I’m posting twice today. Since my Normandy post was so intense, I thought I’d let it stand on its own. Sorry that it’s so long, but I wish you could have experienced Normandy with us and wanted to give you just a little taste of what it was like for us. So now back to the rest of France. Once we got back to Bayeux, we had dinner at an outdoor restaurant with some of our friends from Saugatuck, Michigan and Chicago. What a coincidence that we all have ties to the same area! We’re making plans to get together when we’re up north. I entertained them with “Dottie stories” from our first trip. They laughed so hard. It was a lot of fun, but on to some misadventures. The other day when we got way to the top of the monastery, I found that my memory card was full! Horror of horrors! You know me and my pictures. I frantically tried to delete earlier pictures (which I had saved on my laptop). It was really quiet when the guide was talking, and I could see people looking around to see where that beep...beep...beep sound was coming from in a monastery with no modern conveniences! And at the American Cemetery yesterday, Ann walked into a glass door! I’m telling you, they keep that place too clean! I'm losing track of days now. I was too tired to pack up my suitcase the other night, so I got up at 5:30 this morning to do it--only to find out that we weren't leaving there until the next day. The packing/repacking is getting confusing. My curling iron was MIA for 24 hours, and today it's my comb. And the plumbing continues to be a problem. Every time we change hotels, we have to relearn how to use everything. I had a tough time figuring out how to get the water on in the shower this morning, but the place we stayed at in Bayeux was really nice. There are three buildings here--the mansion, "granny's house," and the stables. Guess where we were staying. That was a no brainer. Actually, though, the rooms are just as nice in the stables as in the other buildings. HOWEVER, the Internet connection was lousy in our room. That’s why you didn’t get a post yesterday. Last night, though, I had to check my mail. Boomer has diarrhea, and I’ve gotten several frantic messages from John and Robin regarding the little guy’s digestive issues. Can you guess that John is not too happy right about now? About 10:30 PM, I finally took my laptop to the office, where the signal is fine. The office closes at 11:00 though, so I didn’t have much time. I went back to the room and tried to get on again there, but no luck, so I went downstairs and outside the stable door and sat on the ground typing on the computer. Pretty soon some noisy Americans (not our group) came back to the hotel and were locked out, of course. Eventually the owner came out to let them in. He saw me by the stable and came over, waving his arms and speaking French as fast as he could. I have no idea what he was saying. I tried to explain why I was there, and he waved me to the office. I think he was going to let me work up there, but I was too embarrassed and just shut my laptop and ran upstairs. When I got back to the room, I decided to shave my legs. The sink is really, really high. Try as I might, I was not able to fling my leg over the counter to get it in the sink. I grabbed the rickety old chair in the room and stood on it. When Ann saw me, she started yelling: “Are you crazy? What are you doing? Do you want to kill yourself? If you fall and kill yourself, what am I going to do with your body? I don’t even know if John has a passport!” Where’s her sense of adventure? We’re now back to Paris for one last night in France. :( We made our last interesting stop at Giverny to see Monet’s gardens. I got some “postcard” pictures, but not nearly as many as I could have as we spent most of our time in the gift shop. Speaking of which, Ann purchased another suitcase today. Oh, and Ann is not the only adventurous eater on the trip. I ate crawfish—and loved them! It was hard saying good-bye tonight to all the wonderful people we met on the tour! But onward to new adventures in Italy. Deb is on her way. Venice here we come!