Road Trippin' Around Gorgeous Normandy

Of course most of our trip was focused on visiting famous WWII places.  Although, we found a couple places we wanted to visit in between the history places.   Now, I remind you that this post is not in chronological order as it is just about the non-WWII places we visited.  For the WWII post, click here!

On Sunday morning, we headed to Mont Saint-Michel, which is an island in France.  When driving here, you began to see the island when we were still 15 minutes away.  The closer you got, the more of a "Wow" factor you got!  This island is basically built on top of itself...does that make sense?  It is so tall, and everything is just crammed on this small island.  The strangest part about it is that nothing else is around it.  There are just open fields and a few little French houses.  Part of the reason for that is the high tide comes up so far (around the island) that not much else can be around it or it would be ruined. 

On the road to the island.

We had to walk about 2 miles from our car just to get to the island.  There were TONS of people there, as I read online that over 3 million people visit a year.  To put that in perspective, the Eiffel Tower has 6.9 million visitors a year.  Pretty impressive tourist area in such a small amount of space.  Once we got into the city, there were just people everywhere.  We immediately knew we should have came at least an hour, if not two hours earlier.  The island was filled with small shops and restaurants.

 This is the walk to the island.  Just a bit further is where the water comes up to during high tide (or so we thought).

 Gorgeous, right?

The narrow streets filled with people!

In the past, it was able to stay untouched during The Hundred Years War because of the natural high tide defense.  Later it became a prison, but now it is most known for its beautiful abbey located at the very top of the island.  Unfortunately, the lines were super long so we were unable to visit the abbey without staying there for hours waiting in line.  We had too much on the agenda for the day to wait in line for a long amount of time.

 Close up of the abbey

This picture makes me laugh because we took about 6 selfies before this.  A man walked up to us and asked if he could take our picture for us. We must have looked like we were struggling. 

On Monday, we woke up really early to hit the road to head to the city of Eretat.  We were heading about an hour and a half to Normandy's White Cliffs.  We were both secretly crossing our fingers that we don't strike out again with the cliffs like we did just a couple days prior.  To our surprise, we had yet another moment of awe, as this was absolutely stunning!  The tide was fairly low at the time, so we went and walked down by the rocky beach.  Then we started making our way to the arches, stepping over rocks of all shapes and sizes as well as mini-pools of water in between the large stationary rocks.

 The view when we first walked down to the beach upon arrival

 The little pools of water. So pretty. I was surprised to not see any fish or creatures though.

We climbed numerous ladders, went through a mini cave tunnel, and made our way to the arch up close.  It was such an adventure climbing the ladders, guessing where we were going to end up in the end.  The tunnel freaked me out for a bit, as it was dark.  But luckily it was short and just a way to get to the other side of the beach.  There was one spot with a ladder that was resting on the side of the cliffs.  You looked up to see a small path that was basically going vertical up to the Eretat Cliff area where you could walk on top of the cliffs.  It is the only way out if high tide comes...ahhhhh! So scary!

 Small cave area.  The ladder we climbed to reach the tunnel.

 Inside the cave

 The famous arch

Words cannot describe how beautiful this area was, and it made our experience at the Cliffs of Moher run for its money.  It was interesting to see the warning signs around our walk around the beach, as when high tide arrives you could be "stranded" in one of the areas for up to 4 hours.  The tide comes up so far that all the area we walked in would be under water.  By the time we left (about an hour later) the tide was already starting to rise. We wished we could have followed the paths on top of the cliffs (you can get to them in another spot...not the scary ladder above).  I could have spent more time in this adorable city, and on the beach.  The weather was still pretty cold, as you can tell we have our winter jackets on.  But definitely one of the mini-trips I'll remember for a long time.

 One of my favorite pictures

 So much green goo!  We had to be careful walking along the edge (you can see the hand rail behind me) as it was so slippery!

 The ladder leading up to the top of cliffs

 The entrance to the cave tunnel

The safety sign

This pretty much sums up our time in Normandy, France.  We had an amazing time, and I know it was one of our favorites.


On to the next adventure...

