La Rochelle

Today is part one of the two part mission, "drive through France".  We aren't devoting much time to France on this trip, so today we drove from Pamplona through to La Rochelle.  It's about a five hour drive. 

It's not that we don't like France, we do... it's just that France is not a big focus for this trip.  It's more an area we have to move through to get from Spain to the UK.

That said, we are visiting Mont Saint Michel and Normandy, starting tomorrow.

But today, we overnighted in La Rochelle.

The day started with a morning run for me around the walls of Pamplona
Then, we checked out of the hotel and started the drive.  It was uneventful. 

roadside stop for lunch... in France... note conspicuous presence of baguettes

When we arrived in La Rochelle, after parking, we checked into our hotel.  We're staying in a "family room", which literally is one room with beds for five.  It's cozy, but it works.  We're just here for the one night, so it'll be fine.

After we arrived, Elodie and I went for an exploration walk.  We found raspberries in the market, chocolates and the gardens at the Natural History Museum where we found a cat that reminded us of Odin.

Laura didn't feel like having a big restaurant meal, so I took the kids and the we went to La Fleur de sel  and we enjoyed a nice three course meal.  Elodie had carpaccio of foie gras and we didn't explain what that was until after she finished it.  She liked it.

After dinner, the kids and explored the harbor and walked the old streets back to the hotel.

It's late, we want to try to get a good start tomorrow to maximize the time we have to spend in Mont Saint Michel.