Me, Mira, Fred, and Arnaud in a Bayeux pub
See the replica of John Steele hanging from the steeple?
So, after Sainte Mere Eglise, we walked over to the Airborne museum, which was pretty cool. We were there for awhile, then headed onto Utah Beach, which is one of two that the Americans were in charge of invading. I have to say that this particular beach, out of all 5, was my favorite. It felt more natural and 'untouched' than the others. You could really imagine the scenes that took place on D-Day...it was almost eerie.
After walking on the beach, we left for La Pointe du Hoc. This is an area that the Germans controlled and used to gun down the Americans as they tried to scale the cliffs to take over. The story goes that the American Rangers were climbing up the cliffs by way of rope, and the Germans would either cut the rope or gun down the Ranger. But the Americans were determined and courageous, so each time one soldier fell, another one continued. And they kept this up until they reached the top and pushed back the Germans. This place is full of craters from the bombs that were dropped, not to mention many German bunkers. It was so weird to be walking around an area that was so scarred from war, but was covered in yellow flowers and green grass. It was really beautiful, actually, so it was difficult to imagine it any other way. Apparently, this area and a few more acres were given to America to take care of and preserve.
Next, we went to Omaha beach, which is known as 'Bloody Omaha'. You know, I never watched 'Saving Private Ryan' because so many people told me how gory it is in the first 30 minutes. So, I didn't have any images to go on when standing on Omaha. I ended up downloading it last week and watching it, and I'm happy I waited to watch it. Omaha Beach today has been turned into a memorial, and there is so much cement that it just didn't feel as natural as Utah. I'm really glad I went, though. I've always had so much respect for our soldiers, but standing there knowing how many lives were lost on just that one day, and knowing what they were fighting to protect, made me more proud than ever to be American. That might sound really cheesy, but after living here for the last 7 years and hearing so many anti-American remarks, it felt good to be standing in a place where so many American soldiers had made a positive difference and where gratitude was felt for their sacrifices.
After leaving Omaha, we left for the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. This was a very impressive place, to say the least. There is more of a 'victorious' feel to the cemetery, compared to the German cemetery that we saw on our last day. I was surprised at just how many 'Unknown but to God' markers there were...it's sad to think of so many soldiers that were never identified.
The cemetery was packed, and we stayed about an hour or so before heading to Gold Beach, which is one of two that was taken by the British, I think. Either them or the Canadians...I can't remember! We only walked around for about 30 minutes before it started raining a bit, so we headed on to eat dinner. We drove to Bayeux, where we walked around a bit, looked at its cathedral, and then found a place to eat. Bayeux is a city that was hit hard during the war, but again, it's hard to imagine when you see everything completely rebuilt and beautiful.
We got back home around 10 pm, and stayed up a bit to talk to our hosts, who were really cool and brought out wine and snacks. They told us about how the town just 3 km from us, Periers, was totally destroyed in the war. It wasn't until after I watched 'Private Ryan' that I saw that there is a sign pointing to Periers in the movie...I felt like shouting, 'Hey! I was there!' when I saw in on the screen. I know...I can be retarded.