Experiencing D-Day

After our mini-trip to the White Cliffs of Dover, we headed back on the road and on the chunnel to get to France.  We had been in the chunnel before over Christmas when heading to Belgium.  Our ride went smoothly, and it was fun riding it for a second time.  I read (Greg, I'm on the last one of those 3 books) while Jeff played on the tablet for the quick 20 minute ride.  After getting off, we were on our way to the region of Normandy, France.  Our ride was fantastic, and we loved the roads of France.  Not only was it nice to be driving on the right side of the road, but the roads were smoother and open like they are in the states.  Although we didn't see much on the ride there because it was dark, the ride home was gorgeous as the French countryside is amazing.

Just a little heads up, normally my blog posts are organized chronologically, but this post is going to be all about our experience with our World War II sites we visited.  

We woke up early on Saturday to head to Omaha Beach, which was one of the five famous beaches of D-Day (June 6, 1944) when the allied troops invaded France to fight the Germans during WWII.  Many say this is the most famous beach, as the most people died here. The other beaches were Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword.  The United States was in charge of coming up with code names for the beaches they were invading.  They named them Omaha and Utah.  The British were in charge of naming the other three: Juno, Sword, and Gold.  Both allies were supposed to follow protocol by randomly naming the beaches from code books.  The British followed that rule, while the United States picked their two names because they like them.  Jeff thought this was comical, as it sums up the personalities of the Americans and British perfectly.

 The high tide.  It was higher in some parts of the beach.

 I think he read every single one of these we came across on the trip.

 A German gun position at Omaha Beach

 So many American Flags up around the area

The tide was high when arriving to Omaha Beach.  We weren't able to walk along it for too long, as the water came up to the rocks that lined the beach.  We walked along on a sidewalk nearby, then made our way through a Natural Reserve area filled with wildlife.  I took a few pictures of a couple cute snails I found...but I'll save the space on this post with just war pictures!

After walking beach side for an hour and a half, we made it to the Normandy American Cemetery.  The land is on French soil (many think it becomes American soil), but the land was given to the Americans for free and is run by Americans as well.  We walked around the area, in silence, as it was so mind boggling to see all of the graves (over 9,000).  The families had the ultimate decision whether they wanted their loved one to be buried in the cemetery or sent home to be buried there.  There was also a special area called the Garden of the Missing, of those that died, but their bodies were never recovered (~1,500).  On the wall, 15 of the names had special markers next to them to symbolize that the body was found at a later date (One in 2009).  It is a closed cemetery, so none of the 15 were not laid to rest on the grounds.  We really enjoyed our time here, and how moving it was to just walk through reading names, ranks, and death date (no birth date).  The youngest person buried there was 17 and the oldest was in his 60's (I can't remember the actual age).  There are 33 pairs of brothers buried next to one another and sets of father/sons as well.  We learned so many facts, especially during our free tour, that I could go on and on.

 The Garden of the Missing

 The Memorial

 There are over 150 unknown soldiers buried here.  Many wonder if some buried match those names in the Garden of the Missing

 1 of 2 American flags that fly high above the graves.  All the graves face west, so they can face "home".

 The pictures do not do the size of this place justice.  There are almost 150 Stars of David scattered amongst the crosses.

 The American Cemetery overlooks Omaha Beach

 This was on the ceiling of the chapel.  I really liked it, as it shows the process of the soldier going to war, and then off to Heaven.

 Two Roosevelt brothers buried next to one another.  Quentin was the only person buried here that did not die in WWII, as he died in WWI but was relocated to be buried next to his brother, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., who is one of three to earn gold lettering as he earned the Medal of Honor .

We headed to Pointe du Huc, which we thought was just a monument, but it was so much more.  On our way to the cliff side, there were tons of posts with information.  After reading the stands, we made our way to an area filled with bomb craters.  The pictures do not do the depth justice, as I needed to be a lot higher to take the picture of Jeff below.  If you're interested more in these, search for Pointe du Huc aerial views...amazing!  There were also German pillboxes, that you could explore.  They were incredible and a few were still in a good shape, but the others were unfinished before the bombing began.  It was hard to imagine the allies climbing up the side of the cliffs to get to the Germans.

 In one of the bomb craters

 Beautiful views from the Pointe du Huc.

This is a little better of a view to show the cliffs that the soldiers had to climb up

 One of the surviving German pillboxes

View from the pillbox.  The cliff is where the grass starts. So scary!

We went back to Omaha beach afterwards, and we were in awe of how far the tide went back (500-700 yards). It was incredible to see the difference in the time of day.  We were actually able to walk the beach for a while and think about the arrival of the troops. 

The tide was low at this point.  It was freezing out, but Jeff didn't want his shoes to get wet.

