Day 13: Chinon to Rural Bayeux
Sunday 4 May 2014
60 °F
If turns out we have wifi at our current B&B, so I will indeed be blogging!
Today my family drove from the beautiful, ancient, inland French town of Chinon to a farm in the rural countryside of Normandy.
The day started off by a wonderful breakfast at our almost overwhelmingly French B&B. The meal was comprised of yogurt with fresh fruit as well as croissants and baguettes with an assortment of probably about ten different flavors of jams for the bread products. I was in heaven.
Then, my family and I took a walk through town. The first leg of our walk was along the beautiful river that runs throught the town center. I saw a few nice birds there, including the ones pictured below.
EURASIAN MAGPIE:
PIED WAGTAIL:
I soon had a "quadrifecta" of dove species and managed to photograph all four of them:
STOCK DOVE, the least common species of the four; it is also easily overlooked as simply being a Feral Pigeon:
EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE:
The FERAL PIGEON (called ROCK DOVE here in Europe) was by far the commonest species of the four:
Finally, WOOD PIGEONS like this one were the largest and most beautiful of the four species:
Then, we spotted these castle ruins on top of a nearby hill:
So we walked up to them! We didn't go within the ruins because of an annoying entry fee (we are budget travelers), so we simply enjoyed the view from beside them:
Upon arriving back at our B&B we hopped in our car and were on the road!
Other than a quick break at a rest stop in order to eat a yummy lunch of baguette and cheese, it was a direct drive to the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. Photos were prohibited so...I didn't take photographs! The tapestry was beautiful but I was relieved that there were some good birds on premises once I stepped out of the museum:
BLUE TIT:
Male GREY WAGTAIL:
Then, we spotted at a cathedral and walked up to it. They were holding Mass inside so we only walked around the periphery of the building, but it was still stunning.
Finally, after a thirty minute drive, we arrived at our beautiful B&B on a farm (!) and were greeted by the lovely owner Odille. The rest of the evening was comprised of consuming a pizza dinner, getting my life bird MISTLE THRUSH and EURASIAN HOBBY, and catching up on wifi-dependent activities such as checking the IBET (Illinois Birders Exchange Thoughts) daily email blast.
Stay tuned, because tomorrow is a beautiful day that will be spent touring Normandy.
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 735 Species (2 life birds today: Mistle Thrush and Eurasian Hobby)
