Day 4 - Fougeres and Vitre (Brittany)

We left the BnB in Genet at about 10am and headed to Fougeres. It was only a 30 minute drive to the city center. We parked and walked all the way from the city center to the Chateau Fougeres. We pasted this church, a beautiful garden which has the terrific over view the Chateau Fougeres. By the time we reached the chateau, it was pass 11am and the Chateau was closed for the lunch time. Although we didn't get inside, we did have a good view from the garden.

Lunch at a restaurant by the Chateau. Not sure what today's special was.... until it was presented in front on us. We were shocked by how delicious buckwheat can be... very thin that contained sunny side egg, tuna, tomatoes, and cheese. Crapes filled with chocolate, banana, cocona for dessert made Sophie loves this trip even more. This is truly the authentic crusin in Britney region.

Another short drive to Vitre. Visited the Chateau Vitre and walked all over the town till our dinner time.

People were so nice everywhere we visited. By the fourth day, I finally figured out the country French schedule. Stores or touristy site like Chateau opens at 9 or 9: 30 then usually has lunch break from noon or 11am till 2 or 2:30. Restaurants open at 7 for dinner at the earliest. As we were touring the Chateau Vitre, we met a guy from Finland. He was so happy to met other foreigners. According to him, This part of France don't as many foreigners only French tourists. I guess most tourists only make it to St. Michel then back to the famous touristy spots....not so much of the country. For us we loved seeing the country and feeling how people are like and live out side of the big cities.




 A short break in front the church in Vitre with beers.

Another amazing dinner. Cauliflower soup, rabbit with pasta, duck with vegetable, and roasted pigeon then dessert.

 
 

Day 3 - Dinan (Brittany)

Dinan was one of the cities that was highly recommended by our Chateau Chantore host. My plan was to visit Dinan first, St. Malo in the afternoon and then have dinner at Cancale, but we ended up spending the whole day. Dinan was surprising cute and interesting... lot of half timber house, old fortress walls, cute kid clothing and accessory shops, art shops, and a river front.

Lunch at a cute tea restaurant... only serves tea and baked goods.

This is just a public park for people to hang out and kids to play... it was filled with flowers, trees, chickens, gooses, playground structure, and a mini golf course. Unbelievable!! It was definitely a good balance for us... seeing old thing for Josh and I and then a little play time for Sophie.

The store window was decorated with lots ceramic made products ... super cute that we waited 15 minutes for the shop to reopen for the afternoon hour. We picked one to remember this special town.

River cruise... the most interesting part had to be the mini panama cannel. For some (we can't understand French) reason, the river was block and the water levels were different. It was a beautiful river cruise (one hour)... got to see the city from different angle.

Picked up something to entertain Sophie so she didn't fall asleep in the car ride :). Love this scratch coloring thing (scratch the paper to revile the color and picture)... very easy, simple, and beautiful but it made her clothes black.

We picked up some food from the supermarket and brought back to our BnB. Simple and satisfying at the same time.

Day 2 - Mont Saint Michel, Granville, and Genet (Normandy)

I was woken up by the roosters that we met yesterday. Looked out the window, and there he was... Kacodoododoing. It was perfect timing, just enough time for us to get ready for the breakfast.

I had to say that Josh had set our bar high by finding and booking this incredible chateau for our first night. Our bedroom was big and very beautiful and bathroom was big and modern. Sophie's room was adjacent to us with a secret door. Although it's not the pink Sophie wished for, it's still amazing and royal looking.

 
Coming downstairs to the dinning room we saw this breakfast spread
; pretty and delicious looking... totally appetizing. We met another host who then explained everything that was presented on the table: honey from their own bee hives, apple jam and apple cake from their own apple orchard, special scrabble egg that Sophie gobbled down in record speed, local cheese Camembert, and fruit salad. Everything tasted wonderful and the service was impeccable. It made us want to move back to Europe. Even Sophie likes to live in France after less than 24 hour of experience so far.

I wish I took more pictures of our room (it's called suite du Vicomte. Previous owner's room). All the space we had together is bigger than our place back in San Diego.

Picture by Sophie! Love this one.

Ever since I saw a video clip of Mont Saint Michel last last year, I had been wanting to come... and here we were... very exciting. We could see this magnificent historic monument all the way from Chateau Chantroe. As the shuttle slowly approached it, I realized why Sophie felt it's like Disney because it was so surreal.

We enjoyed walking around the grounds and seeing every room. Sophie was happy counting every stair as we climbed up.

Afterwards, we drove to Granville. Not sure what to expect; we drove up to the light house and saw the beautiful coast line and the harbor. Then, a little window shopping and the irresistible dessert as I promised Sophie before we came.