The next day we drove 1 1/2 hrs to Mont St. Michel, which is a really famous abbey that was built on this piece of land that gets separated from the inland when the tides come in. There's this little village there with some hotels, stores, and restaurants, all within the walls. It was very cool, but extremely packed!! I felt like we were all cattle being herded up and up towards the abbey...it was slightly annoying, but it's definitely somewhere to visit at least once. When the tides come in, they must be taller than 8 ft., judging by the marks around the base of the walls. So, that means that you better be moving your car! A funny thing happened as we were walking back to the car...Arnaud thought it would be simple to cross this little flowing patch of water. Well, he's like over 6 ft. tall, so it's super easy for him. Mira, his wife, is shorter than me, and she made it. And Fred, who is also shorter than me, made it. But when I go to jump, I decided to lean forward more so I wouldn't fall backwards into the water. Well, I overcompensated for that, and fell face forward! My feet couldn't catch up with the rest of me, and as I fell I turned onto my back. I was covered in wet sand, which was awesome. It took less than 5 minutes for it to dry, and I borrowed Arnaud's ice scraper to scrape off the dry sand stuck to my clothes. We got a ton of funny pictures of that, but I just put 2 or so in my album:)
We bought so many cool things, all of which were made in the region. I bought some caramels that are made with the famous butter from that region, and some shortbread cookies that are also made with this butter. And I thought I'd be cool and buy a 'mariniere' , which is the blue and white striped long sleeve shirt that the sailors and fisherman wear. It protects from the humidity and sea salt....since I'm always on the sea and need to worry about these nasty elements ;) Hahaha....at least it looks cool! And pretty soon I'll be living near the ocean, so you never know when it might come in handy against that mean sea salt ;) Well, it took us a whopping 4 hours to get back!!!! We got lost trying to find 'Coutance', and I swear we were passing signs for Coutance for an hour and each one said that we were almost there. Gotta love France for their very clear road signs!!! We then got pulled over by the police in this tiny, random village. They made Arnaud take a breathalyzer test, and it was funny because Arnaud was so worried about the one apple cider he drank 4 hours before that! But they were stopping almost everyone on the road, so it wasn't because he was swerving or anything...but they were at least nice and pointed us in the right direction to Coutance :) Finally..FINALLY...we arrived to The Old Farm. It was 12.30 am and our hosts were genuinely worried about us, which was sweet of them. We sat down to chat a bit, but I was struggling to stay awake and we had to get up for another long day. So, I think everyone was in bed by 1.30 am.
WOW....this is turning out to be really long! There was just so much that we saw, it's impossible to make this that much shorter.
Well, our last day....we got up early and headed out to La Cambe where the German cemetery was located. I have to say, the German cemetery was very somber and powerful. I felt the sadness, and even the shame that the Germans felt later after the war ended. The cemetery was beautiful, and had rows of 5 grey crosses scattered everywhere. There are 21,000 German soldiers buried there, and most markers had 2, sometimes up to 4, soldiers in each. After walking around for awhile, we went to the museum. I really liked what they did here....the theme was not as focused on the WW II atrocities, but more on the death and destruction caused by all wars. There were pictures, statistics and quotes from many wars that took place after 1945, and it was really interesting to read that since 1945, 40 million people have died from war. I didn't expect to like this site as much, or more, than any of the others, but I am really glad we went.
After leaving La Cambe, we headed on to Juno Beach to have a picnic. It was really nice...there were some people there, but not many, so it was was very 'tranquille'. I think Juno was one of the British beaches.... Then we headed to the last beach, Sword Beach. Mira and I did not like this place at all! It was not very pretty and was more of an industrial harbor of some sort, with people going and scraping up clams. The village was called Ouistreham, and we could've skipped it and I wouldn't have been too upset!
Afterwards, we headed on to Pegasus Bridge. This was a major bridge that needed to be secured, and they have built a replica there for tourists to see. We were there long enough to take a few pics and stretch our legs....nothing as interesting as what we had seen before.
Our last stop was Caen and, again, we did not find it too great! It felt more like Paris, with how dirty and unkempt it was. We were really disappointed with Caen, but we also didn't go to the museum, which apparently, is a must see. We just didn't have time by this point, and we were walking back to leave when we saw this little pedestrian zone with all these really cute restaurants. So, we decided to stay and eat there and we all really enjoyed it. If I ever go back, though, I will make sure to see the awesome museum. After we ate, we got back to our B&B around 10.30 pm, completely exhausted. But we stayed up a bit more to talk with our hosts, and got some more cool stories. I really recommend this B&B....sometimes you find well-located B&Bs, but the people aren't nice. This 'gite' (the word in French) is a bit in the countryside, but is very well priced and you can't beat the hospitality! For reference, their names are Julie and Neil and the name of their 'gite' is The Old Farm in La Caucharderie, near Periers. They're British, so they speak English:)
Well, we got everything packed into the car, said our goodbyes, and buckled ourselves in for our 8 hour car ride back. Then Arnaud turned the key in the ignition and.....nothing. Tried again....nothing. Waited 5 more minutes....nada. By this time, Julie and Neil came back out of the house! And we were very fortunate that Neil has a good friend, Dean, who came out and took a look at the car. After 15 minutes, he found that a very important part, located in the trunk, had become unplugged when we were loading the car. So, he plugged it back in and we were on our way! It was very stressful for Arnaud and Fred because they had to be in the office the next day, and were worried about not getting back at a decent hour. But all worked out well, and we were very grateful for Neil's help in finding someone to fix the car.
