Oops! We accidentally miscalculated the length of our holiday and it turns out we’re going home tomorrow, not on Wednesday. I feel more stupid than you can imagine. Still, at least we realised before, not when it was too late.
We will see our four furry chums this time tomorrow with just one day of hard driving in between. For today’s cat, I bring you a tacky postcard photographed in Rouen a couple of days ago.
Normandy in the rain on a Sunday is not the ideal place to be trapped with one and a half teenagers. We had a little look out and visited Le Village d’Art Guillaume le Conquérant at Dives-sur-Mer. For a blatant tourist trap it was absolutely gorgeous, perhaps helped by the lack of customers and the glorious, genuine medieval buildings.
The first local to greet us was this friendly strawberry blonde female. Très aimable.
We brought cakes home for tea and that cheered everyone up a treat.
One of the many brilliant things about being on holiday is escaping from the television and having only a sparing amount of Internet access. This allows me to persuade my husband and children to play board games with me. We have screamed with laughter three nights running playing Pictionary. Here you see Isobel proudly displaying her cat drawing. In the other picture, she added detail for the blog.
We’ll play Articulate tonight, I think.
Today has been a scorcher here in Normandy, where it’s been over 30 degrees. We didn’t have the energy to go far, so we just pootled a few kilometres inland to the picturesque village of Beuvron-en-Auge for lunch. It was all half-timbered buildings, little bric-à-brac shops and geraniums.
Sadly, although our lunch was delicious, the service in our chosen crêperie was dreadful, as it has been each time we have eaten out this week. I guess we aren’t big-spending enough. Or maybe the famously rude French are just living up to their reputation.
This tiny wooden cat was for sale at a beautiful traditional toy shop and we had fun with the sign outside.
On the way back we stopped at a tiny Commonwealth Cemetery at the minuscule village of Putot-en-Auge to visit the graves of soldiers who almost all died on the 19th and 20th of August 1944. With a few exceptions, they were between 19 and 21 years old. Poor boys.
These ceramic cats were for sale in a little expensive, arty shop in Honfleur yesterday. This sort of thing doesn’t tempt me and nowadays I always think of it as ‘cat tat’, since Helen Daykin introduced me to the phrase. It’s been a glorious day here in Normandy, full of good food, swimming pools and sunshine.
Spotted in Honfleur today; another tethered kitty. This one belonged to someone begging tourists for money. I have often seen beggars with dogs, but a feline companion is something new to me. As you can spy, this little one was provided with a bed and food and water. It must be such a patient, un-cat-like creature.
I told you I’d have to improvise; cat food spotted yesterday at the Hyper U. Plus a picture of our little pantry after our supermarket trip. I love salad made with French tinned haricots verts, finely chopped shallots and red wine vinegar and mustard vinaigrette. Délicieux!
We went to see the Bayeux Tapestry today. I have always wanted to see it and it was actually even more fabulous than I had imagined. Truly awesome.
A few doors away from our little holiday home, there is a French family who have brought their cat and dog on holiday with them. It’s the first time in my life I have seen a cat on a chain. I asked ‘Il est amiable?’, but the gentleman shook his head and said ‘Pas tellement’. I kept my distance; perhaps it was a highly-trained and vicious guard-cat?
When we went on holiday to Britanny in the summer, we made friends with the campsite kitten. Being nitwits, we even bought cat food for it while we were there. I bet several other people did too. I wonder how she has been managing over the winter?
Sent from my iPhone
A Cat A Day 