Au Revoir, Paris. Bonjour, Back of Beyond.

We did get one last chance to stroll along Avenue des Champs Élysées on our way to catch a shuttle bus to the airport. No, we weren't leaving the country yet, just heading to Charles de Gualle airport to pick up a rental car. (Happy to pay the airport pick up premium in order to avoid driving in central Paris!)

We got off the Metro at the wrong stop, so we meandered along past all the fancy schmancy shops.







Sounds pleasant enough right? Um, except that we had luggage, and had to trundle it through this crowd. For about a kilometer.




Here's that old/new thing again. McDonald's restaurant, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.




Look at all the ordinary Parisians, just going about their daily lives. I wonder if they even notice the gigantic slab-o-history looming above them.




We rented this Opel Corsa because our home for the next week was in the middle of nowhere.




Connelles is a teensy, tiny village in Normandy. There's not much there besides the timeshare resort that we were staying at, and the pricey hotel/restaurant next door, but it was wonderful to have a quiet, peaceful place to come home to after a day of touring.

This is our complex.








And the place where the mucky mucks with bags of money stay.







Seriously! 345 Euro per night - that's almost $500.00 Canadian! Oh, but they're pet-friendly. That's different, then. That's why Dan & I pay the big bucks to stay at Motel 6 on our way to and from Mexico :-)




That's our building peeking through the trees on the left, so our view was every bit as nice as theirs.




This little bridge led over to the swimming pool. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the pool, it was quite nice.




Welcome to our little apartment.




There was a small round table with 4 chairs, just out of the frame on the bottom left.




The awkwardly steep staircase that we had to negotiate every time we were hungry, or thirsty, or needed to use the bathroom. A bit of a hazard in the middle of the night, but nobody came home with a broken leg, so it's all good.




Upstairs was an armchair,




a pull-out sofa bed,




and 2 singles. The girls re-arranged the furniture to give more separation.




Breakfast.




And dinner. PU! That was one very stinky Camembert! How can something that smells so awful, taste so good?




Let's take a walk around the village.

























Yep, that's it. In its entirety! Not exactly a booming metropolis, but cute, eh?