I wanted to post some more pics, but I don't thing Blogger wants me to! Oh well, hopefully you've got a good idea of what things look like from the ones I have been able to post :)
Et voila!! Like I said, it was a jam packed weekend, and so worth it! If you ever have a chance, go to Normandy and Bretagne....definitely some of the nicer regions of France :) LOL
The next day we drove 1 1/2 hrs to Mont St. Michel, which is a really famous abbey that was built on this piece of land that gets separated from the inland when the tides come in. There's this little village there with some hotels, stores, and restaurants, all within the walls. It was very cool, but extremely packed!! I felt like we were all cattle being herded up and up towards the abbey...it was slightly annoying, but it's definitely somewhere to visit at least once. When the tides come in, they must be taller than 8 ft., judging by the marks around the base of the walls. So, that means that you better be moving your car! A funny thing happened as we were walking back to the car...Arnaud thought it would be simple to cross this little flowing patch of water. Well, he's like over 6 ft. tall, so it's super easy for him. Mira, his wife, is shorter than me, and she made it. And Fred, who is also shorter than me, made it. But when I go to jump, I decided to lean forward more so I wouldn't fall backwards into the water. Well, I overcompensated for that, and fell face forward! My feet couldn't catch up with the rest of me, and as I fell I turned onto my back. I was covered in wet sand, which was awesome. It took less than 5 minutes for it to dry, and I borrowed Arnaud's ice scraper to scrape off the dry sand stuck to my clothes. We got a ton of funny pictures of that, but I just put 2 or so in my album:)
This whole area is wet sand, but is covered by about 2 meters of water when the tide comes in.
Scraping off the sand after 'the fall'
So, then we were off to Saint Malo, which is this really beautiful village inside castle walls. I absolutely loved this village...there were cobblestone streets and tons of really cute shops and restaurants. You could walk along the castle walls, which overlooked the ocean. Before going inside the walls, we were walking along the beach and I decided I wanted a picture on these rocks. Well, as I was almost there, these guys dressed in wetsuits started telling me that the tide was coming in a couple minutes and that I needed to get back. I told them I just wanted to take one little picture, and he said that I better hurry. No lie, Fred took the picture and it took us another 2 minutes to get back to Arnaud and Mira.....the tide was already separating the rocks from the beach. There were people who were in the little castle on top of the rocks who had to roll up their pants and wade across the tide, before it reached 8 ft or so....crazy how fast the water rises! You really have to be careful.... 
The only picture I could take on these rocks before the tide came in.
People wading from the rocks to the main beach when the tide starting rising.
We bought so many cool things, all of which were made in the region. I bought some caramels that are made with the famous butter from that region, and some shortbread cookies that are also made with this butter. And I thought I'd be cool and buy a 'mariniere' , which is the blue and white striped long sleeve shirt that the sailors and fisherman wear. It protects from the humidity and sea salt....since I'm always on the sea and need to worry about these nasty elements ;) Hahaha....at least it looks cool! And pretty soon I'll be living near the ocean, so you never know when it might come in handy against that mean sea salt ;) Well, it took us a whopping 4 hours to get back!!!! We got lost trying to find 'Coutance', and I swear we were passing signs for Coutance for an hour and each one said that we were almost there. Gotta love France for their very clear road signs!!! We then got pulled over by the police in this tiny, random village. They made Arnaud take a breathalyzer test, and it was funny because Arnaud was so worried about the one apple cider he drank 4 hours before that! But they were stopping almost everyone on the road, so it wasn't because he was swerving or anything...but they were at least nice and pointed us in the right direction to Coutance :) Finally..FINALLY...we arrived to The Old Farm. It was 12.30 am and our hosts were genuinely worried about us, which was sweet of them. We sat down to chat a bit, but I was struggling to stay awake and we had to get up for another long day. So, I think everyone was in bed by 1.30 am.
