We picked up the rental car near the train station and headed west for the Normandy coast. We stopped at Rouen and a couple of other coastal towns before arriving at Bayeux where we planned to stay for the next several days while Nick was seeing the WWII battlefields. Mom and I thought the battlefield sights would bore us to death but we spent the better part of a day on a small tour bus that took us around all of the sights of the major skirmishes of that part of the war. It was wonderful and the military cemetery at Colleville took our breath away. Tears were pouring out of each of us, yes Nick too, as we walked between the rows of crosses and Stars of David that seemed to stretch forever. It was a good thing the cemetery was the last stop on the tour for there wasn’t anyone on the bus able to talk very well for the remainder of the ride.
After leaving Bayeux we headed south before swinging east through the Loire valley. This was the start of undoubtedly one of the highlights of the trip.
Late one afternoon we stopped at a small country bakery (I can’t remember the French word for it) for a piece of pastry and coffee. The girl behind the counter was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. She couldn’t have been more than nineteen with wonderful breasts and a body movie stars would die for. She couldn’t have been taller than 5’3″ and weigh more than 110 –115 pounds. Her beauty had us all tongue-tied.
Mom still remembered a few words from her college French classes and ordered our cake and coffee . The girl immediately announced her name was Annette and she would prefer if we spoke English to her. She wanted to go to the States the following year and wanted to practice her English as often as she could. We were the only ones in the small shop and the sign on the door indicated it would be closing in a half-hour or so. We invited this gorgeous piece of womanhood to have dinner with us and promised we would talk English the whole time. She was as bubbly as a small kid with the offer. We thought she would have to ask her parents for permission but it turned out she was in this part of France by herself. She had been studying the bakery business and this place we were in was supposedly the best in that part of the country. She had a small room in another part of town above some people’s garage so no one would miss her if she didn’t come home for dinner.
Nick saw a golden opportunity facing us and told her he would be back in twenty minutes or so and for her to wait right there. He then changed his mind and told Jeannie and I to wait with her while he was away for a few minutes. We had passed a magnificent hotel a few miles back and he raced back to get us a room. He wanted a king size bed with a double in the same room. All he could get was a huge suite with two king size beds…perfect. He registered and was back in less than twenty minutes. (I don’t even want to talk about how much it cost)
We piled into the car and asked her where the best restaurant in the area was. She was hesitant to mention it because she knew of the prices they charged. Nick put her mind at ease about worrying about the cost and she quickly named one a little ways out of the area. It was almost 5:30 when we arrived at it forgetting that most good restaurants in that part of the world don’t open until 7. The lounge area was open for business so we opted to spend some time there before dinner.