Musée des 24 Heures du Mans

Written by Adam

We drove into Le Mans, France on a sunny weekend afternoon.  Our first impressions of the town were quite vivid.  On the outskirts of town, Le Mans, France looks to be a prototypical contemporary business park.  The edgy buildings architecturally imply a modern high-tech focus, a sort of playground for French technicians of some sort.  

Bulots Mayonnaise - Bon Appétit!

Written by Karen.
It was late afternoon when we began our walk down the cobblestoned streets of Fécamp, France looking for a light bite of sea food to eat for dinner. Restaurants in France - as a rule - do not serve dinner until at least 7:00 p.m.  But, we somehow found a tiny loophole in this rather universal rule: the aperitif.  We first discovered this excellent idea of offering small snacks and tiny plates of food along with a glass of wine, beer or mixed drink before the later dinner hour in Italy, and thankfully France has also embraced this late afternoon/early evening ritual. We have turned the pre-dinner aperitif into a light dinner and found that this was the perfect amount of food to end our day.

Establissement de la Benedictine de L'Ancienne Abbaye de Fécamp

Written by Adam.

Driving steadily in a northwesterly direction through Belgium in Otto, our rented VW campervan, we eventually crossed the border and made our way into Northern France.  Our intention was to try to stay pretty close to the coast as we drove west towards Brittany.  But, the late afternoon darkness soon arrived, and we started looking for a place to spend the night.  We consulted our simple fold-out maps, which highlighted only cities that were important enough to mention due to their size.

Meet Otto

Written by Karen.

I have always read travel blogs that featured an old VW camper van with the tiniest bit of envy.  I loved the idea of traveling around in a vehicle that also served as a tiny, fully functional house, stopping whenever - or wherever - one wanted. It seemed to be the very definition of total traveling freedom.