WOW....this is turning out to be really long! There was just so much that we saw, it's impossible to make this that much shorter.
Well, our last day....we got up early and headed out to La Cambe where the German cemetery was located. I have to say, the German cemetery was very somber and powerful. I felt the sadness, and even the shame that the Germans felt later after the war ended. The cemetery was beautiful, and had rows of 5 grey crosses scattered everywhere. There are 21,000 German soldiers buried there, and most markers had 2, sometimes up to 4, soldiers in each. After walking around for awhile, we went to the museum. I really liked what they did here....the theme was not as focused on the WW II atrocities, but more on the death and destruction caused by all wars. There were pictures, statistics and quotes from many wars that took place after 1945, and it was really interesting to read that since 1945, 40 million people have died from war. I didn't expect to like this site as much, or more, than any of the others, but I am really glad we went.
After leaving La Cambe, we headed on to Juno Beach to have a picnic. It was really nice...there were some people there, but not many, so it was was very 'tranquille'. I think Juno was one of the British beaches.... Then we headed to the last beach, Sword Beach. Mira and I did not like this place at all! It was not very pretty and was more of an industrial harbor of some sort, with people going and scraping up clams. The village was called Ouistreham, and we could've skipped it and I wouldn't have been too upset!
Afterwards, we headed on to Pegasus Bridge. This was a major bridge that needed to be secured, and they have built a replica there for tourists to see. We were there long enough to take a few pics and stretch our legs....nothing as interesting as what we had seen before.
Our last stop was Caen and, again, we did not find it too great! It felt more like Paris, with how dirty and unkempt it was. We were really disappointed with Caen, but we also didn't go to the museum, which apparently, is a must see. We just didn't have time by this point, and we were walking back to leave when we saw this little pedestrian zone with all these really cute restaurants. So, we decided to stay and eat there and we all really enjoyed it. If I ever go back, though, I will make sure to see the awesome museum. After we ate, we got back to our B&B around 10.30 pm, completely exhausted. But we stayed up a bit more to talk with our hosts, and got some more cool stories. I really recommend this B&B....sometimes you find well-located B&Bs, but the people aren't nice. This 'gite' (the word in French) is a bit in the countryside, but is very well priced and you can't beat the hospitality! For reference, their names are Julie and Neil and the name of their 'gite' is The Old Farm in La Caucharderie, near Periers. They're British, so they speak English:)
Well, we got everything packed into the car, said our goodbyes, and buckled ourselves in for our 8 hour car ride back. Then Arnaud turned the key in the ignition and.....nothing. Tried again....nothing. Waited 5 more minutes....nada. By this time, Julie and Neil came back out of the house! And we were very fortunate that Neil has a good friend, Dean, who came out and took a look at the car. After 15 minutes, he found that a very important part, located in the trunk, had become unplugged when we were loading the car. So, he plugged it back in and we were on our way! It was very stressful for Arnaud and Fred because they had to be in the office the next day, and were worried about not getting back at a decent hour. But all worked out well, and we were very grateful for Neil's help in finding someone to fix the car.
I wanted to post some more pics, but I don't thing Blogger wants me to! Oh well, hopefully you've got a good idea of what things look like from the ones I have been able to post :)
Et voila!! Like I said, it was a jam packed weekend, and so worth it! If you ever have a chance, go to Normandy and Bretagne....definitely some of the nicer regions of France :) LOL
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