Susan has asked me to inform you that there is no need to pack a blow dryer when you go to France.  We have one we bought specifically for Europe and we haven’t had to use it yet.  This is something new.

Today we moved to the Hotel de France, a Best Western Hotel.  It is a much better hotel.  While we waited to check in we drove up to the Fortresse Royale de Chinon which was begun in the 15th century.  Despite the rain we toured the entire fortress and visited the Royal Quarters and towers.  Then Lola and Barbara rode a free lift down to our hotel and I stayed with Susan to drive back down the hill.  This was about the scariest ride I have ever been on as the street kept getting narrower and narrower.  We had to pull in the side mirrors at one point.  Another car was coming up and he had to back up as we inched (and I mean inched) forward.  Another car came and he had to back up too because there was no way we could back up to let him through.  I saw the end of the road and it appeared so narrow I just knew we wouldn’t get through.  I had visions of a crane lifting us out or having to take the car apart but none of these things happened and we finally arrived home safely.  Then we had another fabulous lunch, toured a church, went to a Cave (wine tasting) and then looked in the windows of all the little shops.  It was a good day even though it was a rainy day in Loire Region.

I’m sorry to have taken so long to get back but somehow I logged off my blog and couldn’t remember my password and so last night I texted Zach and he texted back my password and I’m back in business. 

We spent a lovely two days at a wonderful hotel called Hotel Manoir de Rigourdaine outside Dinan.  The innkeeper was a lovely man and very helpful.  We visited Dinan and St. Malo. In Dinan we visited the Basilique Saint-Sauver built in the 12th century.  We had lunch at a nice restaurant and had galettes, which are buckwheat pancakes. Barbara and Lola enjoyed them alot.  St. Malo was destroyed by the Germans during WWII.  Over 80 percent of the city had to be rebuilt. We had two lovely dinners at a restaurant called Le Cale and had a wonderful young waiter named Clement.  After dinner he bought us an after dinner drink: run and vanilla.  It was fabulous. 

Now we are in a town called Chinon.  We don’t like our hotel so it looks like we are moving.

I am unable with my limited skills to add pictures to the blog.  So we are so lucky to have Zach Buttram posting our pictures.  I email him the pictures and he posts them.  Thank you Zach, for your help.

We started the day in sunny Honfleur and packed up and headed to Mt. Saint Michel.  We arrived and it was windy, rainy and cold.  We parked the car and walked to the Information Office only to discover  that we had a long, long walk to get to a shuttle bus.  The lady at the Information Office said it was an eight minute walk.  Okay.  You try walking in the cold wind and rain for eight minutes; not an easy feat.  We rode the bus as far as it would take us and then we had to walk even further in the cold, wind and rain.  At this point I realized what a hard job it is to be a tourist.  Here we are at the most famous beautiful place in France and we had to walk approximately 20 minutes in the wind and rain to get to the entrance.  We had lunch in a little restaurant and the rain had stopped so we continued.  This was a big walk up many, many stairs.  We quickly realized there was no way Barbara could walk up the stairs and Susan stayed back with Barbara and Lola continued up the countless stairs.  I decided to wait for Barbara and Susan and then a huge group of tourists passed and after they passed I couldn’t see Barbara or Susan or Lola.  OMG.  I am alone.  So, I just continued up the endless stairs (over 100 steps of endless sizes).  I paused several times.  I reached a plateau and there Lola was.  She said we had another 100 steps to go: no hand rails and people everywhere.  “A woman knows her limitations.”  So, we turned around and headed back down.  Now we had to take the long, long walk back to our car.  We went to the Information Office and we could not find our parking ticket.  We can’t leave until we find it.  So, we went back to the car to look for the ticket.  After a frantic search we found the ticket in my purse.  Lola walked back to pay the 3 Euro fee only to find out it was 3 Euros an hour so we owed 8.5 Euros.  Thank goodness she had taken extra money with her.  The lady at the Information Office said we had to find the ticket to get out and we asked what would happen if we couldn’t find it and she asked if we could cook as we couldn’t leave.  I really think she was joking but Lola told her we don’t cook anymore.  We are now in our warm room drinking wine and talking about dinner.