More about the Carterets

The photos below are some that I took in Normandy at Carteret 20 years ago.
Walt and I  had driven up there with our dog Collette to spend a few days along the Normandy coast.

The Englishmen who controlled the Carolina territory in the 17th and 18th centuries were appointed by the king of England and known as the lord's proprietors. During part of that time, the area that is now Carteret County N.C. was owned by John Carteret. His family came from the island of Jersey. The Carteret family also owned territory in New Jersey, where there is a town named Carteret. Remember, the first English colony in North America was located on Roanoke Island (probably...), a hundred miles up the coast from Carteret County. It was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585. When Raleigh went back to England to get supplies, it took him a few years to get back. By then his colony had disappeared. Nobody really knows what happened to the English settlers who lived there for those few years.

On the left is a photo of the cathedral in Coutances. It survived World War II despite heavy bombing that destroyed most of the town. Below is a church of a different style. It's in the town of Port-Bail, just five miles south of Carteret.

Going to Carteret in Normandy

This first photo is of the town called Coutances (pop. 8,000), about an hour north of Mont-Saint-Michel by car. When I went by there in June 2004, I took this picture from the highway that bypasses the town. I was on my way to the town of Carteret (which merged with the larger town of Barneville in 1965 and oficially became part of the town known as Barneville-Carteret). I had been to Carteret once before, with Walt in 1992. It's about 45 minutes north of Coutances.

Carteret is a special place for me because I grew up, as did both of my grandmothers and many other relatives, in Carteret County on the coast of North Carolina. The Wikipedia article about Carteret County, N.C., says the first man of English parentage born in the territory that is now North Carolina, John Fulford, was born in 1629 in Carteret County. He died in 1729. I'm probably descended from him, but don't quote me on that.

Above and below are some photos I took in Carteret in Normandy about 20 years ago. It's a beautiful place, as is Carteret County in N.C. (IMHO). The photos above and below show the beach and the harbor at Carteret. In the photo on the right below, you can see the Island of Jersey on the horizon, 15 or so miles off the coast from Normandy's Carteret.

The Cotentin's west coast

In January of 1992, Walt and I flew to Paris from San Francisco. He, along with one of his professors, was sent there by the University of California at Berkeley; I just went along for the ride. We spent a week in Paris, and then we went on a road trip up into Normandy and out into Brittany. Straight north of the Mont-Saint-Michel are the towns of Granville, Barneville-Carteret, both of which I wanted to see.

I don't think we actually went to the Mont-Saint-Michel, but we did spend a day and night in nearby Saint-Malo. I was to go to the village called Carteret another five or six times over the years, for several reasons. The photos here are some that Walt and I took in January 1992. They are probably scanned slides or prints, as I didn't start taking digital photos until nearly 10 years later.

Above, the church at Camembert; the fortifications and walkways at Granville; and the village of Carteret

The harbor at Carteret; two photos of the harbor at Granville taken at low tide... When the tide goes out there, it really goes out

Mont-Saint-Michel details (2)

It's raining again today, as it rained for much of the day yesterday. We've started doing spring cleaning in the house because it's too wet to do anything outside, even though it's not especially cold. Today I'm getting my Covid19 booster shot at the pharmacy. Walt got his a week or two ago and had no strong reaction to it.

Tomorrow morning early I'll be going to pick up a lamb roast — un gigot d'agneau — that the butcher is de-boning, rolling up into a log shape, and tying with string for us. We'll cook it tomorrow for our Thanksgiving dinner, along with escargots as an appetizer, sides of brussels sprouts and, flageolet beans, and for dessert a pumpkin pie made by Walt. I hope you all have good Thanksgiving days and dinners.

Mont-Saint-Michel details (1)

I'm just about finished with this series of posts about the Mont-Saint-Michel. I have one other post for tomorrow. After that, I think I'll head north into the Normandy region called the Cotentin. I've been there many times over the years for a couple of reasons that I'll write about soon.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of details that I noticed on one of my trips to the Mont.

Maisons à vendre au Mont Saint-Michel

In a comment yesterday, Diogenes said he wouldn't mind living on the Mont-Saint-Michel. On the internet I didn't find any houses for sale on the Mont, but here's one only about three miles from it. It's surprisingly reasonable in price (299,000 euros = about 320,000 U.S. dollars) and looks beautiful. Below is a description in French that I found on the seloger.com web site. To see three other houses for sale nearby, and many more in the region, follow this link.  You can follow this link to display a slideshow of photos of the house described just below. There's a translation into English below.

