Best of Friends, Like a Band of Gypsies We Go Down the Highway

Calla, Shirley and Tom

Willie Nelson had it right. It's great to be on the road again with my friends. Tom and Shirley Pearce have been our friends since before they got married in 1974, and their daughter Calla is a delight to travel with. They are known for traveling in the shoulder seasons - meaning the weather is iffy, but the crowds are thinner.

They got to Paris at O-dark-30 and picked me up. We headed to Honfleur at the mouth of the Seine for lunch. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful town. Shirley's cousin John met us there. The second car was a relief considering all of our luggage. We tried out all five of us in one car one whole day, but that was voted down on subsequent days. (smile)

St. Catherine's church (wooden!)

Crèpon was the night's destination. We stayed at Ferme de la Rançonnière, a fabulous stone farmhouse converted to a hotel.

John, Shirley and Tom unload cars. Daffodils were in full bloom everywhere

They really wanted us to buy dinner and breakfast there, but we explored instead. Breakfast was one of the best we had the whole time. We found a place on Gold Beach, a British D-Day landing site, where they fixed us sunny-side-up eggs that we couldn't stop eating. Eating well characterized the whole trip!

March 16 was our day for touring D-Day beaches, starting with Gold. After walking the beach trying to figure out what all the concrete ruins used to be, we went to the Arromanches 360º Theater. They showed a high-impact movie combining archive footage from the landing and battling inland, with current day color movies.

The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach was quite beautiful.

We had lunch at Utah Beach. The wind was whipping! But the ridge sheltered the beach enough to let Tom and Shirley go barefoot. Calla and I walked to a memorial with paired French and US flags.

Friday night's destination was Ducey, in a water mill converted to a Best Western. Ducey's main attraction is that it's near Mont Saint-Michel. St Michael's Mount is on the cover of my travel book. It is one of France’s most iconic attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by more than 3 million people annually. The evening was beautiful, and we took many pictures from the causeway that connects the island to the mainland.

Saturday dawned rainy. Optimists, we decided that would keep the crowds down at France's second-most popular destination. Shirley bravely crutched all the way up the 350+ steps, and back down.