Blonde and Abroad: The Tales of a SoCal Girl Living la Vie Parisienne: A Weekend in Normandy!

THE GRAND MAREE

This past weekend (April 21-22nd), the Grand Marée, or The Big Tide in English,

took place all along France's Atlantic Coast.

As you can see from the photos, the tide was very high in the morning (11:00am) and receded to about

a mile off the coast line in the afternoon (5:00pm). Since it is a special, annual event, my host family decided to take me to their home in Villers sur Mer to not only see this natural phenomenon, but also to expose me to another region and culture of France.

As you will see from the photos, I had such a wonderful time with them and am so fortunate that I will be visiting Normandy twice again: tomorrow (Sunday March 29th), I will be visiting all the historical WWII D-Day sites with a guided tour from Paris, and at the end of April, my host family invited me (and Aaron) to join them for a long weekend and promised to take us both

to Mont Saint Michel, a place in France that I just can't wait to visit.

Enjoy!

Photos of their house:

As mentioned above, my host family owns "a floor" in a 3 story house in Villers. This house's architecture is very typical of the region, and despite being built in 1830, it has been completely refurbished and modernized. Furthermore, the house is a 2 minute walk from the town, a 5 minute walk from the beach, and has a sweeping view of the ocean and the coast line. In other words, this place is quite amazing.

(The first batch of photos were taken upon our arrival, and photos shown later in the blog post were taken later when it was sunnier)

My room

The Hallway

The living room

The room and my favorite French cereal

Saturday morning, Muriel took me on a tour of Villers to not only show me around, but also to buy all the ingredients for our Saturday "dejeuner."

The stair-well

Side-view of their house

The view from the front; they occupy that third floor (the floor with the large balcony)
Beautiful, right?

The post office

Town center and Tourism Office

Picking up pastries for lunch and offered to pay
for them to show my gratitude toward them!

The local dessert I chose for myself

Inside the town's local products shop.
Here, where they sell a variety of local cheeses, wines, eggs, milks among other products,
Muriel told me that it was important to her that I try a variety of "Normandy" products
during my visit and thus, asked me what I wanted to purchase in this gourmet store. Of course,
I laughed, told me that she was way too kind, and said that she could pick out whatever she wanted
as I like ALL French cuisine. She said ok, and ended up selecting 5 different cheeses, fresh creme,
fresh farmer's eggs, and fresh butter for our fresh bread.
This is one of the many examples of how extraordinarily kind and generous my host family is,
and I have yet to figure out how to re-thank them at the end of my semester abroad.

The cheese

The Normandy Alcoholic Speciality: Cider

The meats

Museau = Pig Snout
Since this is a favorite of Nicholas', Muriel's husband, she bought it for him,
and we ate it the following day during lunch.
And, of course, since it was French, I loved it!

Dropping off the grocery's and now walking to the beach
(That cliff is where Honfleur and Le Havre are located)

Another view of the house

The town church

Famed for its stain glass windows

The WWI Memorial

Another view of the church

The tide at its highest

Back at the house for lunch
Originally, we were going to eat our appetizer on the terrace,
but since it was a bit windy, we decided to move inside.
But, a lovely view, no?

The appetizer: the 5 local Normandy cheese, fresh shrimp, and escargots de la mer with a
fresh mayonnaise sauce

All assembled in the living room!

The entrée: fresh chicken and potatoes

The Epic 4 Hour Beach Walk
One of the most memorable beach walks of my life. From the every changing sky to being able to walk along areas that are usually always covered with water, it truly was an amazing beach walk, and I hope you enjoy the photos as much I do!

The beginning

Villers is known around the world for its clay cliffs and the fossils and sea debris that are found in the clay.

Finding a little shell

People from all over come to not only fish and find the sea animals that have
been trapped on the land, but also to find those little fossils in the clay and take
them back as souvenirs of their visit here.

La Plage des Vaches Noires (or the Black Cow Beach)
The beach in between Villers and Houlgate that was given this
name because the Anglo-Saxons that that these rock formations
were flocks of black cows in the distance.

The most surreal part of the day when it became
hard to distinguish where the sky met the water
and the water met
the land.

90 minutes later, we arrived at Houlgate, a little Normandy
town that has a nice, grand hotel and casino

Crazy to think that the tide receded that far in just a few hours

Houlgate specialities

Examples of Normandy-style architecture in Houlgate:

The 60 minute descent back:

The sky in this photo reminded me of the water in Monet's "Water Lillies."

Dinner back at the house:

Dessert: Normandy wine, fresh white creme with strawberry jam made by
Muriel, and the best butter I have ever tasted in my life.
Like I said, I was spoiled rotten
with the food selection during this
weekend getaway.

Watching the French version of "The Voice"
before going to bed

Visiting Deauville Sunday morning:

Deauville, the ritziest town of Normandy (and certainly among all of France), world-renowned for its American Film Festival in September.

Town Hall

The Main Hotel

An example of one of the many
French designer label stores we saw
during our window shopping spree

The boardwalk

The beach retreats for the most famous movie stars
Recognize a few names?

Visiting the luxe department store, Printemps,
and since it was their 50th anniversary,
every customer were served champagne and a little French pastry!