The next day we continued our D-Day Experience by visiting Utah Beach.  This was one of the riskier invasions as it was only planned 2 months ahead of the attack.  There were only 4 outlets for troops to get through, but they successfully did through bombing, paratroopers, and soldiers on boats.  It proved to be one of the most successful invasions, and helped the troops get to Cherbourg which was a deep water port.  Overcoming this area would make it easier for the allied troops to bring in supplies.  After walking the beach for a bit, we made it to the Utah Beach Museum.  It was nicely done, as there was a movie about D-Day at Utah Beach, loads of information, and many of the vehicles and artifacts used during the war.

 Beautiful beach

So many artifacts to read through. My favorite was reading the letters to/from soldiers and their loved ones.  They were both comical and sweet.

I, for one, am not really a war or history buff...but this was an incredible trip.  I learned a lot, and I know Jeff enjoyed his time as well.  We could have easily spent another two days in the Normandy area finding more history and war spots, as there were so many.  

On to the next adventure...

Rain or Shine...Paris in 36 Hours

Tuesday morning, my mom, dad, and I (Jeff stayed home and worked) grabbed some lunch and hopped on a train to London.  We got to London and then jumped on the Eurostar and traveled to Paris.  We were able to go in the Chunnel (a tunnel going under the Channel) to get to Paris within 3 hours.  It was a really enjoyable ride and went very quickly.  We got into Paris, walked to our hotel, and got ready to go hit the town.

We went on a fairly lengthy walk to see the Eiffel Tower at night.  We stopped and ate a great dinner where we tried the local pints, wines, and crepes.  We got to the Eiffel Tower, and I really enjoyed seeing my parents reaction to how large and beautiful the tower is, especially at night.  We were able to get a few photos, watch the light show that happens every hour for a few hours, and then walk back to the hotel.  We had a late night, and didn't get back until around 1:00. We were tired, sore, and ready for bed.

Despite our lack of sleep, we got up early to head straight to the Louve.  Although the weather was not cooperating at all.  After being completely soaked, we hopped on the packed metro to ride to the Louve. Funny story, because the metro was so packed, I got on and the doors closed...my parents didn't make it on with me.  Luckily, we communicated our next stop well, and they just met me there on the next available metro.  We finally made it to the Louve, hopped in line for a few minutes and explored the museum.  We were able to see the majority of the museum, and even places I had not been when Jeff and I went there in May.  I think we all enjoyed the museum, and I was amazed at how much more packed it was in August than in May.  We went and grabbed a quiet lunch and then headed to the Love Lock Bridge in hopes to find Jeff and I's lock.  You may or may not have heard, but in June part of the Love Lock Bridge broke and fell into the river.  They took extreme caution as they boarded the majority of the bridge up.  Needless to say, we did not find Jeff and I's lock.  After the bridge, we headed to the Eiffel Tower.  We stood in line for quite a while, but it was nice to just stand in line and talk. The three of us traveled to the top level and back down again.

 All the buildings surrounding the pyramid are part of the museum. It is huge!

 Mom & Dad

Some of my favorite pieces from the Louve.  

 

Pretty sad to see all the beautiful locks covered up. 

 Hold on tight...we're up on the highest level of the Eiffel Tower!

Beautiful city! 

After a few more pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe, which my dad taught me that it was the final location of the Tour de France.  That made the arch much more memorable than the first time we saw it.  The arch was at the top of the street of some great (and expensive) shopping. My mom and I went into a few stores to look around, dream about buying something, and then leave.  Not very eventful, right? We stopped by a bakery to grab a few chocolate macaroons, and to bring a few home to Jeff.  We slowly finished our day by finding an even fancier shopping street.  You know the guards at the doors, guarding the five items they have on display to sell.  On our walk towards our hotel we found a spot for dinner.  We found a fantastic place and definitely enjoyed one another's company.  We sat for a long time talking about our day's adventures.  We made it back to the hotel to rest up for another day of traveling...back to England.

Great shot of the Eiffel Tower in the background. One of the best spots to take a picture with it. 

We were able to see a lot in our short amount of time in Paris, although there are some things we didn't have time for. I'm glad my parents were able to experience a city that did not speak our same language.  They did a great job adjusting to that and the culture.  We got back at a reasonable time on Thursday, and were able to eat dinner with Jeff to tell him all our stories.

Onto the next adventure...