Hello!~

So, I'm back from my 9 days vacation in France and I'm about to throw millions of photos at you.
As it's so many, I decided to split the entry into 2 parts, so you've still got something to look forward to in the near future.
Also, I've been sharing most of my travel photos on my Instagram account, so feel free to follow me there.

As mentioned in my previous entry it was an organized group trip by bus with a tour guide.
This was my second time doing such a trip. My first time was in 2018 when we travelled through the UK and it was such a great group of people. I got really close with some of them, we're still in contact now, 2 years later!

However, this time as I feared the absolutely youngest person by far in this group was 52 years old!!! Most of them were 60+ and couples.
So, single young me in her 30s was really not blending in well.
As you can imagine the travel style was very slow. Way too many lunch and coffee breaks, but I just didn't take any breaks and used the time while others were eating to explore as much as possible!!
On average I walked 22 km per day, 30 km on the peak day (which was the only day where we had free time from noon to evening and as you can see I used it to the fullest extent).

There were some nice people in the group nevertheless.
And because of Covid-19 we got audio devices, so we didn't have to stand too close together and too close to the tour guide. This was awesome for me because I could just push ahead and walk 2 km while still listening to the explanations of the tour guide.
Okay, to be fair these devices only have a range of 100-200 m, but it still was GREAT! :)

What wasn't so great was that due to the whole Covid-19 situation I couldn't do the trip as I originally planned it. As we started at CDG Airport in Paris, the original idea was to have around 5 days before and / or after the scheduled group trip for myself in Paris.
As Paris has been declared a risk region and numbers in France were rising, I was sure they'd cancel the trip anyway, but they didn't. However, I had to give up on Paris.
The travel agency confirmed that there won't be any issues at all as we're only transferring at the airport, not setting foot into a risk region .... oh little did I know ... but let's wait for that until part 2, shall we?

And because of that, I couldn't just take a convenient flight, spend the night in a hotel in Paris and then set off. Nope. I had to take the only available flight in the morning which was SUPER early.
So early that the earliest train would have been too late. In the end, I went to a co-worker's place who lives in the city center with more train and tram options in the night so I could make it to my flight.
Needless to say that I barely slept at all. I got up at 3:40 a.m. and fell asleep around 1:30 a.m. ....

I missed the bus to the train because Google Maps was a bitch, so I walked 1,6 km with my suitcase to the station and caught a later train.

In the end, the airport was literally DEAD. Nobody there. It took me less than 20 minutes to walk from the station to the baggage drop off area, though security and to my gate.
This means I could have just slept in my own bed and taken the earliest train from there after all, but ..... it would have been risky if anything went wrong, so it all worked out and that's what counts.

Needless to say that I arrived at CDG Airport very early.
The travel documents stated a meet-up point. As for time they only said "in the morning".

When I arrived at the meeting point, nobody was there. No tour guide with a sign, nothing.
Luckily I found a couple there also already waiting, so I just sat down there and waited ....

After over THREE FUCKING HOURS of waiting I was about to call the travel agency. It was almost 11:30 a.m. by then. "In the morning", my ass. Why can't they just write something like "between 10 and 11 a.m."???!!!!
Just then the tour guide arrived.

It was surely a long first day with almost no sleep at all, super long waiting hours at the airport and then a very long bus trip. Needless to say that we only managed to hit 1 sightseeing spot on that first day ......

Luckily the trip got better afterwards as you'll see on the photos:



Our first stop was Honfleur in Normandy which is famous for it's beautiful port.



We then moved on to Trouville where our hotel was.
There was also a fish market!

We had dinner together. I was shocked to see how crammed it was in all the restaurants, inside and outside.
While most people were wearing masks outside all the time, they weren't careful where it really matters!
In France you're only required to take 1 m of distance, in Germany it's 1,5 - 2 m.

But the tables weren't even apart 1 m, only a few cm. And the restaurants were all full! And there, obviously people took off their masks ... oh jeez!



There were so many cute houses and villas right next to the ocean. I don't want to know how much those cost ....

And that concludes our very long, but uneventful first day in France...

The tour guide told us right away that we were an "experiment" for the travel agency. They cancelled all other trips to France this year and ours was the ONLY one taking place!
Originally the group consisted of 24 people, but we were only 15 people as everyone cancelled out of Covid-19 fear. After all, numbers in France are continuously on the rise....
We were instructed to sit apart in the bus which shouldn't have been a problem as it was a normal sized bus and we were only 15 people. And that we shall stay on our assigned seats and not move around.

