A Blue Moon, A Burglary, and A chateau Visit !

Coffee and croissants at Pierre Hermé next to the Pont de l'Alma in Paris

A view across the Seine

Easing into this post with some soothing croissant breakfast photos for you all... :-)

We began August in Paris with a visit to the Pierre Hermé café behind the RER C stop at Pont de l'Alma. Paris was remarkably cool and pleasant almost all summer, and in the early mornings, we had it all to ourselves.
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Of course, we wanted to get back to Lonlay l'Abbaye in August as well, so we set off mid-month with not a care in the world (well, not many, anyway). Within just a few warm days, the village was in full bloom.

Entrance to the village on the road from Beauchène

White summer roses on the village green

Red rose bush by the market

Roses and other flowers near the elementary school

Benches with a view

Burgeoning fruit

The Égrenne, the abbey and the footbridge

A clinging bush

From the top of the hill at the village green, where benches beckon walkers to rest, to the quick running stream, all was lush and growing in August, including a young tree or bush that sprouted from the stone wall of a garage over the water.

Wild blackberry brambles

Along the road to Beauchène, just north of Lonlay l'Abbaye, wild blackberries grew to satisfy the birds, and small pears dropped ripe into the long grasses beside the pavement. There was a feeling of abundance.

A small fallen pear in the grass

The days were still long, with light in the sky until almost 10:00 pm. This photo was taken at about 9:30 pm. Evenings were quiet, with many folks still on vacation, or recovering at home after their vacations.

We had already noticed in Paris that a surprising number of people seemed to come back from their long August holidays with sprained ankles, sunburns, bee stings or an arm in a sling.

One evening brought us a beautiful "super blue moon." Not blue in color of course, but rare, the second full moon of the month. There is not due to be another blue super moon until 2037.

Despite the heat that occasionally caused some of the floral displays to droop, the village was dressed in fine colors, spruced up and ready for the annual village fête.

Even the house numbers had been repainted, surmounted by the silver wolf, the medieval symbol of Lonlay l'Abbaye.

There were some alternate cooler days with showers, providing nicer walking weather, and freshening the flowers and lawns.

As always, the villagers take great pride in maintaining their houses and private spaces, as well as the public areas. Almost everywhere you look, there is a pleasing aesthetic order to the place.

The day of the fête was dry but overcast, with rain predicted. We wondered if the evening's fireworks would be cancelled.

​We saw two men going all about the village, neatly chalking out the numbers that reserved spaces for the sellers at the next day's vide grenier. Later on, we noticed that the Google Street View car had apparently passed through and captured the unusual markings for posterity.

Fortunately for the festival goers, the rain held off in the evening, and as soon as it was completely dark, fireworks capped the night.

​We, however, were a bit distracted, as I had discovered some unauthorized charges on credit cards we had left behind in our apartment in Paris.

​We called the banks right away, of course, and the cards were cancelled. But were our accounts merely hacked, or had our apartment been burglarized? There was only one way to know for sure, so Joseph got the first train he could back to Paris.

Arriving late in the evening, Joseph went to the police station as soon as he saw that the door had been kicked in. The French gendarmes were wonderful. Four armed agents accompanied Joseph back to the apartment.

​The burglars were long gone. Sadly, so were a number of our possessions, particularly electronics, that the burglars probably found easy to carry and easy to fence. Lesson learned.

The next morning, a police forensics team arrived to take fingerprints, and Joseph began to put our place back together.

Café across from the train station in Flers

I dropped everything and, traveling without Pipkin or luggage, took a bus to Flers, and the train to Paris, to join Joseph and to help in figuring out what was missing. We needed to quickly make a full report to the police, and to file a claim with our insurance.

Redacted police report heading

We only had to wait about an hour at the station before an officer took our statement and wrote up the report on the spot.

With the report in hand, it was relatively easy to file a claim online with our insurance company. The insurance company was fortunately very responsive and fair, it seemed to us, in their value assessments.

We now have new locks and an alarm system, and are no longer leaving any valuables in the apartment. 
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All in all, while the burglary was an upsetting experience, it could have been worse. We realized that we still retained the items we actually valued the most - like long-treasured books and other items connected to family and friends, whose value was strictly sentimental, not monetary.

One unexpected positive from our somewhat frenetic trips back and forth to Paris was our discovery of the local bus line. We had long been aware that there was a regular bus that connected Lonlay l'Abbaye with the nearby towns, but did not find it practical to use, as we normally come laden with luggage and our energetic pup when we travel to Normandy. Besides, we always enjoy our conversations with Monsieur LeBlond, the amiable professional driver who ferries us to and from the train station.

The bus runs only a few times a day, takes longer than a taxi ride, and does not match all that closely with train times in Flers. However, it picks you up and drops you off right in the heart of the village, is easy (assuming you only have hand luggage) and inexpensive (2 euros/person each way), and provides a scenic and calming view of the Norman countryside.

