The Final Day of Billi Pod and David’s Normandy Adventure

Sunday - Well, my loyal and faithful readers, I am now about to give you a report on Day 3 of Billi Pod and David’s Normandy Adventure, probably best described as: “On The Road Again” ... so here goes ... ready or not ...

After an 8:30 a.m. continental breakfast at our Hotel Bayeux, we programed our GPS to take us from our hotel to the Cathedral Notre Dame de Rouen, about 60 miles away.

Interestingly, our hotel was next to the Notre Dame de Bayeux, which was consecrated in 1077 in the presence of William the Conqueror and his wife Mathilde.

Today it is generally considered to be 13th Century gothic. It is a beautiful structure but we did not go inside.

This trip, like the rest of the day, was totally unscheduled and unstructured.

Ninety minutes after leaving Bayeux we were in Rouen and began our exploration of the Cathedral Notre Dame de Rouen, which Monet had painted at least a dozen times from the same position, tracing the lighting patterns on its west wall.

Five of those paintings we would see on Monday afternoon at the Monet Exhibit now showing at the Grands Palais in Paris.

Over the years in my travels abroad I have found most gothic cathedrals to be similar in their dark dankness, but still stunningly beautiful.

We could tell the areas of Rouen that had been bombed by our planes, which leveled a great number of cities in Normandy in preparation for the D-Day invasion.

After finishing the cathedral we walked through the old city to an open square where Joan de Arc was burned at the stake.

A modernistic church has been built next to the spot, but it was not open to visitors while we were to be in the area.

So, we found ourselves at 1:30 p.m. with an unplanned afternoon. What did we do you are no doubt breathlessly asking? Well, we programmed the GPS to take us to yet another beautiful, dark and dank cathedral, this time in Chartres, 90 minutes away.

The Notre Dame de Chartres, in Chartres (of course), is generally considered to be the most beautiful of all gothic structures. It is on the pilgrimage route which ends in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Built in the 4th Century, it became a pilgrimage site when in 876 the chemise said to belong to the Virgin Mary was given to the cathedral by an ancestor of Charlemane.

It can be seen from miles and miles away, awe inspiring in itself.

At 4:30pm we had completed our visit and it was time to head back to Paris, a distance of about 60 miles. The trip back to Paris was rather unpleasant because The Frogs, who had been away for the long Armistice Day weekend, were crowding the highway.

Thank God we had our GPS device because without it we would probably still be looking for the rental car return ramp. We turned in our car at Gare Nord at 7:45pm and were back at David’s apartment at 8:15pm.

The 3 day adventure was over and every aspect of it exceeded my expectations and will live in my memories for the rest of my life.

None of this would have been possible without David’s willingness to plan and to be the designated driver.

Thank You David==>you are indeed a friend!

Billi Pod

“Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.”