Sur les hauteurs du bourg de Roz-Sur-Couesnon, avec une vue sur le Mont-Saint-Michel, cette propriété de 170 m2 dispose de tout le confort pour accueillir une famille avec ses vastes pièces de vie dont un séjour prinicpal (44 m2 environ) avec cheminée et cuisine aménagée et équipée, un salon de 38 m2 et ses quatre belles chambres (15,60 m2 / 17,30 m2 / 13,20 m2 / 12,70 m2) . La configuration des lieux peut aussi laisser imaginer un aménagement de gîte séparé, d'autant que les deux greniers pourraient vous offrir environ 70 m2 aménageables supplémentaires avec une pleine vue sur le Mont-Saint-Michel après création d'ouvertures.

Le jardin côté Est offre un beau dégagement sur la baie.

Détails complémentaires: Chauffage (fuel - chaudière 2012) par le sol au RDC, Volets roulants électriques, couverture ardoise, Garage en pierre. Préau. Maison reliée à la fibre.

Here's the translation (thanks to DeepL.com):

On the heights of the village of Roz-Sur-Couesnon, with a view of Mont-Saint-Michel, this 170 m2 property has all the comforts to welcome a family, with its spacious living areas including a main living room (approx. 44 m2) with fireplace and fitted and equipped kitchen, a 38 m2 lounge and four bedrooms (15.60 m2 / 17.30 m2 / 13.20 m2 / 12.70 m2). The layout of the property could also be used as a separate gîte, especially as the two attics could be converted into a further 70 m2 of living space with a full view of Mont-Saint-Michel.

The east-facing garden offers a beautiful view of the bay.

Additional details: Oil-fired underfloor heating (2012 boiler) on ground floor, electric roller shutters, slate roof, stone garage. Yard. House connected to fiber.

This house near the Mont is almost exactly the same size as our house in Saint-Aignan, but it's an example of a completely different architectural style.

Doctor my eyes

The saga of my eyes, my cataracts, and my new glasses is entering the home stretch — la dernière ligne droite, as we say in French. Yesterday I drove over to the optical shop my insurance agent recommended to me a couple of years ago. It's only about 10 miles from our house. I had gone there about 10 days ago, after my doctor certified that my eyes were healed after the two surgeries (in June and September) to pick out new glasses frames and talk to the optician about prices and time lines for receiving the new lenses.

I was supposed to go to Montrichard earlier in the week, but a short-lived snow event a few days ago convinced me to wait until temperatures outside got up above freezing again before making the drive. I should get my new glasses in about 10 days. I can't wait to see if my vision is improved even more than it was after my second cataract operation in September. My next appointment with the ophthalmologist, barring some unforeseeable emergency, will be in about two years for a check-up.

I took the pictures in this post on March 5, 2007 — my birthday. Walt and I had driven up to the Mont-Saint-Michel for the occasion. We then spent the night in a hotel room on the Mont itself rather than on the mainland (sur le continent). I had never done that before. The photo above shows the big town of Avranches (pop. 10,000), about eight miles east across the mud flats and salt marshes from the Mont, on which I was standing when I took it.

By the way, the population of the Mont-Saint-Michel is 25. That's not a typo. More than a thousand people lived there — it's a commune (meaning "municipality") as well as being a geographical feature and a church — until the middle of the 19th century, when it became a major tourist attraction and its permanent population declined to about 200.

A treat...

...to beat your feet. This is not Mississippi mud, though. It's Mont-Saint-Michel mud. When Walt and I were at the Mont in March 20007 to celebrate my birthday, we spent the afternoon walking around on the Mont itself and enjoying the views we could get out over the Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel from up there.

I watched a group of school children and their leaders down below walking around on the mud flats at low tide. One of the children was in mud almost up to her waist.

The group managed to extract her from the mud. Tout est bien qui finit bien.

I took these photos in about 15 minutes' time, and I've posted them here in chronological order.

Looking out our windows yesterday morning

We got what I would say was less than inch of snow before noon. It's very cold today (below freezing), so I'm sure there's verglas (black ice) on most of the local roads. I won't be going out in the car. Luckily, Walt went shopping yesterday, so we won't go hungry.