We managed to survive our first visitor from across the pond. Nancy spent a week at chez Blair along with a side trip to St. Malo and side-side trips to the D-Day beaches in Normandy and le Mont-Saint-Michel. We rented a car and I broke my four month driving fast by driving fast on the French autoroutes. We had a Peugeot 407 diesel station wagon with a 6-speed manual. It took a while to get used to driving a stick again after 10 years of autos. I managed to stall out in the middle of the Porte Maillot roundabout on the way out of Paris. Driving in Paris is nerve-wracking. Especially when trying to remember to shift. On the way out of Paris, I chickened out and took rue de Presbourg and rue de Tilsitt around the arc de Triomph. But on the return trip, I successfully managed to do a 360 degree transit (and only one! - Look kids! Big Ben, Parliament!) of the étoile, which included getting all the way to the interior of the circle and back to the exterior. Now I can say I’ve done it and will avoid it in the future!
Here is our trusty steed:

Ray & Tom may hate them, but the 407 was a nice car
The car came with a built-in GPS. I also had my Tom Tom One, which I had pre-programmed with the hotel and other info. Rather than try to figure out the built-in GPS, we just used it to show our general location and used the Tom Tom for navigation. It did pretty well and only tried to take us the wrong way down a one-way street once. Although that was only after we took the wrong exit on a roundabout, “Look kids…!” It also informed me when I was exceeding the speed limit, which is good, because there are regular speed cameras on the roads here. I never saw one cop on the road. Either on the side, pulling someone over or just cruising the highway. They must all be in unmarked cars. I liked the highway driving. People stayed to the right except when passing. No left-lane bandits. No “well, I will eventually catch up to that truck 10 miles ahead, so I might as well stay in the left lane” mentality. Traffic flowed smoothly. I kept to the speed limit. I can’t really complain about 130 km/h (~80 mph) limits on the main autoroutes

Two GPSs - Dual or Duelling?
Overall the trip was very pleasant. We had to drive through some heavy rain, but the traffic was generally light on the autoroutes. We had a beautiful day in Mont Saint-Michel, which was the main reason for the trip.
<p style=”text-align:left;otel & Mont Saint-Michel. We never bothered to figure out the built-in GPS and just used it as “wide-angle” view of our general location and the Tom Tom for actual navigation. The Tom Tom took us on some roads that weren’t even on the map when we drove from he D-Day beaches to Saint Malo. But it got us there. It only tried to take me the wrong way down a one way road once.
We stayed at the Hotel Alba (Jessica was nowhere to be found) on the beach at St. Malo. Very nice view out of the front window, where we sat to eat breakfast.

Nancy having a smoke on the boardwalk

Before the long climb to the top

The alley leading up to the cathedral

Taking a break from pushing Sarah

The long walk up

On Mont Saint Michel, overlooking the bay