Friday, September 19th, Mortagne au Perche

Greetings!

We made it! I'm sitting in the square near a fountain in the town of Mortagne au Perche, while Pat is sleeping in our hotel room. We said we'd try to stay up all day today, but after almost 32 hours with only plane sleep, we gave out. We crashed in the room of a beautiful old hotel after a short walk around the town, and I awoke before she did. I'm just up to check out the town square wifin(the hotel charges $3.50 euro per hour), and to let you all know we're here.

The car is terrific, the Garmin 270 works great, and we would not have made it through the outskirts of Paris wihout it. Pat kept wanting it to take us on the smaller backroads, but was also pleased that it got us here smoothly and wouldn't let me deviate without a stern "re-calculating" comment. She could hardly keep her eyes open, having slept much less than I did on the flight. Her headphone jack wasn't working well, and so the diversion of the movies wasn't of much help either.

We'll be here for at least two days, and I'm very excited. We've already seen the church where my great (11 times) grandparents were married before leaving for Canada. There's a large plaque on the church wall commemorating a celebration of that event (the leaving, not the marriage) erected in 1926. I feel like I have found a village which almost rivals Viva d'Orcia (Pat's Italian ancestral home) in Tuscany for me.

I'd better get back. Our plan is to find a cute restaurant, and have dinner late. If we're going to sleep tonight, I've got to get her up and keep her awake for a few more hours. We're going to do some walking around the village tomorrow, and I'll write more. If the wifi is strong enough, maybe some photos too.

Gregory