Leave Caen- go to Belgium

We had a repeat of the fantastic breakfast from Alain and Cecilia before we said goodbye. We told them they absolutely must come stay with us the next time they are in California.
As we left the area we stopped first to see William the Conqueror's castle. Unfortunately only the foundations are original. The rest was destroyed but has been restored and recreated to make a great tourist site. What's cool is that they are still doing archaeological digs. A major dig was started in 2011 and scheduled to finish this year.
We saw some people getting ready to film a movie about William (Guillaume) the Conqueror.
We left the west side of France we passed over the huge Pont de Normandie.
We drove out of France and into Belgium, a city called Charleroi, where we stayed the night with one of my mission companions. I was I my fourth transfer in Renens with Sister Metro when Sister Vanhulst (Laura) started her mission. She knew very little English and I was still speaking very basic 'church french' but we still managed to connect and I loved her! I had to leave after one transfer but I had the opportunity to do exchanges with her later and I saw her at the end of my mission when we were both picking up missionaries that we would be training.
Needless to say, I was very excited to see her.
She went with us to go see Waterloo and Villers-la-ville. I didn't pay much attention to the sites because I was just chatting with her the whole time, but I am sure my parents enjoyed them. I wonder what they though of us too girls just chatting non-stop in french in the back seat.  There was lots to catch up on.
We stopped by her cousin's 40th birthday party at the church. Her family is like ours at home: almost all of her cousins and brothers live in the same ward. Their family is probably half of the ward. The party was lively and fun- felt like home. Her parents seem to be a lot like mine.
We chatted with her parents for over an hour when we got home. Laura and I were looking at pictures from our mission until we had to go to bed. Laura had an exam in the morning.