Blogging from Normandy. Day 2 Part 2 - French hospitality

We went for a meal yesterday evening for our wedding anniversary. The village we are staying in, Lion-Sur-Mer, turns into a bit of a ghost town in the evening. We've seen a couple of restaurants and a pizza place in the area and their opening hours seem very limited.

On Sunday we went to a restaurant on the next corner from our hotel called Legoland Le Goeland, where I ate one of the best steaks I've ever had. After we finished the meal we sat at the bar for a drink. It was getting quiet so we asked the owner if we were ok to have another. He kept insisting that he was not due to close up and we ended up the last people in. He was still happy to let us stay if we wanted to but we went back to the hotel and let him shut up. This was about 10:30.

That restaurant appeared to be the only choice in our vicinity yesterday evening but we wanted to try something new. After a brief chat with our hotelier who speaks no more English than I speak French, she told us that there is a nice fish restaurant in the next village. 20 minutes on foot.

After an hours walking we found the fish restaurant and it was closed. On the journey down we hadn't seen another bar or restaurant that was open so we had no choice but to walk back to Legoland. (11) We both had blisters by the time we got there because we were wearing our pub shoes, not walking boots.

We arrived at 9:30 and the waitress went to ask the chef if we could have something to eat. Result.

After I had a belly full of chicken and Mrs B had eaten her own body weight in mussels, we went to the bar for a drink again. This time we were there until they started mopping the restaurant floor and setting up for tomorrow. We even met the chef who came to the front of house in his civvies before going home. All the while the owner insisted we were more than welcome to stay. He also taught Mrs Bucko a little French.

We later notice a sign on one of the doors that said they are open until 9pm. ??

Everywhere we have been so far, cafes, bakeries etc, the welcome from the locals has been really friendly. Even the French folk that are customers in these places give us a friendly greeting. The French hospitality is really lovely, and as Julia pointed out in the comments earlier, the food is the dogs bollocks. (12)

It's just a pity there aren't a few more places we can experience it. It looks like Legoland for tea again tonight.

As I write this two things are happening. Mrs Bucko is organising the journey to Ohmaha Beach which we are about to take. Organising is sometimes best left to her, if only so I can't be blamed for any disasters. The other is that it's chucking it down out there. Looks like we are in for one hell of a wet day.

Oh well, we didn't come for the sun.