St Bomer les Forges - one of the small towns on the bus route between Lonlay and Flers

Another positive was coming back to the peace and security of Lonlay l'Abbaye, where even walking the dog in the early morning is full of calm and beautiful moments, as the sky lightens and the abbey bells ring at 7:00 to get everyone up and out of bed.

Is it the clouds, or is it the great vista of sky that makes these sunrises so glorious?

We try not to take them for granted, as with so many other benefits of our life here.

For much of our stay, we saw swallows swooping just outside in the early morning and evening air, gobbling up insects. Very few mosquitos thanks to them! We avoided opening the front bedroom window, as some of the swallows were still landing on their mud nest there, even as there did not appear to be any young ones remaining.

Pipkin enjoyed watching the swallows as much as we did! She then went off to spend a few more days at "camp" up in the hills at the Lonlay Kennels (lonlaykennels.com/) with the wonderful Rick and Tracey Harwood, as we had friends coming to visit and wanted to be able to make day trips with them sans chien.

Special surprises!

Honestly, K&P (as our semi-anonymous friends will be known) are just the most generous couple! They brought us this incredible vintage French basket and vintage oval serving plates, and stuffed the basket with treats from their area of southern France near Toulouse. We were delighted.

Every item was delicious and unusual. Those cookies towards the left in the basket are made with chestnut flour and hazelnuts, a particularly unique and scrumptious combination!

This is not a piece of the actual Bayeux Tapestry, but a copy in the gift shop.
​You knew that, right?

K&P were interested to see a bit more of Normandy in the environs of our village, volunteering to drive us on the daytrips. It had been a long time since we had been to Bayeux to see the stunning and historic "Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde," so that was a must! Otherwise known as the Bayeux Tapestry, the embroidered cloth which tells the tale of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 measures 68.3 metres (approx 224 feet) long and about 70cm (approx 20 inches) wide.

It was on loan to Great Britain a few years ago, and I think new audioguides to the work were produced then, because the ones we had in English this time were very helpful in understanding the whole story. The "story cloth" was produced in the late 11th century, not long after the events depicted, but no one knows exactly by whom, or by which group of persons. So fascinating. For more information, you can explore the pages of the museum's website: www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/over-the-centuries/

We liked walking the small streets of Bayeux together as well. As Bayeux was one of the first towns liberated after D-Day in World War II, it did not suffer significant bombing damage, and has retained many of its older houses.

On the ramparts in Fougères

I had always wanted to visit Fougères, a town over the Norman border into Brittany, as I had seen photos of its centerpiece chateau, said to be the largest medieval fortress in this state of preservation in all of Europe. The chateau covers a site of two hectares, and has numerous extant towers and ramparts to explore. Joseph and K&P were kind enough to humor my request, and I think we were all impressed with the place.

We wisely set out early before the heat of the day, as Fougères was about an hour away. We were able to explore most of the structure and grounds before too many people were there, and left for lunch before getting heatstroke, as it was quite a warm day!

View of a portion of the chateau and the town in the distance from one of the highest towers

One of the most ingenious features of the chateau was the manner in which a nearby tributary had been diverted to its center, presumably to provide water to drink and to wash with, but also channeled in part to canals which poured over waterwheels, presumably to power a mill to grind grain.

An original wooden fortress had stood on this site since the early 11th century, then was replaced with stone and expanded over hundreds of years through various clashes between local lords, and between the English and the French during the Hundred Years' War. Apparently much of what remains today, and continues to be restored, is architecture from the 15th century. Think of that!

A doorway to a cellar of sorts with a dirt floor.
​You wonder what you might find if you could dig deeper.

Some of the interiors have displays or videos that explain (in French) more of the history of Fougères and of this part of Brittany. The restored timbers in this tower were striking.

Another short film explains to children, in video game style, how the battles were fought.

Could it be a castle without a trebuchet?

Or without an oubliette? Fougères castle has it all.

Now, why people throw coins into any orifice they see - particularly one that used to, for real, hold prisoners until they starved to death - is a mystery to me.

Sheesh. It's not the Disneyland wishing well, people!

To be fair, we could say this room is a tad like Disneyland - (and more appealing than the oubliette) - a room done up to help us imagine the quotidian life of the castle's medieval inhabitants.

And the funerary sculpture of one of those former inhabitants. Several of the most important ones seem to have been named Raoul, if you are looking for a name for your next baby.

We had a delightful lunch under umbrellas in this square close to the chateau's official entrance. Pink cider and buckwheat galettes stuffed with various ingredients. Mine was egg, tomato, mushrooms, ham and bacon. Yum.
 
Many thanks to K&P for making time for this special visit. We look forward to more adventures in Normandy and beyond.