The Plan? Spending a few days with old friends in the Normandy countryside. We heaved our 4 big bags down our single flight of stairs and 'checked out' of our Cherbourg AirBnB - key - meet keybox - AirBnB at its finest.

We met up with Lee and Annie on the dot of 10 am and headed off for a drive around the cape. Highlights? The lighthouse in Goury, the smallest harbour in Europe at Port Racine and the rocky clifftop views from the nose of Jobourg (le nez de jobourg). Lowlights? August is barely over, the weather is fabulous and even mid week, the tourists are everywhere - including us. We could not believe the difficulty of finding anywhere to have lunch that's a) open or, b) if open, has capacity / is in the mood / isn't itching to close by 2.30 pm. C'est la France! We saw a funny postcard in Cherbourg where sheep were pictured having salt sprinkled on them while they grazed. We didn't get it at the time, but today saw the vast swathes of salt marshes where the land is inundated by the tides. There is a theory sheep/mutton/lamb tastes different due to them eating salt infused grass and coming pre-seasoned as it were. Hmmm. They'd be hard pressed to taste any better than a lusciously roasted leg of Kiwi lamb (but that's another story).

Wednesday evening set the pattern for our visit and dinner was a taste sensation. A courgette soup to start followed by a French dish we'd never encountered before, endive wrapped in ham with a creamy, cheese sauce. This was Normandy after all - if it's not cooked in butter/cream/cheese or all three, then it's not cooked. Dessert was an apple tart garnished with Calvados (apple brandy) soaked raisins. We are becoming aficionados of Calvados to the extent we definitely know we like it.

We joined Annie for her oldies gymnastics on the Thursday - aside from the instructor it was nice to be the fittest people in a class just for once. Mind you, most of them had 20+ years on us. It was a good loosen up session. We visited a friend of hers who aside from fairly whacky theories about life in general actually had a good suggestion and thought we might enjoy a visit to the Chateau de Belleroy. We looked it up online and agreed it looked like a fantastic idea. It goes back 400 odd years but was bought most recently by Malcolm Forbes of Forbes Magazine. He was a huge hot air ballooning fan and opened the world's first international Museum of Ballooning at his luxurious pleasure castle. (Belleroy was always a pleasure chateau, not a defensive chateau.) The scent of money permeated the house and grounds and as huge fans of ballooning ourselves we enjoyed the museum immensely and the guided tour of the chateau was interesting in as much as anything can be in a foreign language whilst one is whipping through the translation book. Getting back to the museum. Having started our ballooning adventures on our honeymoon in Queenstown, New Zealand, we've since ballooned over the Serengeti, Tanzania, the Valley of the Kings, Egypt, Cappadocia, Turkey, the temples of Bagan in Burma/Myanmar (lucky we got that one in), and lastly Jaipur, India back in 2019 BC (before Covid). We saw some lovely stories and quotes in the museum and here are a couple:

"A long, long time ago, in water mixed with soap, The breath of a child gave birth to a sphere, Which very soon swelled up at the tip of a tube, And took flight in the air like a true butterfly. And that's the way the first of the balloons was born (The soap bubble and the balloon)."

It was 19 September, 1783… a little over 239 years ago when the Montgolfiers flew the first creatures in a hot air balloon - a sheep, a duck and a rooster. It took off from Versailles in the presence of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette. Altitude 1500 feet, distance 2 miles, duration 8 minutes. Not too bad at all!

And finally, a quote from Horace Walpole that I wholeheartedly relate to: "If there is no airsickness and I were to go to Paris again, I would prefer a balloon to the packet boat". After our recent overnight ferry from Dublin to Cherbourg, I too would prefer a balloon ride - but given the horrendous winds that extended the trip from 19.5 hours to 22 hours… said balloon would probably be somewhere over Myanmar by now. But still, a great quote and a wonderful visit to Chateau de Belleroy.

