Driving through the French Countryside

I can't imagine a prettier drive, than a drive through the countryside of Normandy.  Hay fields, cornfields, and pastures stretch as far as the eye can see, dotted with pale stone farmhouses and barns, and always a smattering of cows or sheep.

From one view to the next, without exception everything was beautiful!

I loved the cows.  Never a great herd, but every farm had just a few spotted cows, always happily grazing.

 The milk we had here is France was the best I have ever tasted!   Camembert is the cheese from this region, and we had lots of the creamy white stuff while we were in France.  It was so cheap here, and so good!

Judging from the cheese that we had here, if good cheese comes from happy cows, then the happiest cows live in Normandy.

Unfortunately, we were trying to get somewhere with all this driving, and while I would have loved to pull over for some pictures about every 3 minutes, we had to just keep driving.  I would see some perfect picture postcard scene, but just cringe and bite my tongue and keep driving.  Darn.
I did convince Dennis to stop at this pretty stone church in a tiny little country town.

I loved the churchyard with the old mossy tombstones.

Our drive took us through Normandy, a slice of Brittany, and into the Loire Valley.  The small country roads were beautiful, but took much longer than the big toll freeways.  But you don't see much from the freeways, and the small roads take you right into the center of each tiny country town - so worth the time!

We finally made it to the Loire Valley, and a decent sized city call Tours.  Tours means "towers" in French, but this was the only tower we saw there.

We parked and made our way through the old part of town to the pretty little square there, lined with old half timber houses.  See how the house  on the left is cantilevered out on the upper floors.  Apparently they did this, because property taxes were assessed according to the square footage of the bottom floor.

The homes were framed with timber, then filled in with bricks and mortar.  How fun is that?  So stinkin' French!

I love the random patterns of the brickwork stuffed between the beams.

Look at the intricate carving on this old house. 

Down this street we were surprised to find an international collection of resturants - Greek, Italian, Chinese, Persian, even Tex Mex, and Sushi.  Wonder how good Tex Mex can be in France?

Ooh, and the delicate French lace curtains offsetting the rough and bold timbered exterior.  Love it!
Crepes were soon calling our name, so we picked one of the several creperies on the square and sat down under one of their appointed umbrellas.

We all took our chances with the special of the day - which turned out to be galettes (savory crepes) stuffed with cheese, ham, and runny eggs.  Delicious!

Of course the real value if the meal was the hour to sit in the city plaza, as the sun set, watching the French people do what they do best - sit at cafe tables, watching each other.  Delightful!

Soon it grew dark, and wee still had to drive to drive a while and find our hotel...

but not before Mom and I just happened to walk into, (and stay in until our hubbies found us) an Italian gelato shop.  We weren't going anywhere without a scoop of that heavenly stuff! BTW, the gelato in France is nearly as good as that in Italy!