The Norman Invasion - La Louviere

We arrived in Paris on a sunny and hot Tuesday morning after an uneventful overnight flight from Toronto. Given our ten day time frame we had decided to only take in Paris at the end of the trip so we hopped in our rental car (Madame White) and started the 3 hour drive to our B&B near Alencon in the heart of Normandy.

We arrived shortly before our expected check-in time so we had a quick drink at a local bar while waiting to enter the grounds of the lovely La Louviere.

The property is a large walled in garden/woods complete with a duck pound, an outer cottage and several romantic resting spots to wander to as well as the restored 18th Century large farmhouse.

Our charming hosts welcomed us in and showed us to the lovely suite we had booked. After a quick tour of the gardens, the amiable ancient retriever Venus (pictured) soon became our friend (she is a sucker for belly rubs) although the cat Shadow remained unseen until the second day.

After a chance to clean up and rest for a bit it was off to Alencon for dinner at the Rive Droite, a restaurant located in the same building that General LeClerc used as his HQ during the liberation of France in 1944! It was then back to La Louviere for a good night's sleep in the countryside.

Our next day was a tour of Alencon including a visit to the musee Des Baux Artes et la Dentelle.

La Dentelle is "lace", a product Alencon was famous for beginning in the 17th Century. The museum also housed a small but lovely collection of paintings as well as a section devoted to Cambodia during its domination by the French.

While we had both been skeptical of how much we would enjoy the lace exhibit, it was actually quite fascinating as neither of us had realized the level of intricacy and work required to make the pieces. An intro film whetted our appetite to see the museum's pieces of lace from the 17th and 18th centuries and they did not disappoint!

We made it back to our B&B for a little relaxation by the pond and in the room before we had dinner at La Louviere with two other couples who were staying there. It was a tasty dinner of gamecock poached in cider (a product Normandy is famous for) as well as all the usual French trimmings (salad to start, cheese plate etc). Unfortunately Lisa was still not fully acclimatized to France and could not get through much of dinner (Christos did manage to finish her fowl, mind you).

The next day we toured the area and visited a local Bicycle Museum that had a significant section dedicated to the Tour de France.

The museum had bikes and jerseys from famous Tour de France participants as well as a portrait gallery of every winner. Interestingly, the portrait of Lance Armstrong still hung on the wall but with a black X marked over it!

That night we had dinner in nearby Saint Ceneri Le Gerei, one of the 200 prettiest villages of France.

Dinner was yummy, we shared terrine to start followed by magret for Lisa and beef for Christos. After dinner we enjoyed a walk through the lovely village before heading back to La Lauviere for our final night before heading to the Calvados region within Normandy.