Breakfast at the B&B: croissants dipped in hot chocolate

Our next stop was Rouen, a city in the Normandy region of France. I loved all of the charming, old buildings.  We explored the city streets and admired the architecture.

This is the Abbey in Rouen.  Amazing, right?

We found a statue of our ancestor, Rollon, there.

posing like Rollon

the cathedral of Rouen, made famous by Monet

We saw numerous cathedrals on our trip, since each city has one, but they never got old.  Each time, we were in awe at the work and sacrifice it took from so many people to build these amazing structures.

We found another of Jacob's apartments where he lived on his mission.  This one he found from memory since our GPS couldn't recognize the street.  He was happy that he could still remember where it was.

The LDS church in Rouen is just a block from the cathedral.

We also visited this tower which is the last one standing in the fortress where Jeanne d'Arc was held as prisoner during her trial in the 1400's.

The tall tower on the left is the one remaining for tourists to visit, but Joan of Arc was actually kept in the one on the right before her death.

This is the church of Joan of Arc, built in the 1970's as a memorial to her.  The roof is supposed to symbolize flames since she was burned to death.

statue of Jeanne d'Arc

The Gros Horloge, or the Big Clock, is a 14th century astronomical clock

a few more scenes from the streets of Rouen

This is the back of our hotel.  Our room was the one on the top right.

We were so confused when we pulled up to the hotel because we saw a sign that showed parking was behind these large doors.  It seemed as though we wouldn't fit, but the hotel clerks said to pull the car through, and we made it!  These pics are Jacob driving back out onto the street.

After we'd been in Paris for one week, it was time to head out into the countryside.  On our walk to the train station, we stopped to browse the marche.  Most neighborhoods have weekly or bi-weekly markets to buy food.  Jacob admired the huge vat of potatoes and ratatouille.

beautiful blossoms

All the cheese you could ever want! (or not)

We picked up our rental car at the Gare Montparnasse.  It is an enormous train station, so it took us a while just to find where the rental car place was, but we eventually made it.  There was barely enough room in the trunk for both of our big suitcases, but they fit side by side.  (This is the only pic I took of the car, while we were at a park.)

Jacob had to remember how to drive a stick-shift. :)  Luckily, he caught on again quickly.  It was a little stressful leaving the city, but once we were out of Paris it was fine.  We used our GPS, had a paper map for a backup, and we were all set.

First stop was in Soissons, another place Jacob lived as a missionary.

He actually lived in two different apartments there pretty close to each other.

That afternoon we arrived at the home of Benoit and Veronique Membre, a family Jacob has kept in touch with since his mission.  Their youngest son, Jules, lives with them as well.  I was so excited to finally meet them, since I've heard a lot about them and had emailed Benoit about visiting.  Thankfully, Benoit speaks English really well, and Veronique and Jules speak it a little bit, so I was able to talk to all of them.  When they spoke French, Jacob or Benoit would translate for me.  They are so sweet and friendly!  

They live in a tiny village far from any other towns and the drive there on narrow winding roads was gorgeous.  Isn't their home beautiful?

 I had backyard envy.

front entrance

That night we enjoyed relaxing with them in the family room, hanging out and talking.  Benoit showed Jacob his extensive knife collection, so they were occupied with that for a long time. :)

We stayed upstairs in the room on the left.

The next morning we went to church with them.  They drive 45 minutes to get there, but at least the drive is beautiful.  This time we stayed for all three hours.  They had a friend translate for me in Relief Society which was really nice of her.  Jacob translated for me a little the rest of the time.  Benoit spoke in sacrament meeting, so it was neat that we could be there to hear him.  After church, we had dinner back at the Membres' house with another family Jacob knows, the Poletz's.  Brother and Sister Poletz don't speak English, so the entire dinner conversation was in French!  I ate and smiled and tried to follow the conversation the best I could.  I picked up on a lot of it by recognizing a few words, or by their tone of voice or gestures.  Once in a while Jacob or Benoit would tell me what they were talking about.  The food was wonderful again: the best chicken we ate in France, plus rice, green beans, and brownies.

us with the Poletz family (two of their daughters couldn't make it)

I was sad to leave the Membres.  They are amazing!  They made us feel so welcome and loved.  We hope we can return the favor if they ever come to Texas. :)

That afternoon we visited Chateau de Pierrefonds.  I was so excited to finally see a real castle!  After we finally found a parking spot (it must be a popular place), we hurried over to check it out.

Inside we explored the castle and the crypt.

At first inside the crypt, we were kinda hurrying along since it was almost closing time.  But we both felt like we should check the name plates to see if any of our ancestors were there.  And several of them were!  Jacob had researched a bunch before we left, but we had no idea that any of them were in Pierrefonds.  We found Rollon the Viking, died 943 AD (our common ancestor) and Guillaume Longue Epee, also 943 AD (on my side).  We took lots of pictures of them, but without flash they're not great, so here's just one of Rollo.  We were excited to find them!

I could have stayed there for hours exploring and pretending to be a medieval French duchess.

I loved it.  

That night we stayed in a tiny bed and breakfast in the middle of nowhere.  The owner was excited to meet us cause he'd never had Americans stay there before.  We stayed in the room on the left (the white door).  

The room was so pretty.  

And big!  

At least compared to our hotel in Paris.

That whole weekend made me want to move to France.

Almost. :)