Edit: by “French Friends” I mean “French Friend” who is actually Kelly, who is actually American. Besides the point though.
The past two weekends I was extremely #blessed to be able to travel around Europe with one of my best friends, Kelly. We kicked it off in France with a trip around the northern region of France, Normandy. It was quite the interesting trip to plan, and to execute in that case, seeing as we planned most of it the night before we left, but anyone who knows Kelly and me well knows that you can’t really expect more than that.
I flew to Paris with a couple Dublin people on Thursday night, and by an actual miracle, was able to meet up with Kelly later that night. Friday morning we took an early train to Rennes, and then a bus to Mont St.-Michel. I believe Mont St-Michel is technically an island, with a road leading out to it. On the island there are many shops and hotels, all eventually leading up to the abbey that sits at the top. It pretty much looks like a giant drip drop sand castle.
Uncanny resemblance to Mont St-Michel, amirite?
We spent the rest of the day checking out the shops and going through the abbey, shamelessly asking any person who knew how to work a camera to take pictures of us at significant locations on the island.
When we were done exploring, we took a 5 minute bus ride to meet up with the owner of the B&B we stayed at, so he could take us to the B&B. The bed and breakfast, called Au Bon Accueil (not to be confused with Au Bon Pain, the producer of midnight library snacks), is run by a British couple that was extremely friendly and helpful in all ways, exactly what Kelly and I needed. They told us about a pub up the road from the B&B (can’t escape pubs ever) where they usually advise their guests go to dinner. We went there and ate dinner with them, and a cat sat in Kelly’s lap, which she obviously loved (no, not true).
Au bon Accueil
The next morning we were headed to Honfleur, a port town in Normandy. The town is not the most convenient place to get to, as there aren’t really any trains or buses that can take you there, but we really wanted to go, so we planned out a ride sharing trip in advance, which is basically like organized hitchhiking, but probably safer. I have to admit though, I really expected the driver to pull up to our meeting spot in a tiny old European car, but it turned out our drivers were a nice middle-aged French couple who pulled up in a bright red shiny new Ford SUV. Not too shabby at all. We had about a 2 and a half hour ride to Honfleur, in which Kelly made small talk with the couple in French and I pretended to be a mute, due to my extreme lack of knowledge of the French language. Thank goodness for Kelly. The couple dropped us off right at our hotel in Honfleur, which was way better than we expected. After dropping our bags off, we made the 15 minute walk into the center of the town, which may be the cutest French town in existence.
For dinner that night, we went to one of the restaurants at the port and ordered from the set price menu, where you pick your starter, main course, and dessert. I once again, had no food regrets (insert fist pump here.)
Started with the fish soup…
then got more fish…
and finished it off with a fudge brownie. Molly 1, food regrets 0.
Due to our inability to plan things out far in advance, we ended up being a little bit stuck in Honfleur for that day and half of the next day, but it was alright because we saw just about all of the town. We hiked up Cote de Grace, the hill overlooking Honfleur, in about 20 minutes, even though our hotel clerk had told us it would take 2 hours. We caught a boat tour of the port in Honfleur and the surrounding area, and even had time for some little baby-sized coffees.
To catch our train back to Paris, we had to get a bus to Le Havre. We had a few hours to spend in Le Havre between when our bus dropped us off and when we had to catch our train, so we thought we’d explore the city. It turned out the city was an unfortunate combination of nothing very exciting and being far away from the station, so we got lunch and went SHOPPING. Classic end to a classic girl’s weekend.
Fast forward one week to Friday night Ladieznight in Dublin at Cornucopia, a vegetarian restaurant in Dublin where Amanda, Lisa, Keri, Kelley, Molly and I went for dinner. They had a weird delicious-looking mix of foods to offer, but ended up getting mixed reviews from us (by us I mean me and Amanda… I’m too picky, everyone else enjoyed it). Ladieznight continued at the Baggot Inn where we got cocktails called “Seasonal Jam” which is a fruity drink made with real jam and mint and other crazy delicious ingredients. I made sure to bring the jam jar it came in home with me to add it to my pint glass collection. After the Baggot Inn, I went back to UCD to pick Kelly up from the bus stop. Once again, almost couldn’t find her, but in a last minute moment of desperation, yelled her name, and she answered from across the street (PHEWF).
Saturday morning Kelly and I went into the city to go to the Temple Bar market with some of the other ND girls. We ate oysters, cronuts (croissant/donut mutant), scones, and many more things, because that’s all necessary when you go to the market there. Later we went back to UCD so we could change to go hike at Howth, but it was pouring rain once we got back. But, knowing how the Dublin weather can change on a dime, we decided to take our chances and head to Howth anyways, if only for some Beshoff’s fish and chips. It turned out to be a beautiful day at Howth, and we did the whole hike around the island (?)(peninsula?).
Sunday morning I had an in-house trampoline competition that I decided would be a good idea (it wasn’t). I think I placed second for my division, but I didn’t stay for the award ceremony so I can’t be too sure. Oh also there were only two of us in my division, so don’t anyone get too excited. Later that day, Kelly and I went to Kilmainham Jail for a tour, which was the primary jail in Dublin up until the 1920’s. I was feeling quite knowledgeable when the tour guide talked about different political figures that had been in the jail at some point and I knew their story or at least recognized their names. Turns out I am learning things here! (ha ha). After our jail tour we ran to catch another bus to make it to the Guinness Storehouse to meet up with other Notre Dame kids in time for the last tour, which was actually a self-guided tour. That being said, naturally we made the first stop on our self-guided tour the “Pour Your Own Pint” stop. We learned how to craft a perfect pint, and came away from it with a nice certificate and a free pint, which we then brought along on our tour. At the end, we stopped in the gift shop and I bought a pair of Guinness socks, as is tradition, along with a poster to add a little excitement to my small sad room in Roebuck.
On Monday after my classes, Kelly and I went into town to finally show Kelly around Dublin. We went to all the touristy places I could think of, including Trinity, Temple Bar, shopping centers, St. Stephen’s Green, Grafton Street, and of course the O’Connell House for some tea.
It was so great to spend two weekends in a row with Kelly! I was glad I was able to go to France to visit her but not redo all the things I had already done in Paris, and also glad that she could come visit me in Dublin and see some things here! Now I can’t wait until our big homecoming party when we both get back to the states on December 21…. (hint hint family).
Return to the Motherland 