France - The trip to Caen

Sunday 5th April 2009

We got out of bed (I can't way woke up, cause we didn't really sleep) nice and early, ready to make our trip to Caen, Normandy. As we were leaving the s***ty hotel I was outside waiting for Dan and some guy in a van starting trying to talk to me. He quickly realised that I spoke no French, and the only words I knew that he said sounded like Fromage. Cheese? What the?? He continued to have a great conversation with me, until I gave up and went back inside. Weird.

We jumped on the metro to Saint Lazare so we could catch our scnf train to Caen. We had been warned by Matt and Jodie to ignore women who come and ask "Do you speak English?" (Thanks guys) but Dan was quickly made a target by some lady who asked him and he quickly replied "No". She pestered him for a while til he could shake her free and follow me into the station. We found the correct ticket machine and bought our tickets to Caen and had 15 minutes to organise some breakfast. Time for baguettes. Ham and cheese baguettes. We jumped on the train, settled into our seats then enjoyed the most delicious bread product ever made. Baguettes are the s***. Yum. Dan was happy with his chocolate and raison pastries. They were pretty good though.

The 2.5 hour train trip was very pretty. I did glance out the window from time to time to look at the scenery, but the real excitement was in "New Moon" the second in the Twilight series which I was then onto. The story of Edward the vampire and Bella the mortal had well and truly sucked me in. We arrived in Caen at 11.55, and we had to be checked into our hotel by 12. Luckily the hotel was directly opposite the train station. So at 11.59 we walked in to a completely empty reception. We called out, looked in doors and up stairs. There was not a person to be seen. After about 20 minutes of looking and calling out and waiting we thought to call them. We took a business card of the front desk and phone the number. The phone right in front of us rang, and then someone was on the other end of my call, but they weren't in the reception. They spoke no English and had no idea that we were trying to tell them that we were downstairs waiting. I could hear them speaking through the phone, but I could also hear them upstairs, talking on the phone. Dan climbed the stairs to investigate. Eventually he came down with the guy to check us in. Argh 30 minutes to check into a hotel, I'll bet you can imagine how impressed I was at this stage. Again, another sleazy, s***ty hotel, in a dodgy area of town. But it was cheap so that's all that mattered. We unloaded bags and set off into the main part of town. It was a lovely blue day. We found the Sunday market that filled the main streets of the town. People flogging their homegrown wares. Some very interesting things for sale. We sat down for a yummy kebab for lunch with all the post market crowds. From here we walked up to the Caen Château, which was built by William the b****** as he was then known. Massive great big fortification walls, hold inside a few little museums and art galleries. We climbed up onto the walls which give a great view of the city and the big Cathedral. Williams castle no longer stands. It got bombed in a little war during the 1940's. We went into one of the museums - it was all about the history of Normandy and the farming equipment that they used. I got bored really quickly. From the château we thought it would be time to go take an afternoon rest back at the hotel. On our stroll back we found a horse racing meeting that we could sit and watch from the side of the track. We sat and watched one race and then continued on our way. There was like fitness equipment set up along the side of the walking track. Dan and I booted off a couple of kids to have a go. It was well fun.

After an hours rest (and a bit more reading of New Moon) it was time for dinner. We walked a few doors down to a Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese place that had a buffet. We sat down and the waitress bought us complementary champagne. Nice start. Most people are aware that I'm not the biggest fan of Chinese food, but this was ok. Lots of plain noodles to put sauces on, but the best thing yet was that they had the closest thing to dim sims I've seen since leaving Australia. I had a heap of them. Then they put fresh ones out and I think they had prawns in them, they weren't as nice. We were pretty full after dinner so it was a walk around the block and then off to bed for our big adventure tomorrow.