Normandy

Sorry for the short "i hate paris" note. Now that I don't have Parisiens looking over my shoulder: the showers were co-ed, the metro smelled, there were a dozen police at every downtown intersection and men with automatic weapons at all the train stations and attractions.
But, moving on to greener pastures....
I just had an amazing couple of days staying in Bayeux, a small town in Normandy, about 20 minutes drive from Juno beach. The hostel was like a really spacious guest house with courtyards and eating areas, even a kitchen. I came in on the same train as some Canadians and met at the hostel. The town was everything I wanted France to be... quiet little streets, church bells, flowers, patiseries. I visited the British WWII cemetary that afternoon and was there wandering for quite a while. I don't think I entirely realized how big those cemetaries are or what they mean until I saw it. That night there were 14 people staying in our hostel, 12 of them Canadian.
On Monday, a Canadian guy and I planned to take the tour bus but couldn't figure out how to make reservations, so we decided to bike - but it started to rain, so we rented a car. On the way to the rental place he says to me, "No problem... unless they don't have an automatic." I wasn't sure how to break it to him that we were in Europe! However, he did quite well and I only had to take over once to start on a hill (which was difficult as the clutch doesn't catch like our standards). We visited Juno beach, the museum there, the Canadian cemetary, some German bunkers that still had their guns, Omaha beach, and Pont du Hoque where the field is still full of huge craters from shelling and all the bunkers are still there (although some are blocked off to prevent them falling on your head.) When we got back I went to check train times while Matt filled the car and when I got back he had put petrol in our apparently diesel car. We thought he'd just bought himself a car, but the rental place didn't seem to care.
Met more Canadians and took a day trip together on Tuesday to Mont-St-Michel, a monestary-fortress on what is an island when the tide comes in. It was amazing (google it for some pictures or something, it's worth it). We managed to catch the train back to Bayeux in time for our host serving a French meal... However, the hostel was suddenly overrun with about 50 fifteen-year-old boys... so the five of us got put in this little nook, about 5 feet high, to eat our meal.
Yesterday I spent 14 hours on a train, with company only for the first two. Don't ever do that... even if you do like Su Doku.