Thread: Great trip to Europe

Honfleur is spectacular. My cousin lives in Paris and has very good friends that lived in Le Havre. They bough a piece of land about 15 minutes from Honfleur. So many great things to see and so many beautiful places to stop for great cuisine and fantastic wine. Mont Saint-Michel is very nice but can get rather busy. We visited the Canadian cemetery in Bretteville-sur-Laize. My grandmother's cousin is buried there so it was a touching visit. The entire Normandy area is packed full of history, culture, and things to do. The day we visited the cemetery happened to fall on the anniversary of The D-day landings. The cemetery appeared to be quite busy with many individuals walking around placing tulips on the graves. The cemetery has an information booth and directory area to help you find a soldier that was buried there. As I was looking at the list to find my grandmother's cousin, I was approached by an elderly gentlemen (who turned out to be the mayor of the small town) who came to ask why I had come to visit. Thankfully I speak french and had a fantastic conversation with this man who turned out to be a veteran himself. He was very emotional and appreciative that I had taken the time to venture to this somewhat out of the way area. After I explained my story to him he became very excited an insisted on helping me find my relative. My wife and her cousins were with me as well. The mayor asked if they could help hand out tulips, and they gladly agreed. As we walked through this large cemetery the mayor called over two individuals who happened to be reporters, and I was asked all about my grandmother and her cousin. I was truly touched at how appreciative these individuals were in regards to my cousins sacrifice in France. We found my cousins resting place and the reporters took pictures of the mayor and I. Once we were done I was asked to say a few words to a rather large grouping of individuals that were there to celebrate the day and to honor the fallen. Words can't express my gratitude to the locals for taking such good care of the Men and Women who gave so much for all of us.
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Our Honfleur B&B: Le Manoir Des Impressionnistes
http://www.manoirdesimpressionnistes.com/

We stayed at the Hotel de Bergtheroulde in Rouen
Hotel de Bourgtheroulde, Autograph Collection: Rouen Unique Hotels

Feel free to ask anything about the area. I'll post a link to pics once I get them uploaded.

Originally Posted by mrs767er

Ok, you had me at Les Manior and the Rouen hotel/spa are exactly our glass of wine! What fantastic properties. Thanks for the recommendations. I'm thinking at least one nt in Rouen and 2 in Honfleur, then onward to my niece's house swap down the coast.

We really enjoyed them for completely different reasons. Le Manior was the perfect place to relax and be able to just sit on the front lawn and read a book. If it's a warm time of year, request a room on the front of the house for a better breeze (no a/c). Excellent staff.

HdB in Rouen was a very modern yet old (if that makes sense) hotel. Nice sized rooms and a great location. Just about a 10 min drive to the train station.

Car rental went flawless. We used Hertz in Rouen at the main SNCF train station. There were two other rental counters there as well. Eurocar, and one other I don't recall.

We had a 4 door Fiat Punto, and of course, everything is manual. I liked it, for what we needed it for. You can get a slightly better rate away from the train station, but I didn't want the hassle. Make sure you have an Intl Drivers Permit, and if you've never driven in Europe, learn the road signs, so when you see "paege" you know it's a toll road, etc.

We returned it on a Sunday (that location is closed on Sundays) so was able to just drop the keys in a key box. One bit of information that I'll pass on is that as typical of cities, there are numerous one way streets around the train station. The entry to the garage to return the car is on the west side of the station, so you can't approach it from the front (south) of the station. You need to drive north of the station, then drive back south on the one way street to the garage on the west side. See Google maps if that didn't make sense. We missed our first train because of the crazy streets and trying to find a gas station open on Sunday morning.