| On this trip, we were able to do several things we had never done before. First of all, this marked the first time we had rented a car for a part of a trip. We've always traveled by rail, but on many occasions, we've passed through small towns and wished that we could stop. The car allowed a little more spontaneity and flexibility. We also took the Chunnel for the first time. We were able to get very good prices for the flight into Gatwick and for round trip tickets on the Eurostar, so we flew into London and flew out of London but did all our sightseeing in France. We planned to spend about equal time in Normandy, the Loire Valley, and the Dordogne, but a horrible heat wave struck during our trip (and we weren't prepared for it), so we cut both the Loire and the Dordogne short and spent more of our time in Normandy. The photo at the right is of market day in Villers Bocage, a town near Bayeux. At the World War II Museum in Bayeux we saw several photographs of Villers Bocage in 1944 as the Allied troops moved through the town in pursuit of the fleeing Germans. | 
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