Normandie, France

We hit the road with Marine and our other friend Hayley and eagerly started our France-to-Croatia road-trip! Our first stop: Normandy. Besides visiting for its historical associations to D-Day, there are many more reasons to check out the Normandy region of France. Like for example, their seafood and cheese! If you're a fan of scallops, mussels, and camembert (like we are) you should definitely plan a visit to the shore. If you're somehow a very sad human and you don't enjoy those lovely things that bring happiness to the world, you can also just visit to see all the pretty boats!

On the road, we could already start seeing some typical Normandy chaumières scattered along the countryside villages. Little castles and forts seem to pop up everywhere you look! As the sun was starting to set, we arrived in Cherbourg where we would be staying with a friend for a few nights. He warmly welcomed us to his home and took us out to see the beautiful sunset in the chilly seashore. But even looking out at those beautiful orange and pink clouds kissing the waves, I could’t help but think of the thousands of soldiers and servicemen that died on those very same waters so many years ago. 

Since we were already in the area, we knew we had to visit the famous Mont Saint-Michel (which should probably be considered a World Wonder by the way). From far away, it looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. A castle, in the middle of nowhere, that seems to be floating in the water. Inside however, the magic can get a little bit lost. All of the sudden, you find yourself shoulder to shoulder with the most irritating tourists.  So we did our best to ignore them and walked right up to the shop where we bought copious amounts of La Mère Poulard’s famous traditional biscuits. SO GOOD. We also took a break from the walking and tried one of the traditional galettes. They're basically a spongier, savory version of a crêpe, and they're absolutely delicious. Most of them I think come with an egg sitting right on top... mmm.  

Fun fact: In French slang, “making a galette” is also used to describe when a person is so drunk, they vomit all over making a huge mess! Believe me, once we learned this term, it was used many times in the remainder of our trip (*Disclaimer: not that we were ever the ones making any of the galettes of course!*)