An old lady didn't care at all and sat at the seat row right next to me and not at the window but the aisle ... so there were barely 1,5 m distance between us ....
She was also the one who started taking off her mask in the bus as one of the first ones ... later on more and more people kept their masks off ...... mind you, all of them were in the risk group being 60+ years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was the only one keeping my mask on the entire time.

And that lady also kept moving around in the bus, sitting on various seats to take photos and stuff .......

At one point we were supposed to take the elevator down towards the end of our trip. I wanted to board the elevator with her but then she said she wants to take it alone ....
I was like: Lady, you've been constantly ignoring the rules, not keeping your distance and taking off your mask when you shouldn't and now you don't want to be in an elevator with me for a few seconds??? WTH??? (Of course, I didn't tell her that, but OMG!!!) ....




On our second day we visited Caen and Bayeux.

In the photo above you see the impressive St. Etienne de Caen.



The Cathedral of Bayeux was quite impressive!



We also stopped by at a calvados distillery. To be honest, I didn't like calvados that much. Cidre tastes too much like beer and I don't like carbonated drinks, but I did enjoy Pommeau quite a bit. :D



Day 3 started with one of the highlights: Mont St. Michel

This is a tidal island with a famous, huge abbey. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



You have to climb up to the abbey. There are many tiny roads you can discover and lots of cute buildings, cafes, restaurants and in the lowest levels also souvenir shops.

The view from up there is stunning as you'll only see sand and ocean!



As it's a tidal island you can only access it when it's low tide, but super high tide is very rare, so it can be accessed most of the time.

It's really stunning when seen from further away. I walked quite a bit and found some sheep. Thought it would make a nice postcard-like picture! :)




In the late afternoon we moved on to the small village Cancale.



We stopped there to try raw oysters. They were quite nice. I ate 3 of them. :D ....




In the evening we arrived at St. Malo - which was my personal highlight of the trip.
We spent 2 nights there.

The Fort National which is pictured above can only be reached during low tide. It was right behind our hotel and you KNOW how much I love castles .....
Castles + the ocean = LOVE!

I couldn't stop taking photos of it. :D ....



On day 4 we walked along the walls of St. Malo's Intra Muros. The walls surrounding the inner core offer stunning views of the ocean and nearby tiny islands.
There's also an ocean pool created by people so they can swim even during low tide. :D



You have to forgive me, but I just couldn't stop taking photos of Fort National.

From noon onwards we had "free time" until the end of the day, so I walked 30 km that day exploring as much as possible.



While approaching the fort during low tide, I discovered these waterfalls, created by low tide. So awesome. So beautiful.
I really fell in love with St. Malo!!!!



On that day we were also SUPER lucky with the weather. It was sunny and 32°C hot!
Well, actually it was way too hot and no normal human being would have walked 30 km in that heat, but I was just too excited. :D ....

In the background you see Le Grand Be with fort ruins. This also only can be accessed during low tide.
I was already walking over when nice French people told me that the water will come up in 5 minutes, so I had to leave and there was only one low tide that day, so I missed my chance. That made me a bit sad, but that was really the only thing that day .... :)



I also walked over to the neighboring regions to explore even more! So, so beautiful everywhere.



Here I was already in St. Servan near the Solidor Tower .... walked way too much! ^^;



We spent a lot of days near the ocean, so naturally I thought I'd finally get to see a nice sunset in the ocean as it has been ages!!!



Unfortunately, even on that day, we didn't get to see a proper sunset as the sun vanished way too early behind a wall of clouds. :(
But the colors afterwards were still lovely.

That night I didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. as they were celebrating a wedding right below my hotel window.



On Day 5 we left St. Malo and went on to Cape Pointe du Van and afterwards to the beautiful Cote de Granit Rose.
You an tell by looking at the rock formations where it got its name from! :)



Can you see the face? :D



I admit I took way too many photos there. It was just too beautiful! :)



Okay, bear with me this is the last one. Definitely another highlight!



We then moved on to Roscoff where our hotel for the next 2 nights was.

It was foggy the entire 2 days we stayed there, so I don't even really know what Roscoff looks like! XD
After the 32°C in St. Malo the foggy 15°C there felt quite cold!



The fog created its own unique atmosphere, though!



Btw. in Normandy and Brittany there were hydrangea EVERYWHERE!!! I love them so much!!



There was also this bridge vanishing in the fog, so I thought I'd see where it leads to.
Apparently it just helps you to commit suicide! XD .........



And this concludes the first 5 days, pretty much half of the trip.


I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Here's the route for the first 5 days in case anybody wants to do something similar (*click to enlarge):



How are you guys?
I've been trying to catch up with all your entries in the past few days. :)


Bye~chuu!~