Mon 21 Jul- Chateau de Craon, Hotel Le Normandie in Bagnoles-de-L'Orne

Mon 21 Jul- after a nice breakfast, we packed and left for the Chateau de Craon. We arrived before it opened, so we had lunch snack at the Creperie du Chateau just across the street: 'vin de Pays rouge', a 'salade grande' for Kiyomi with all kinds of veggies; and a chocolate crepe for Stan. Then we went back across the road to the chateau, where we found it was a pretty chateau with extensive properties divided into several areas. Although the gardens were not particularly impressive or inspirational, it was nice walking around the quiet grounds on a warm 23 C partly cloudy day.
We continued on to our Hotel Le Normandie in Bagnoles-de-L'Orne, a very nice picturesque town with lots of restaurants and little shops, as well as many hotels and a casino. The hotel has been here many years, and is apparently famous for its 'restaurant gastronomique', which we tried the E 18 menu with beer to drink: we each had a different salad, which we split as usual; one had lettuce with gizzards, ham and smoked salmon; the other had a variety of vegetables like lettuce, beets, avocado, cucumber, etc. Kiyomi bravely decided to try the Tripe Normandy style, which wasn't bad, but we'll probably not try it again. Stan had the heart of beefsteak; both were served with various vegetables and potato. For dessert, we split a Napoleon with 3 liquors and Stan had a selection of the cheese board.