Fossils and Cider!

The little town we are in, Villers-sur-Mer, is famous for its fossils. They even have a giant dinosaur topiary in the center of town. We found a few fossils on our first outing and decided to go visit Paleospace - the museum in town dedicated to fossils and.... outer space? Odd combo, but there you have it. We thought that would take the morning and that in the afternoon we could tour some cider making farms since this region is known for its cider.

The beach at Villers-sur-Mer in the morning
taken by Doug on his run

Waiting outside the
Bureau de Tourisme

Our first stop was the Bureau de Tourisme in town - which had a nice note on the door saying that it would open late yesterday. So we waited outside with a few other people. Once inside, we found out that there are so many cider places around recommending just a couple would be difficult so out we came with 3 pamphlets on the Cider Route and off we went to Paleospace!

Girls on the Meridien de Greenwich

One very neat thing about this town, that they are exceptionally proud of, is that the "Greenwich Meridian" (Prime Meridian in American) passes through here and it is the first place in continental Europe where it passes through. It must essentially pass directly through the yard of the house we're staying in because the marker is right next to our house. It turns out Paleospace! is more than just about dinosaurs and outer space because they also have a pretty interesting exhibit on the development of lines of longitude (long-i-tude, hard g, for you Americans).

Paleospace!

We walked about a mile down the beach to Paleospace. It is a one story modern looking building. We bought the family pack including English audio tour (and for the fossil part only, the space part seems to be a planetarium. Once inside, we listened to track 1 of the audio tour and looked at a wall full of fossils that came out of Les Vaches Noires - the black cliffs near our Air BnB. The cliffs have clear layers which is how they can tell how old certain fossils are. Our mouths all simultaneously dropped open when they said the fossils we had found were between 140 and 160 MILLION years old. We couldn't and still can't quite get our heads around that kind of age.

Audio touring at Paleospace

This whole area used to be covered in water, so most of the fossils found are aquatic life fossils. However they have found a bunch of dinosaur fossils here and the theory is that dinosaurs lived on an archipelago nearby and when they died their carcasses were washed away in a ravine out into the ocean where currents brought them to Les Vaches Noires.

Les Vaches Noires

The entire exhibit was pretty interesting, although I think we all got tired after an hour or so. But we now had our marching orders and knew what kinds of fossils were out there and had a wish list. We checked the tides and decided to go hunt more fossils around 7pm.

Just outside of Paleospace they have a really pretty park with a pond that you can walk around. The pond had swans and baby swans along with water hens (who strangely don't swim) and a variety of different kinds of ducks than we have in Virginia. Unfortunately it started to rain and cut our walk short. We walked back home in the rain and made lunch in the flat.

Swans and cygnets

portrait du poulet

After lunch we set out for some cider farms. We got to the first one after about 20 mins but it was raining cats and dogs so we sat in the car for probably another 20 mins. As soon as we got out a flock of chickens greeted us from behind a fence. They must be used to being fed, but they made the sweetest clucking noises.

chicken friends

French chickens. The one on the right was named Mrs. Pennyfeather
by Charlotte. Not Pennyweather. Don't say that. You'll get
the wrath.

We went inside, no one was there, but within a few mins the proprietor appeared and offered us a tasting. The pear cider was delicious. The apple cider and apple juice tasted strangely of farm. The woman was a little awkward and given the weather no tours or anything were offered. So after visiting some more with our new chicken friends we headed off to cider house number two.

The second farm felt less awkward, but still no tours or anything of the sort. Just a tasting and some purchasing. Thankfully this place did not have essence of goat added to any of their drinks.

From there we drove back to our house and took a few hours rest. Doug and I researched parking options for the next soccer game while the girls wrote in their journals.

We had planned to go to this pizza place in town that opened at 6. Our plans were precise - eat at 6, quickly, and get out to Les Vaches Noires by 7 for low tide. But, see, in small town France, you are not in control of your own time. Yes, the restaurant was open, but no, they were not serving food until 6:30. Grrr! So we decided to see if the tide was low enough for fossils and then eat afterwards. Thankfully these beaches in Normandy are huge, so you don't need super low tide to get the fossils. We spent about an hour hunting for treasures and came away with a few ziploc bags of fossils.

hunting for fossils, green rocks very slippery.

Back to the pizza place we went where in a restaurant that seats 10 max, 8 of us were Americans in town for the World Cup. The owner of the restaurant was so friendly and loved chatting. The pizza was good according to the girls. My pasta tasted like Chef Boyardee, but I was hungry.

dinner at Pizza'nocchi with the owner

After dinner we came back to our house for the night.

I want to document our little house a bit. It was built in 1890 and was originally one big house. It is now 5 condos. Maybe 6, we couldn't totally understand the lady. When we arrived Monday evening, it was clear by the look on one of the resident's faces that we were NOT welcome here. Stink eye like you've never seen before. The proprietor of the Air BnB we rented greeted us. He is not the owner to the best of our knowledge and we don't know the relationship between him and the owner. He was very friendly and showed us all around. Later, when we came home from dinner and couldn't get in the gate, the stink-eye lady came out to help us. She was very, very friendly and Doug said something to her like "I hope we aren't bothering you." She proceeded to explain that this unit we're in was recently purchased and renovated. We are directly above her. She said there have been 3 tenants in 3 weeks and they do not like it. She also said the plumbing and fixtures the owners put in our place was very loud - which we can attest to. The toilet and shower make an offputting and regular loud growl when in use. She then told us that the rest of the owners have sued the owner of our place, and pointed us to the litigation taped to the wall of the lobby!

drawing of the original house

The house now - girls in the entryway. We are in the top right
window.

Also on the wall of the lobby is an English translation of an excerpt of their by-laws - the rules of the place. Quiet hours are between 10pm and 7am and you should avoid all noise that others could hear to include walking! So we've been tip-toeing around the place so as not to keep our new friend downstairs up. She's very friendly. Sadly tonight we won't get home from the game until very late (around midnight) so she might not be so friendly in the morning.

Up for today: laundry, maybe fossil hunting, the town of Honfleur, and the US Women's National Team game in Le Havre! Tomorrow we leave Normandy to visit friends in St. Etienne.

dinosaur topiary in progress!

girls being kind to each other under
penalty of no pain au chocolate