Channel Adventure Day 7

Day 07 - Saturday, April 14, 2018 – Pick up Rental Car; Drive from Paris to Beauvoir; Scenic Stops Along the Way

After our breakfast in Hotel Mercure Montparnasse, we finished packing our bags and walked just a short distance to the rental car company, Auto Europe. All arrangements had been made in advance so we just had to pick up our vehicle for our self-driving tour of Brittany.

Vic had collected and organized Google maps for our journey out of Paris and along the Seine River on Route A13. Any big city can be difficult to drive in if you are not familiar with the roads, the lack of signage, and the traffic, but we managed to find our way out of the city center and on to our designated route.

Having a rental car gave us so much flexibility because of the revolving transportation strike that has crippled France and the trains, buses, and shipping lines. The strike was taking place two days during each week for the next few months.

Fortunately we found a calendar online before we left that gave us approximate dates for the strike. Even though it was relatively accurate, we were able to work around some of the posted delays.

Saturday was another strike day so when we went to Montparnasse Station to pick up the car it was relatively quiet. There was not a lot of traffic in leaving the city and our VW Passat had a GPS that helped us with a few of the blocked streets until we found the major roadway, A13.

As soon as we left the city, the skies opened up and it began to rain. We had planned a stop on our way to Beauvoir in the small town of Giverny. The home of Claude Monet, Giverny has been a popular stop for pilgrims and travelers since the middle ages.

During our 2012 adventure in Paris, we took a day trip to Giverny with a local company before our Walking Trip Through Provence. We were in the Monet Gardens the last few days of April, enabling us to see different flowers and flowering plants from the early spring season.

Because of the steady down pour, we opted to bypass the gardens. As lovely as they were, in this weather it would not have been as beautiful. Instead we stayed on A13 and then followed Highway A84 where we stopped for a lunch break.

These highway rest stops were similar to ones we have used on our bus tours. The rest rooms were clean and the food service was a deli and a cafeteria that served weary travelers in a short time. After a light lunch of a chicken wrap and salad, we were back on the road A84 and on our way to our Bed and Breakfast, Les Vieilles Digues B&B in Beauvoir.

Of course, there were many opportunities for photo stops. We had to remind ourselves that we needed to stay on our itinerary as flexible as it was, or we would not make it before sunset.

We reached Beauvoir at 3:30 and met our hostess, Danielle. She suggested a few places for dinner and told us where to go to take some later afternoon photos of Le Mont Saint-Michel.

There was time to organize our room and write a quick email to our son Eduardo to let him know we had arrived safely. We set out again for a drive along the coastal roads, all the time seeing the impressive cathedral on the rocky tidal island.

On our hike we met a group of 200 scouts who were trekking the footpath along the water. We talked to one of their guides who was helping them find their way through a sheep pasture. We joined them, as it was a closer view of the Cathedral and a place where Danielle had told us was great for panoramic photos.

It was 6:15 when we stopped at a small Carrefour grocery store to by a few things for snacks and then came back to our room for our light evening meal. The rains began again with crashing claps of lightning and thunder. We were happy to have reached Beauvoir and to be safe and secure for the night.

Get your motor runnin'

Head out on the highway

Lookin' for adventure

And whatever comes our way…

Steppenwolf

Accommodations: Les Vieilles Digues B&B - - - Meal: B