Thursday turned into one of those never-ending days encouraged by copious and long lasting sunshine. Just when we thought it was definitely hometime, we continued on to the Abbey of Cerisy la foret - established around 1000 AD. Huge, amazing and just plonked seemingly in the middle of the countryside. Apparently the abbey owned all the land around it and money was being made hand over fist, but still - it's like having Notre Dame turn up in the middle of the Sahara, all by itself. Odd but interesting. We did a drive by of the next door sculpture park and then tootled home to soup followed by wild boar stew (honourably shot by Lee in the past 12 months) with potatoes and carrots and of course, a cheese course and dessert. We are available for interviews on how turkeys feel in the lead up to Christmas. Yummy. But even when we were taking tiny serves - so much food. Could not help but think of starving children in Africa.

On Friday I fended off a sore throat that was threatening to become something worse. It was alternately raining/misting/drizzling or pouring all day - so a fabulous day to read and nap in bed. James went shooting at the range and had a fine time and in the evening we went to a local asian buffet with a decent whack of sushi… it had been too long. We find the need to indulge in sushi and Chinese food every so often and this was a good stop gap to keep us going until Paris when we hit up our fave restaurant in the 10th - Hitomi. (Just for once, we'll actually be staying in the 10th also - so nice that it will be local.)

Saturday dawned pleasantly cloudy. As someone too pale to live above ground, incessant sunshine and blue sky can be draining. We jumped in the car with Annie and she took us to her favourite treasure hunting spots, an assortment of brocantes (low end Antique dealers/consignment shops) and solidarite/charity thrift shops. Hilariously, James bought a souvenir mug from the Chateau de Belleroy for only 50 cents. Brand new and discarded like yesterday's newspaper in a litter box. Sad to think someone went to the trouble and expense to spend €5+ on a gift from the chateau boutique and it was immediately donated. He is enjoying his mug greatly and it will be interesting to see how long it travels with us before returning to the circular economy. I bought a bulk pack of 400+ Australian stamps which will go a long way towards padding my collection the very next time the world ends and I need to sit in the apartment for hours on end. I found a miniature bottle of Ysatis, a vintage Givenchy perfume and of course, compulsory bargain jewellery - a silver ring in the shape of a serpent, a silver pendant, silver earrings, a silver chain and a couple of pairs of gold plated earrings. Lots of pretty things, not a lot of money and a good cause. At the last minute, just before the final shop closed at 6 pm, I spent the big money of the day, €3 euro, on some vintage gold plated Murat cufflinks for James. They looked so pretty and now I know all there is to know about Murat - a 'world famous in France' company that specialised in gold-plated cufflinks. We found the exact same pair, and in worse condition, being sold on Ebay by someone in Paris for €60 odd. So good buying there.

Our friends have obviously discovered we love nothing more than a fossick (and face it, in Normandy once you've done the beaches, the abbeys, the cathedrals, the tapestry and the odd chateau…, it's time for a break). On Sunday it was the Annual Rotary art fair in St Lo with, drum roll, a street brocante/flea market. The art fair was pretty darn impressive - easily a couple of hundred stalls with artists and their wares. Interesting, but the sheer number of times someone has painted/drawn/modelled the Mont St Michel, it should be outlawed - but it's a crowd pleaser of a subject and probably sells well. We entered the raffle for a painting and didn't win. Which was surprising as we have phenomenal luck with local raffles at Christmas markets and so forth generally. The art was good for the eyes and the street market huge fun. We bought a few treasures - it was, afterall, 'a good cause'. A silver ring for me that is getting a lot of mileage, some gold plated tuxedo shirt buttons for james, a pure wool ladies tuxedo jacket (that weighs far more than I thought it did at the time).

Before we knew it, it was Monday and time for packing. With our bits from shopping and wearing some different things, it seemed like the bags had exploded in just a short few days and it was a challenge to ram everything back in. Hate packing. Really hate packing. The more we travel (and pack and unpack and repack) the more we realise we could easily live on a cruise ship or similar and never pack or unpack again. Sigh. Ah well - off to Caen for a couple of days sightseeing before we reach Paris.