{"id":14370,"date":"2026-07-20T22:02:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14370"},"modified":"2026-07-20T22:02:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:02:33","slug":"epic-france-trip-driving-from-mont-saint-michel-back-to-giverny-day-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14370","title":{"rendered":"Epic France Trip – Driving from Mont Saint-Michel back to Giverny – Day 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Okay, Sunday June 21, 2026, was probably the least exciting day of the trip. But this was just as well, because my feet were trashed.<\/p>\n

See yesterday’s epic outing across the bay of Mont Saint-Michel<\/a>. I’d ended up with burst blisters on the bottoms of my feet and severe sunburn on the tops. I’d brought some cortisone cream on the trip expecting bugs might find me (so far not yet), so I tried slathering it on the sunburn and then painfully putting on socks and shoes and absolutely not taking them off until I was done for the day.<\/p>\n

It was a hot day – high of 97. My little attic room at Manoir de la Roche Torin wasn’t too hot since I’d figured out to leave the window open at night with the Rolladen cracked like a screen. But still carrying two trips of luggage down two flights of stairs is hot work, and I was ready for an air-conditioned drive.<\/p>\n

It was three and a half hours to my next hotel, and check-in time wasn’t until 4:00. I did take my time getting ready to leave and left around 10:30. So my plan had been to stop for lunch at Deauville, with a Promenade along the beach. It was only a little out of the way and was raved about in the guidebook.<\/p>\n

Well, I needed to use the restroom before I got to Deauville, so I stopped at one of the rest areas off the Autoroute. And honestly, I’m not quite sure why European visitors for the World Cup have been so impressed with American rest stops, because the ones in France that I’ve stopped at have been every bit as good as the big rest stops in Virginia. Several kinds of food, lots of touristy knickknacks to buy, and even free restrooms. I had a Mozzarella and Tomato wrap for lunch while I was there, and it was absolutely delicious.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t far from there to Deauville. But it turned out that going to the beach in France on a very hot, sunshiny Sunday is a really popular idea. I missed a turn into a big public parking lot early on (because GPS was taking me to the beach), but it was at least a mile or two from the beach. I did drive into town – full of traffic, full of people – close to the beach. I got the idea of what a quaint place it is, but didn’t find any place to park at all, and decided I didn’t really want to walk along a promenade anyway, my feet being as sore as they were.<\/p>\n

By the time I’d decided that, I’d spent enough time to better hit check-in time at my next hotel. I made a stop at another rest area for gas, and then headed to my next hotel, the Logis Hotel La Ruche in Rolleboise, near Giverny. For three nights!<\/p>\n

And it has air conditioning! Huzzah!<\/p>\n

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So although yes, I got overheated bringing my luggage up the stairs (an elevator would have been too much to ask for!), I could then sit in the air-conditioned room and cool off.<\/p>\n

This is important because I jinxed myself by gloating about how perfect the weather was going to be on my trip – after I looked at a forecast that showed highs in the 70s and low 80s. Well, they have drastically adjusted that forecast. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 99, and the rest of my time in France will have highs over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. For context, in my ten years living in Germany, we only had ONE heat wave where it got over 100 degrees. (My next hotel has no air conditioning, but it does have a pool. So I may spend some time in it.)<\/p>\n

And my room has a view of the Seine!<\/p>\n

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And there are multiple restaurants – so I can get food at any time and don’t have to wait for 7 or 7:30 pm when the hotel restaurant opens. I went down soon after arrival and had a salad for dinner. (Wasn’t very hungry because I’d gotten ice cream at the rest stop.)<\/p>\n

So I may do some more adjusting of plans. Tomorrow I have an 11 am ticket for Monet’s House and Garden, but when I’m done with that, I think it might be nice to hang out right here. Let the Personal Retreat part of my trip begin!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, Sunday June 21, 2026, was probably the least exciting day of the trip. But this was just as well, because my feet were trashed. See yesterday’s epic outing across the bay of Mont Saint-Michel. I’d ended up with burst blisters on the bottoms of my feet and severe sunburn on the tops. I’d brought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-14370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-france2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14694,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14370\/revisions\/14694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}