Normandie

Yay, we had a Friday off and were off to Normandie.We found a gorgeous holiday apartment in Cabourg close to Caen. It was 100m from the beach, had an awesome terrace that got the morning sun and had a kitchen and a bathroom. Living in student residence really makes you appreciate having a bathroom and kitchen! As it was out of holiday season it was super cheap especially when it was split between 5.We took off on Thursday after our class finished in Veronika's little Golf (she drove it from Germany)...bit of a squash but it added to the excitment! It only took about 2 1/2 hours to get there, so perfect for a weekend getaway.
Friday morning dawned nice and late for us and after a trip to the supermarket to buy food we could actually cook nicely we had a lovely lazy brunch on the terrace in the sun at midday! We were so lucky with the weather the whole weekend was sunny, still a bit shilly with in the wind but not as cold as it could have been.
Cabourg is a lovely seaside village and was very quiet but I cna imagine it buzzing during the summer. The only people we saw on the streets were old couples and it would be a lovely place to retire.
The architecture is pretty unique, it feels like you are in a fairytale with the 'tudor like' designs.
After a few hours reading in the sun, we went for a long long walk along the beach, it was so pretty and was nice to search for shells on the beach.
Cabourg has a big racecourse and a Casino right on the beach (gives the oldies something to do I think!), there were hoof prints in the sand and I was desperate to go horseriding on the beach but didn't end up organizing to do it. They train the trotters on the beach, its a nice life for some isn't it...
A group shot thanks to my shoe..>
We returned to the apartment to feast on Foie Gras (Goose liver pate- very french) and Fig jam which was absolutely delicious and nice to sit round a rable and eat and chat like normal people!
We then went off to the beach to watch the sunset over the water, which was spectacular.
Being children and making a sandcastle
There are some pretty good photos of us on the posts with the sunset behind us, will have to get them off the others and put them up!
The spectacular sunset. I love the jetstreams glinting in the sunj, I'm obsessed with jet streams and have taken so many photos of them all over the place.
After another lazy morning and big breakfast, we set off to Mont St Michel, on the border between Normandie and Bretagne. It's a monastery that was built on a granite outcrop in the sea, at high tide it is completely cut off (or was), now there is a road. A little village built up on the sides. It is very pretty and very unique in that it is built around the granite, when you go inside you can see the granite popping through some of the walls. There were a lot of people there, a lot of tour groups in buses, mainly Asian and American school children. It was the Day of Patrimony, so all government buildings had free entry in the whole of France. I heard some people waited in a line for 6 hours to get into City Hall in Paris... absolutely crazy but apparently worth it!


The view from the top is amazing and well worth the climb, overloaded with pictures but it was pretty I couldn't help myself!


After walking through the monastery, we went for a walk on the mud flats that surround the island as it was low tide. We were in search of quicksand which the signs warned us about. We did find some, but wasn't as awesome as I though it would be, but you could hear the water coming up through the sand.

Not very good at holding my camera straight am I?
After saying a sad farewell to our wonderful apartment on Sunday, we headed to Etretat to see the cliffs. We had never heard of them but they were in all the postcards so though we had better go have a look. I'm so glad we did, it was so pretty. My first encounter with a rock beach, little bit weird but the stones are so smooth that you could still lie on the beach without too much damage.

Who says french women don't get fat?
The hole in the cliff.
Scaring oursleves silly on the edge of the cliffs, you wouldn't be able to get this close in Australia, pretty amazing to look straight down though!
After lunch in Etretat, we drove all the way back to Paris, there was a lot of traffic and we got a little lost, ended up in the North of Paris after going the wrong way through a tunnel - there is no where to turn around, but it was fun. Very sad to go home but a really nice weekend away, thanks girls!