Volume 2, Days 41-43
After a few days in the capital, the next stop on my European tour was to head out into “the provinces” in order to visit a good friend–M–in his rural hometown for a couple of days.
The Flixbus ride (through a third-party operator) from Paris (Bercy Seine) to Le Havre was largely uneventful and the scenery from the highway on this side of Paris wasn’t much different than the scenery heading into Paris. But, to be honest, I wasn’t really looking out the window much. Given the long delays on the ride into Paris, I was pleasantly surprised to find us arriving in Le Havre a few minutes ahead of the scheduled arrival.
Le Havre is a fairly major port city, and though it was traditionally on the industrial side, the economy has diversified somewhat in recent years while a university brings in young blood. I never got a chance to explore the city, but it looked nice enough to me.
I rendezvoused with M and his dad drove us to the family home in the countryside. It wasn’t completely remote, there were at least a half dozen houses together, but it was still some distance from the nearest town.
I had barely enough time to settle in, before I was on the back of M’s motor scooter heading over to a friend’s house to go for a run. From the bus to the car to the motorbike to on foot, one gets to closer and closer to the picturesque scenery–traditional timber framed houses with thatched roofs that look like they might topple at any moment, fields with bales of hay arranged like a Van Gogh painting, black and white cows chewing their cud. I could see the appeal of country living, though one would have to get used to having to drive a bit to get to a store.
After our run, which I realized was my first run in nearly 2 weeks (since Bremen!), we hopped in the shower at the friends’ house and changed back into street clothes. M and I played a quick board game before dinner, which consisted mostly of a cold “salad” of rice, corn and tomatoes. A basket of sliced baguette is always present on the table and a collection of cheeses brought out at the end of every meal (except breakfast). In Normandy, it is also traditional to drink apple cider and the bottle of homemade cider was dry, strong, and I swear had a smell like a cheese (perhaps it was a “natural” cider). After a round of coffees, the four of us settled in for a board game (Ethnos). My friend, M, is an avid gamer and makes friends with fellow gamers. It was quite late by the time the game finished and a cold ride on the motorbike back home.
| Metro | 1.9 |
| Flixbus | 6.16 |
| Total: | 8.06 EUR (62.9 RMB) (USD 9.15) |
I didn’t wake up until 9am the next morning, which might be the latest I’ve slept in for quite some time. M had only arrived back from China two days ago and was waking up super early from the jet lag. In the main house, there was coffee and a simple breakfast of crackers (toasted baguette slices from a package) with butter, Nutella, or jam. I had about an hour to finish up some work on my computer before the whole family piled into the car to head into Lillebonne for the weekly market. While M’s mom and dad did their shopping, M and I took a stroll through town. The market was much like the various other one’s I’ve been to, though given the much more rural nature of the setting, the market goers were noticeably whiter and older. The stalls provided mostly locally sourced foodstuffs or cheap stuff from China being marketed by North Africans. After two loops and pingponging between the two cafes in town, we grabbed an available al fresco table and had an espresso. Like every rural town, the market is centered around the church, but Lillebonne is unique in that a massive Roman theater was discovered during construction work a few decades ago. The whole region retains the memory of Vikings and Romans and the countless wars between England and France.
After our coffee, we met up with the parents and drove to Lower Normandy (the more agricultural region west of the Seine). To cross the Seine, we drove on a ferry. Our goal was to have lunch in a town dubbed “the Venice of Normandy,” but whose name went in one ear and straight out the other. Some of these French town names are impossible to spell and even more impossible to pronounce. The town was charming and touristy, but delivered on its canals. We headed straight to the restaurant, which I presume is a family tradition and ordered off the menu (blackboard) as opposed to a la carte. M helped translate the menu for me and the meal was both delectable and educational.
One starts with an aperitif (vermouth in my case) and an entree (i.e. appetizer, e.g. ham and melon). Mussels were the specialty, and I had my bucket in the “a la Normain” (cream sauce). A plate of french fries came on the side and we shared a carafe of rose. To finish, we had a round of “cafe normal” (i.e. espresso) and dessert (“chocolat lieg-wah” — fudge, chocolate ice cream and whipped cream). It was an absolutely fantastic meal. We had a stroll around town afterwards and M showed me the statue of Joan of Arc (Jenanne d’Arc) in the church currently undergoing renovation. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake somewhere in the region.
We drove home afterwards and I was introduced to Johnny Hallyday–the “French Elvis.” There were beach towels of him for sale in the market and it was explained to me how famous he was in France. I only had enough time to watch one song from the concert DVD before M and I headed out again on the scooter to go have a coffee at another friend’s house and play board games. Fortunately for me, the friend was an English teacher so he spoke good English. We played a game he designed himself, where the players race to defeat the Minotaur in the Labyrinth and followed up with Masquerade. I was reflecting to myself how the second game could have easily been played in French, since it just required declaring “I am the…” or “No, I am the…”
M and I played Nintendo Switch for a while in his dad’s “Man Cave” (a den with a big screen TV, car racing simulator, and shrine to Johnny Hallyday) before dinner, which was a light meal of salad, bread, and a selection of pate. M’s mom joined us for the evening board game session, starting with a Sherlock Holmes themed murder mystery that required me to learn how to ask “Who has a skull?”, “How many pipes do you have?”, and the 9 different symbols involved in the puzzle solving math game. Since we were also drinking calvados (a strong twice distilled apple-based liquor), I was at a definite disadvantage and lost badly. After trying one other game, I hopped in the shower and we went to bed earlier.
It was cold and rainy on Thursday, perfect weather to hang around playing games all day, which is what we did: video games, board games (one appropriately called Le Havre), and deck building games. I was also well taken care of with home cooking, very traditional Norman comfort food. Lunch was barbecue with foil wrapped potatoes cooked amid the burning wood while sausages (merguez and regular) cooked above. There was a cream sauce that went with the baked potatoes that was quite nice. Dinner was even more traditional with boiled potatoes, eggs, and a cream sauce that one mashes all together to eat. After dinner, and midway through an old French comedy about the Resistance, M’s dad drove me back to Le Havre to continue my journey.
Honestly, these 3 days/2 nights are a highlight of my trip so far. It’s too bad I had to leave a day early when I was originally planning to spend 3 nights there. It was so relaxing, like being on holiday. I certainly wasn’t expecting to be taken care of so well.
Running Total: 15725 RMB (USD 2286.55)
Daily Average: 365.7 RMB (USD 53.18)