Current update & Day 3 of our France trip (Sept 19)

Well, we made it safely to Haines, Alaska and as usual, the weather has been a bit extreme.  We arrived on Tuesday in very high winds and torrential rains and today it has snowed about 6 inches. Matt has been busy photographing the Bald Eagles and I've spent my time either studying or photographing as well.

Well, I thought I should probably finish posting photos of our Paris trip so hopefully over the next couple of days, I will have them all worked up and posted here.  Our third day in France (September 19), we left Paris and Annie (Matt's sister) was a very brave soul to drive us out of Paris in the rental car.  We did very good and didn't get lost in Paris.  We drove a little over 2 hours to Caen where Annie attended college during her foreign study. Caen is located in northwestern France near the beaches of Normandy. 

Once we finally figured out how to get to our hotel (ok, maybe there was at least two attempts on this one), we checked in, and then set out to explore the city on foot. Our first stop was to check out the many wonderful pastry shops along the main pedestrian area and of course we found some great ones. 

YUMMMM....  that pastry was delicious!!!  Matt enjoying his after snack rest on the main street of Caen.

We next headed off to explore the walled fortress area of the Chateau de Caen. 

The gate of the Chateau de Caen.  This fortress area was built by William the Conqueror around 1060.

St. George's Church located within the walls of the Chateau de Caen.

View of the walls of the Chateau de Caen.

Ted reading up on the Chateau de Caen.

This is now a museum within the fortress walls.

View of the St. Pierre church from within the Chateau de Caen's gate.

After exploring the Chateau, we then ventured out to explore several of the other sites around Caen.  We walked to the Abbaye aux Hommes which is a beautiful old church that was completed in 1063.

The Abbaye aux Hommes and its many steeples are on the right of the beautiful Hotel de ville (town hall) of Caen.

This beautiful old church was nothing more than a facade as it was in ruins. 

We had a great dinner although we kept Annie very busy translating the French menu into English!!