{"id":14393,"date":"2026-07-31T22:26:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14393"},"modified":"2026-07-31T22:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:26:42","slug":"epic-france-trip-post-trip-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14393","title":{"rendered":"Epic France Trip – Post-Trip Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Such a lovely trip!<\/p>\n

It’s always good to do a little summing up.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned:<\/p>\n

Above all, putting on sunscreen for a day in the sun is good – BUT DON’T FORGET TO PUT SUNSCREEN ON YOUR FEET IF YOU LATER TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!<\/p>\n

I’m on Day 8 of the third worst sunburn of my life. (Having grown up in southern California before high-SPF sunscreen was available.) It’s only on the tops of my feet, so a very small area. It didn’t come with heatstroke. But it did come with blisters, and is a second-degree sunburn. I can’t abide the thought of wearing sandals with straps right across the painful area, so on my trip I wore shoes and socks, and it wasn’t too terrible – the shoes helped my feet not to move too much. Today I’m taking a shoeless day before I go back to work – can’t believe it’s still so painful on Day 8.<\/p>\n

Next lesson: Pay attention when the advertising stresses the physical difficulty of an activity.<\/p>\n

While the High Tides Tour in the bay at Mont Saint-Michel<\/a> would have made the whole trip worth it, even if I hadn’t done anything else – the “Traditional Crossing<\/a>” – walking 14 kilometers there and back across the bay barefoot – was perhaps overly ambitious. It was an awesome experience, but I maybe overestimated my abilities. (Still, I did make it! And wasn’t even the last person.)<\/p>\n

Another lesson: If you purchase neoprene booties to wear when walking in the bay, wear them! And not only for the two-hour High Tides Tour, but also for the six-hour Traditional Crossing. That was a Very Good Idea. If only you had done it both times.<\/p>\n

Another lesson: If you purchase new shoes because your sneakers are getting a little worn, again, follow your instincts. Sure, break them in a little ahead of time, but if I’d brought them, I might have been spared blisters.<\/p>\n

Another lesson: Don’t trust the weather forecast! Especially if you’ll be gone more than a week. And above all, don’t gloat to your friends about how cool the weather’s going to be! The forecast said highs in the high 70s and low 80s. The reality was four days of highs over 100 degrees.<\/p>\n

A more positive lesson: Spontaneously changing your plans to go to a place from a brochure at your hotel can be a very good idea. I loved the day I spent at the Botanical Garden in Bretagne<\/a> more than the planned time at Monet’s House and Garden<\/a> – because the weather was cooler and it was less crowded, and lots of peaceful wandering around a garden.<\/p>\n

And another positive lesson: Doing something that sounds awesomely cool – like the High Tides Tour at Mont Saint-Michel<\/a> – is totally worth it and leads to an experience you will remember the rest of your life!<\/p>\n

It was a wonderful trip, despite heat and sunburn. I’m thinking in the future, I may be done with rent-my-own-car-and-jaunt-around-Europe trips, because I don’t really have things left on my bucket list – I’m happy to go where a tour group thinks there are good things to see.<\/p>\n

But I’m thinking of the symbolic destination of the trip as the stop at the Abbaye de Royaumont<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had a retreat there just after my husband told me he was filing for divorce, and it represented Hope and a Good Future. It was there that I thought about becoming a librarian and a writer both – and that has worked out wonderfully well twenty years later.<\/p>\n

In fact, today the sermon at my church was from verses that were super important to me at that time twenty years ago, Isaiah 43:18-19:<\/p>\n

Forget the former things;
\n do not dwell on the past.
\nSee, I am doing a new thing!
\n Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
\nI am making a way in the wilderness
\n and streams in the wasteland.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I was so sad about losing the life I’d had and all my dreams for the future – God did a new thing. And it has been good.<\/p>\n

It does make me wonder what the next new thing is? I’m hoping that it will be becoming a published author!<\/p>\n

But I do love that the pain has gone out of the memory of the divorce, and what’s left is simple joy in all that God has given me over these past twenty years.<\/p>\n

And I do love that I can drive around Europe and enjoy seeing beautiful things I’d always wanted to see! That was also symbolic – that I have a rich, full, and interesting life of my own – and it is a gift from God.<\/p>\n

Here are the individual posts from the trip:<\/p>\n

Day 1 – Mus\u00e9e des Impressionnismes<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 2 – High Tides at Mont Saint-Michel<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 3 – Mont Saint-Michel and the Scriptorial<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 4 – Parc Botanique de Haut Bretagne<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 5 – Traditional Crossing of the Bay at Mont Saint-Michel<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 6 – Driving from Mont Saint-Michel back to Giverny<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 7 – Monet’s House and Garden<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 8 – \u00c9tretat<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 9 – Abbaye de Royaumont<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 10 – Ch\u00e2teau de Chantilly<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Such a lovely trip! It’s always good to do a little summing up. Lessons learned: Above all, putting on sunscreen for a day in the sun is good – BUT DON’T FORGET TO PUT SUNSCREEN ON YOUR FEET IF YOU LATER TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES! I’m on Day 8 of the third worst sunburn of […]<\/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-14393","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\/14393","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=14393"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14835,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14393\/revisions\/14835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}