whoops, meant to write "Jeanne d'Arc."

Joliefleur

Thanks for sharing your adventure on this forum. In your post you mentioned

<I got an unlocked phone on Ebay and bought a French SIM online>

Did you buy it directly through the SFR website? I assume the sim was sent to you by mail prior to your departure? Did you have to recharge the card during your trip and how easy/difficult was it?

s

"Everything is closed on a holiday in France so don't plan on doing any sightseeing or eating out."

This is true of May 1st (the most 'sacred' holiday of the year), as well as December 25th and January 1st to a lesser extent. The other holidays in France have plenty of things open and places you can go.

I also always thought that pré-salé meant pre-salted, but then realised that pré was also the word for a meadow. The sheep graze on salt meadows, and are hence pre-salted.

Is this one of those French linguistic jokes? Perhaps one of the native French speakers can tell us.

Sorry I haven't replied sooner to your posts. Had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Regarding MSM, the Relais du Roy is truly a small hotel (a la Days Inn) and not a B&B. When I think of B&Bs they're usually limited in size and the host and hostess are the main staff. The only place I stayed that I would truly term a B&B was Les Fontaines. I don't want anyone to be disappointed.

For Intex, I think you could do Honfleur and Rouen in one day and then go to Bayeux and the D-Day beaches on the next day -- if you went by car between towns. I guess I'm confused about what it is you want to accomplish. Are you looking to ride on the TGV for the experience or trying to go between cities quickly? I think the easiest and most flexible way to travel would be to just rent a car and drive. It only took me about 1.5 hrs to get from CDG and Vernon and I was stuck in rush hour traffic for most of the time. I think it took me 35 mins to get to Rouen from Les Andelys. I didn't get to Honfleur so I can't be much help there.

If you're set on using the train I believe you could get to Rouen from Paris on a regular train but I'm not sure about getting from Rouen to Honfleur. You might be able to find a bus to get you to Honfleur. I also don't think that the TGV train stops in any of the towns in Normandy, just a regular train.

In regards to the cell phone, I ordered my prepaid SIM from http://www.cellularabroad.com/franceppsc.php . The SIM arrived by Fedex about 3 weeks before I was due to leave. It had my actual phone number and some instructions in English on how to install and activate the SIM when I got to France. I fired up my phone before I left and set the language on it to English so I could read the menu items easily. The phone comes with 10E on it which lasts for about one phone call. I went to an SFR store (they're in all major cities) and bought a card to recharge it with another 30E. You can recharge on the air but I found the French instructions confusing. (So did Mme Fontaine so I don't feel too bad :-) ).

As for the holiday thing...I saw it twice on my vacation. Kerouac is right about their Labor Day being sacred. May 8th is also celebrated as a holiday related to WWII. Many of the shops in Paris were closed so I did a lot of window shopping.

Now why am I passionate about WTC and Richard? WTC rose from illegitimacy (which was a big deal in his time) to royalty. He survived all the assassination plots of his childhood and became one of the most powerful dukes in France. He was an inspiring leader and a brilliant strategist. Same thing goes for Richard.

And lastly, pré-salé does mean pre-salted. My bad....

No worries.

Love your report.

Loved your report. Do you have a website for Plesse Bourre? What town was it closest to?
Have to admit I've always enjoyed reading about Richard too.

Once again I've spelled something incorrectly. It is Chateau de Plessis-Bourre. Not how I originally spelled it so that could account for you not being able to find it on the web. Sorry to all.

Here's a website that has a lot of photos:
http://web.mac.com/jmreynolds/iWeb/p...%20Bourre.html

and here's the 'official' website:
http://www.plessis-bourre.com/en-default.htm.

Do go and visit. It was beautifully decorated and gorgeous.

Great report. I love this site. I always find helpful people that give me good info and ideas!

hi there - really enjoyed your report and wanted to let you know it is being read!

Thanks very much. Bookmarking for a one week family trip next June.

In reply to Chartley :
I confirm that it's not a linguistic joke and that "pré-salé" means salted meadow, because the meadows where the sheeps are grazing are salted with iodine from sea water .

Pommeau is an apéritif with an alcoholic content of about 17%. Calvados is a hard liquor of about 80 proof (40% alcohol).

bookmarking--thank you for sharing;great information.

Joliefleur-

Sounds like you prefer Saumur over Chinon? If we're just spending 2-3 hours walking in the town (not visiting the chateaux), do you still recommend Saumur?

That's a hard thing to answer. When I was there at the beginning of May, Saumur was closed for renovation and you could not go inside. It does have a lovely view of the Seine and I enjoyed eating lunch outside after driving all morning.

Chinon was open but there wasn't much there in the way of buildings. Chinon has a small museum and that was where Henri II died so of course it fit in my Richard the Lionheart tour.

I guess the answer is that it depends on what you're looking for. Hope this helps.

Reread your post. I didn't walk thru the town so I can't help. I can just give you my opinion by city size. Saumur was a smaller city than Chinon and so I think it might be more quaint to visit.

Anyone else been to Saumur??

Hi, jolie fleur,

we stayed 3 nights in saumur the first time we stayed on the loire. It made a very good base with nice shops and excellent restaurants.

we like to stay somewhere where there are shops and other attractions to wander around at night, rather than in the middle of nowhere, romantic and picturesque as teh middle of nowhere may be.

the chateau is also worth a visit.

regards, ann

You are so brave to drive. I don't have the guts. And I love the gory details so this was wonderful. thanks.

I've really enjoyed everyone's additions to my itinerary. I'll definitely have to do this again and catch all the places that I missed.

Driving alone with my GPS was a joy -- I drove on the 'right' side of the road and I got stop whenever and where ever I wanted.