Mont St. Michel

On Sunday we toured the Normandy area with local farmer Phillippe F. We were fortunate to see Mont St. Michel. Google says it is a "small, inhabited island with 11th-century, Romanesque abbey and the highest tides in Europe." They began building here in 900 AD. Such an amazing place. We only had a few hours and could have spent much more time, if there had been any.

There is only one way in and out.

 There are shops, hotels and a few homes on the steep walk up to the abbey.

 

 

From R: Husband, Nadine (interpreter), Phillippe F.

The church.

Phillippe, Woody, Myself, Husband, David and Doug

One of two fireplaces of this size in one room. (l. Frank, our driver.)

A sledge trolley/pulley system used to transport supplies into the abbey.

Men walked in this wheel to raise the loaded sledge. Below: a roller sledge.

This bird was scolding some tourists who were having a sack lunch by his tree.

Second FarmTour-Normandy

Our second French farm was also dairy and beef. They have 180 milk cows and 550 bulls for beef. The bulls are left as bulls and are not de-horned. Different from how we do beef cattle here.

Beautiful buildings and hedges everywhere. This hedge was the most impressive one we saw anywhere. Our lovely interpreter Nadine was with us all week. (above, in jacket)

Beautiful cattle. Nice operation.

Farmers are the same everywhere. They can talk all day. On the R is Phillipe, a farmer who escorted us several days in France. Second from R is Francois P. who farms this operation.

Lovely countryside. Fields are much smaller, and usually separated by hedges. They did not understand that our farm of about 2000 acres is not so big, until we began to tell them that it takes 6-7 hours at 70 MPH to drive across just our state.

Pascal's Dairy-Normandy, France

 

We went to several farms and learned about their operations.This French farm home and barn was built in 1765 and bought  by Pascal's parents in 1957. Pascal. F. is a very engaging man and has built his farm from nothing. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Chambers of Agriculture and is President of the Normandy Chamber of Agriculture.

The farm is about 325 acres and has a modern milking

system for 65 cows. He also raises beef cattle and hay. 

We toured his dairy and farm operation.

 

During the war this land was flooded by the Germans to block troop movements, and was hit hard by shelling, seen in damage to the back of the house. All the old trees on the place have shrapnel in them.

EU Trade Mission-Normandy

We landed in Paris and immediately headed to our first meeting with French farmer leaders.

By the sea, tide out.

Meeting included a French Senator, cereal, grain and dairy farmers, and representatives of agriculture associations (including APCA, FRSEA, AGPB, FOP.)

Europe

Selfies from our EU soybean mission trip. Paris was a quick stop and we had about 10 min to take some Eiffel Tower shots.

We got to ride the Chunnel on the way from Brussels to London. Husband had an app on his phone that records the speed you are traveling. That is MPH.

Moustaches in Triplicate

I'm not sure why these things happen, but they seem to with alarming regularity.

Birthdays

Dad turned 83 on March 14, I turned  54 on March 15th and my little Sis had a birthday on Feb. 28.

Clay Gifts

These darling clay creatures are gifts W. made for Christmas. Her friend Hannah taught her to make the dragons. The cats and octopus designs are her own.