Our second and third night home is in a very small beach village called Genet. I found it on airbnb. It turned out to be right next to the Office de Turirums of Genet. Just 3km before we reached our bnb, Josh told me that the gas light has been on and not sure how long... Oh crap... so after we put our bags away and had a quick look around the place, we quickly ran out for gas. We drove 15 minutes to the closest gas station (we could find that Google told us) to find out that they were out of gas. Oh my...how could this happened. Luckily, one of the people was able to tell Josh where the closest one was located in broken English. Our night was saved eventually after I had aged for a year. We ended the day with a simple dinner in a restaurant by the church in the downtown of Avranches.

Day 1 - Chateau de Chantore and Avranches (Normandy)

After years since we moved back to the US, we finally found our way back in Europe for a road trip in northwest France.  Here is how our first day went: flight arrived on time despite the delayed departure but we got stuck in the airport for additional time that was not expected. The customs line was extremely long, and it took over an hour to get through. Then, the airport exit was locked down due to an a suspicious piece of luggage that was forgotten. 😞 We were told later that this happens often. Things definitely have changed with security is now.

Getting the rental car was no problem, and so off we go towards the west. Before long, we ran into a toll booth. One after another and another... we probably went through 5 toll booths and spent about 20 - 25 euros. I totally forgot how expensive it is to drive in France but Josh remembered it. 😂



After a while, Jet lag kicked in and the little one felt asleep. Can't blame her since getting out of Paris wasn't exactly very interesting.

Finally we approached our first stop Chateau de Chantore. The view of the chateau was breathtaking and certainly kept Sophie awake. Of course  she was completely recharged and ready to explore while Josh finally needed to crash.

We were welcome by 2 extremely excited roosters who kacodoododo nonstop and 2 beautiful peacocks... quite funny actually... so french... totally free range chickens that roaming around as if they owned the entire property. Our host was very nice and also welcome us with homemade apple cider and apple juice from the property in the room below.

Sophie and I took a walk around the property and checked out their pets which included horses, swans, ducks, chickens, peacocks, bees... Here is another view of the chateau. Sophie was so happy that she felt like she was in "Disney" and "she was in the fairy tale." (her exact words)

On our way to the dinner...
Josh asked Sophie: is France like what you imaged?
Sophie: It's even more MAGICAL.
😁😂 That's our girl!! So glad she is enjoying it as much as we are.

Our dinner restaurant was recommended and the reservation was made by our host. It was a short drive to the town of Avranches directly in the city center.

First course was salad in cream liquidized form and it's in a tiny cup. Sophie's reaction: Salad?? 😲😂😄

Second course:

Beef cheek

Foie gras

Pate (from kids menu)

 

Mullet 

Stuffed Pigeon

Veal (from kids menu)

Here comes the main course


 Can you believe what's on the kids menu! PATE and Veal!!! We were not sure how big the serving size was so we ordered some for Sophie as well.

After main course was local cheeses and the then finished with desserts. We were completely STUFFED. 

Bolognese Meat Sauce

This recipe is modified from a cook book I got when we traveled to Italy. It's simple and straight forward and has been my favorite meat sauce ever since.

Ingredients:
1.5 lb ground beef
.5 lb un-somked bacon, chopped
2 brown diced onions
2 cups diced celery
2 cups diced carrots
4 cloves
1 cup chicken stock
2T tomato paste
1T black peppercorns

Directions:
Crisp the bacon in a dutch oven saucepan or pot. Scoop out the excess fat from the bacon. Add ground beef and cook until the meat turns a nice brown color. Add vegetables and cook for 5 minutes under medium heat. Add tomato paste, cloves, black peppercorns and just enough stock to cover the mixture. Bring up to boil then turn to low heat and simmer for 2 hours.

The secret is the more it cooks (without burning), the better it will be. Add more stock or water if it needs but without exaggerating. The sauce should be moist but not liquid.

I like to freeze half of it for when I don't have time to cook.

The Simplest BBQ Pork Ribs

Ingredients:
3lb  Pork spareribs or baby back ribs
1 bottle of any store bought BBQ sauce you like

Directions:
Put ribs in the slow cooker covered just enough cold water over them. Add 2-3T salt then cook for 4 hours in high temperature just as the meat is about to fall of the bones.

Finish cooking in the oven:
Preheat over at 400 F. Put the rib on baking sheet and generously apply bbq sauce on the ribs.  Bake for about 20 minutes. Flip the ribs twice and reapply sauce during cooking.

Finish cooking on the grill:
Generously apply bbq sauce on the ribs and cook them in the mid low heat for about 10 to 15 minutes. Flip the ribs twice and reapply sauce during grilling.