Both K and I love travelling to France. We love the vibe of the country, we love the scenery, we love the food and I especially love the language (of love). When our friends Doris and Thean told us they were going to Normandy over Easter, K and I possibly shamelessly asked if we could come along. Still remember booking our air tickets and hotel room during our Langkawi trip.
Fast forward, we were approaching the Easter long weekend and soon we found ourselves staying overnight at theirs, because our flight the next day was from Stansted at 7.45am. We flew into Deauville, a short 50min plane ride. When my French manager found out we were going to Deauville, he said "oh wow, very posh Belinda, very posh!" Eh posh? How so? And then funnily I was chatting with another colleague about where I was going and he suddenly told me another colleague Charles was also going to be in Deauville that weekend. What are the chances?
I googled Deauville and this is what's written about it:
With its race course, harbour, international film festival, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino and sumptuous hotels, Deauville is regarded as the "queen of the Norman beaches" and one of the most prestigious seaside resorts in all of France. As the closest seaside resort to Paris, the city and its region of the Côte Fleurie (Flowery Coast) has long been home to French high society's seaside houses and is often referred to as the Parisian riviera. Since the 19th century, the town of Deauville has been a fashionable holiday resort for the international upper class. Deauville is also a desirable family resort for the wealthy.
Mental thought: better pack nice enough clothes to blend into the crowd.
When our Ryanair flight touched down at the tiny airport of Saint Gatien airport that Friday morning, we saw a little commotion. A group of photographers and journalists, together with a gentleman with a beard in a brown suit were looking at our plane excitedly. When the plane came to a stop and the door opened, they rushed forward and started clicking. The rest of us waiting to exit the plane looked in wonder. "What's going on?" I looked at a French girl near me and we both laughed. I asked if the moustached man was the town mayor, she replied in her French accent "I don't know although I should as I am from Deauville!" They did take many photographs of the passengers disembarking and interviewed some too. Turns out, this was the first Ryanair flight into Deauville. Wow, what a warm reception - great start to our trip already! We even had free tea/coffee and croissants (what else), and a goodie bag each!
Unfortunately it was raining so much the first day. The rain was relentless. Thean chose to stay in Trouville-sur-mer, which is literally across the river from Deauville. It was pretty amazing that there was free shuttle service from the airport into Deauville. We met friendly people along the way who tried to ask if we needed any help with directions. Blur look much?
 |
| Trouville-sur-mer |
After checking in, we had lunch at a brasserie near our hotel. The location was great: proximity to the casino ;) where we hoped to win some money. We were also very blessed to be able to hire a car - the last automatic car Avis had. The guy at the counter even volunteered to drive us to our hotel! Non stop favour since we arrived I tell you. Hallelujah.
 |
| The view from our hotel room |
 |
First lunch we had: K had his steak (as usual) whereas I tried the mussels with fries
|
We walked around in the rain and went to two viewpoints that afternoon. Being close to the sea, naturally they are known for their seafood (mmm oysters).
We walked around the town in the rain before K decided to return to the hotel to rest as he wasn't feeling very well. I felt sleepy too as we woke up at 4am that morning and so I followed suit.
 |
| See what I mean - it was gloomy and rainy |
 |
| Walking around the town - big houses everywhere |
 |
| By the river - walking from Trouville to Deauville |
Dinner was at one of the recommendations by the tourism office. Good recommendation it was.
 |
| My anchovies salad - it was very good |
 |
| K and his starters consisting of 2 oysters amongst others |
 |
| The guys |
 |
| Us girls |
It has been so long since I practiced my French and I found that people generally spoke little English and so I had to dig deep into my memory to try to come up with some french words, phrases, simple sentences to get us by those 4 days.
After dinner we all went to the casino (it's a famous casino) to try our luck. It was really funny because we seldom visit such places and so we each started with EUR 20 and played at the machine roulette. We bet on really small amounts, in denominations of EUR 1 and EUR 2. Every little win we would feel a "yes!" coming up. And then there was this big burly guy who came and sat beside Thean, betting EUR 500 all at once. For each round he bet on random numbers. At one stage he won like EUR 300 - to which we all agreed afterwards that we would probably cash in on the winnings then. However he didn't! Slowly…. he lost all his money. He was extremely annoyed and banged his fist on the machine whilst cursing in French. In comparison, I looked at my EUR 15 left in the machine which could possibly last me till morning if I continued playing in this manner… really a case of "big fish, small fish".
Next up, French village hopping.
Comments