval fortress - we joined all the other pilgrims and hit the shores of Mont Saint Michel.

My travelling companions

From left to right my partners in touring are Captain Aubrey, Ned, Albert, Karin and Jo - check out how pleased Albert is to be related to all these people!

Weather permitting!

And I'm his favourite nounou - at least I better be!

It seems that arriving at 20h00 - as the tide starts to rise 'at the speed of a galloping horse' - is the perfect time, as the other tourists who have over-run this best-known, best-loved of all France's regional tourist destinations all day start to depart, and the quotidien takes over.

Bisous

We relaxed and wandered through the tiny, steep alleys up to the cathedral and pondered over how many centuries this fortified religious stronghold has held.

Mont St Michel

Leaving was magical as the lights came on and dusk was gently circling the island (isthmus I guess really) and we'd also all just seen our first ...

Omelette soufflé

... delivered to an eager table of hungry French folk. And the verdict from the chief diner? Pas mauvaise ... Not bad? The thing inflated like a helium balloon and wobbled like a jellyfish! Understaters par excellence, the French.

With legendary fresh seafood available at the coast, Karin and Ned made a market stop and brought home a box full of fish and shellfish so fresh they were still flipping and pulsing!

Best fish ever?

Now, as I said earlier, while I can't actually manage to eat the fishy bits, I certainly can appreciate when something has been cooked to absolute perfection.

Jo says yes

And Jo managed to pick this beast thoroughly clean - like a Tom and Jerry cartoon fish carcass!

L'agneau pré salé

For my part, I was more interested in tasting the lamb that feeds on the salty marsh plants along the tidal flats of Normandie - pre-salted meat! I think perhaps my palate wasn't sharp enough to really taste the difference? Or maybe it was too tied up with the flavour sensations in our potato and celeriac purée infused with 'seaweed' butter? Succulent and marvellous in any case.

Jetty du jour

Another little taste of sea air is required before heading back to Paris, surely?

On prend le chocolat chaud

And best experienced with a hot chocolate on a too-cold-but-sunny day - before we hit the last of our Norman adventures and visited the most famous tapestry in the world.

Bayeux tapestry

Being a stitcher of many years standing myself, and remembering with absolute clarity my very first European history lessons at Sienna College with Mrs Jansen - the Bayeux Tapestry is an historical object that I've wanted to see for decades. And it is absolutely magnificent.

It's astonishing that it has survived so long, in such a well preserved state. The colours are glorious, the images are sharp and clear - in places you can still see the original sketch outlines used by the stitchers as guides!

It's survived, fires, battles, looting (it was used as a tarpaulin on a cart of treasures during one episode), it has travelled all over France and the rest of the world. Napoleon exhibited it in Paris once in a propaganda move to try and gain support for an invasion of England, but the public remained unmoved.

And it was stitched in about 1070AD - that's nearly 1000 years ago - astonishing.

Bayeux cathedral

I was enraptured enough with the tapestry but to stumble upon the inauguration of the new bishop at the cathedral afterwards was an added bonus. A pomp-filled ceremony with processions and rousing ecclesiastical music set beside a beautiful and grand catherdral with a couple of delightful gendarmes available to tell you all about the event.

So a fitting end to an unexpectedly full and impressionant weekend.

Sunset over the beach