Luckily our new younger brother, Coco, had arrived to take us back to his family home in Cerisy-la-Salle! The trip would take three hours, but it was great to catch up with him on the way there. Unfortunately for Coco, he mis-read the arrival time, so he turned up at 7:30 AM instead of the evening! Poor guy, it was going to be a long day for us all!
Once we left Paris the traffic dwindled, and we made great time to our new home for the next week. We arrived just after midnight, and were treated to dinner, wine, bread and cheeses before finally making it to bed.
The next morning a typical French breakfast was waiting. Baguettes, croissants, pan do chocolate, black coffee, butter and many types of home made jams. Just what we needed! After we could eat no more (we were heartily encouraged to keep eating) we were given a tour of the house and property.
A fully stocked wine cellar, big fireplaces, chickens, geese, donkeys, a greenhouse, Jacuzzi, sauna, apple trees, exposed wooden beams, stone construction, beautiful gardens, it felt similar and different at the same time.
After the tour we were taken to a D-Day museum, the area of Normandy seeing lots of fighting during WW2. The museum was very interesting, and the virtual reality games were way more fun than it felt right having in such a place.
Coco took me on a small sight-seeing trip on the way back home for lunch, and after another hearty meal he suggested taking the metal detector out nearby to look for some WW2 artifacts.
After a couple of false starts (beer cans, miscellaneous pieces of metal) we uncovered a .50 calibre bullet casing from a Browning machine gun. The stamp on the casing indicated it was manufactured in Utah in 1943. We found it a few inches under dirt literally at the end of their street!
Such a surreal experience, nothing like that can be found in Australia!
Once I had cleaned off the dirt from the treasure-hunt, Coco took Hayden and I for a little more sight-seeing in the nearby towns. Every town seems to have a stunning church and / or cathedral, and beautiful gardens. And a nice little pub for a cheeky beer before heading back to dinner.
Jet lag was still in effect, and the weather only increased the desire for bed. Free flowing amazing wine didn't hurt either. We stayed up as late as possible, but another decent nights sleep was required and soon taken.
More photos here
