Long update

Sorry to have taken so long to update, we have had a crazy couple of days in rural France and are finally back in Bordeaux, which is a big city that actually has internet cafés--yay!
I think I left off at Antwerp. Antwerp is a nice city to be in, although Flemish is a strange language that looks a lot like a bunch of letters jumbled together to me! Our last night, we met a couple guys from Southern California and chatted them up a bit. It was interesting to hear some of their stories.

We left Antwerp and on our way to Normandy. The most obvious thing to do in Normandy is to see is the beaches, but alas, we never made it to them. Originally, we intended to stay in one of the bigger villages, such as Bayeux, but could not find accomodation to fit our budget. So after some internet research, we found a place that was in a neighboring village carhagne which was within our price range. It is very common in the French countryside for people to have inherited big farm houses that they renovate and rent rooms out of. This is what our place ended up being, which was a very welcome change from having to share a giant room with ten other people and one bathroom (yay hostel life!). The only kink in our otherwise genius plan was that the bus that we were relying on to take us into Bayeux didn't run on the day we were there. So, we ended up taking the day to recuperate in a nice, basically private house with free computer, tv, and adorable pets to play with. Later in the day, we took about an hour walk to the next town and bought a picnic dinner at the grocery store. We then decided to hit up the local bar (what else is there to do in a small town?) and ended up with the five older, local blue collar workers who spoke with thick Northern accents. It was incredibly funny and probably one of the most authentic experiences yet. We tried the local digestif, Calvados, and walked back home. Since the only bus into Bayeux was at 7 in the morning (no joke), we ended up spending the day walking around the town, trying the crepes (also a specialty of the region)and going to see the Bayeuw Tapestry. This is the tapestry illustrating the Norman invasion of Britain by William the Conqueror (he was actually known as William the Bastard before his big win, how unfortunate ;)). Monaco, who was a linguistics major at Toronto was especially excited to see the Tapestry, as this battle is one of the most important influences on the development of the English language. About 1/3 of English comes from French and a lot of that is thanks to old Willy, in 1066. And you thought history was dead... ;)

So, on we made our way to Mont St. Michel. The main attraction of this part of otherwise rural France is the Abby and town that is built on an exceptionally interesting terrain. It is basically a town built atop a big hill that, during certain parts of the year, completely floods around the entire base. As a result, you get a very quaint, compact town that has been well preserved because of it's safe location. That, and awesome view of the countryside.

We ended up staying at a B&B owned by a British couple. Our first night there, we made our up the hill to the next small town (about a kilometer) and had some delicious crepes. (Get ready everyone, this is where the craziness begins) After we finish our crepes, Emily Monaco asks us if she looks puffy. Emily has had an allergic reaction to some food before in which she went into aniphylaxis, but the allergist wasn't able to diagnose it, so she travels with an epi pen and taught us how to use it. Anyway... she looks fine to us and we don't think much of it, because she has wondered it aloud before. We decide to have a dessert crepe and then realize that Monaco isn't feeling well. We decide it is best to go down the hill to get her some benadryl, just in case. At this point, we think it is the Buckwheat in the crepes that she is allergic to (Buckwheat is only used in savory crepes, which are rare, except in the North of France, bingo! guess where we are...). on our way down the hill, she starts to have trouble breathing, at which point, I decided to sprint down the hill to get her medicine. By the time I run out of the B&B with the Benadryl and epi pen, there are Reed and Monaco, zooming down the hill, being driven by a French kid whose car they have comandeered and there is Monaco, in full fledged Aniphylactic shock. She epi pens herself, I feed her Benadryl and the kid calls the French equivalent of 911 and we zoom away to the fire station, which is the closest emergcy center around and we wait for the EMTs to arrive. In the end she is fine, and had to go to the hospital. It was pretty freakin' scary though. We all decided that we were glad we had been in France and not Antwerp, because we can all speak the language. We also realized the importance of knowing the emergency numbers in a foreign country. We were lucky that we found that kid to drive us, because we could just as easily been all alone.

The next day, we decided to take it easy because we were all pretty tired, especially Monaco, for obvious reasons. We rented some bikes from the B&B and searched for Monaco's things which had fallen off the car in the rush of things. We also went to a Pharmacy and had the B&B person drive us to a grocery store (this is a service they offer--pretty nice!).

The next day, we biked to the Mont and enjoyed the Abby and the little town. The ride there was about an hour and ok except for a few sprinkles. But on the ride back, right as we were leaving, a storm broke out and an hour and a half later, we arrived, drenched, back at the B&B. The only thing we wanted to do was have a hot shower and some dinner at the local pub/snack place up the hill. The pub was called the Oyster Catcher and was owned by a British man, with a sharp tongue. Right up our ally. We went there two nights in a row and again, got to know the local people, including our savior! The kid who helped us the day before! So that's what it's like to live in a small town...

Finally, we departed Mont St. Michel and made our way to Bordeaux, where we are now. It is a very nice, university town and we all decided right away that we liked it. Today, we looked around and got a sense of the city. We visited the Cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and we visited the Aquitaine Museum, which wasn't much to write home about. This evening we went to a concert that was put on in the Cathedral with an organist and a saxophonist. It was nice to listen to the music and think. The Cathedral is expansive and pretty incredible, which is saying a lot, because there are a lot of Cathedrals in Europe. Tomorrow we are going to take a Bordeaux wine tasting class that the tourist information office suggests. Hopefully it will be good. It is the best we can do without a car to get us to the outer regions where the vineyards are.

So there is my ridiculously long update. We are in Bordeaux for a bit, then on to Spain. We are over halfway done and Spain is the last stop with Monaco. Where has the time gone?