Welcome to Caen

{This group of posts pertains to my Christmas vacation in which my family came to visit me. The posts are based on notes I took during the trip and then wrote up after returning. They are post-dated to reflect the proper sequence of events. This is Part 2.}

My family arrived today! They got through customs super quick and were able to grab an earlier train to Caen. I rushed down to grab some Buchettes de Noel as a special treat, but more about those later. I met them at the train station, and then we went to the hotel to drop off their luggage. They were beat, but determined not to give in to the jetlag.

Side note: I personally don't have much trouble with jet lag. I tend to get over after about a day, or at worst, two days, but I know people who take a week or more to adjust. There are two schools of thought: 1) Gradually change your inner clock by pushing yourself to stay awake an hour longer each day, and 2) Just force yourself on schedule. I ascribe to the second one. If you have a long time to adjust, the first method is probably gentler. However, I generally don't have the patience for that and especially if you're going to only be someplace for a short time, method #2 is the way to go. Thus, I dragged my parents and sister all over Caen to keep them up and at 'em.

All over town is a bit of an exaggeration. I could have taken them to see a lot more, but it turns out that I am a fast walker, and they, um, are not. We did get to see the Christmas market, where they tried some hot spiced wine. It got mixed reviews. My parents thought it was ok, but Mere wasn't especially fond of it. I don't prefer it over hot cocoa but it's pretty good. As we walked through the main shopping area we got a sandwich to share and a couple of nutella beignets. Happiness, I am quite convinced, is a nutella beignet. So delicious. I showed them the old castle and the main cathedral, and we walked over to my apartment. By that evening, Mere was just too tired to continue, so my parents and I went to dinner and left her to sleep. We had a great seafood dinner. Being on the northern coast of France, seafood restaurants are plentiful and really good.