Well to continue my travels in France, what better place to go than the beautiful western side to Normandy! During the weekend I was surrounded by crêpes, caramel, and a little bit of la plage (the beach!). I didn’t use the weekend to go swimming though, I was busy learning some important WWII history, and seeing a beautiful abbey, that you may have seen in pictures of france. Off we go…
Ashleigh and I changed our train schedule the day before we took off, and we decided to take 2 TGV trains without reservations (a big no no). However, on our trip to Paris, the conductor looked out our eurail passes and passed us by, we decided it was because we were cute, pick your own reason. On the following train, it was so packed, they never checked. We switched back and forth between a bucket seat in a hallway and a comfortable seat
next to French kids learning English, oh well, it was free. After arriving in a town outside of Ponterson, we took a bus to Mont Saint Michel. You will be aghast when this “island” comes into view. When the tide is out you can walk along the sand to the island. They tell you to be sure to go with a guide, since there is quick sand around. Also, Victor Hugo is quoted saying, the tide comes “as swiftly as a galloping horse.” This is not suprising, as the tide was already coming in during our short stay on the island. We walked around the cute little town, full of shops of things to buy, and then we went up to the abbey. The structure was rebuilt over the centuries, making itself bigger and better. There was even a small garden in the middle of the structure. The columns were large, apparently they were also needed to support the tons of weight pounding down on them. The abbey was built to reach high into the heavens, for the monks living there to be closer to God in all ways. They chose the island to be far away from humanity, apparentely they were hermibts. A causeway was built to connect the island to the town of Pontorson in the middle 1800s. By 2012, there will be damn constructed, so that the Mont St. Michel will once again be a true island, and you will no longer be able to walk on the sand to reach the island. It’s kind of sad, because I think it’s wonderful the way it is.
We left the island that night, and took a train to Rennes where we were staying, and did a little shopping. Ashleigh found some cute pants, and I bought a Calvin & Hobbes book in French which is on my level. So know I’m reading comics in French…. oh gee.
The next morning we were off to Bayeaux to see the D-Day sites, yes even I can appreciate a little war history. Our tour included (in the following order) A German cementary, Pont du Hoc, Omaha Beach, a museum, and an American cemetery. Our tour guide was really nice, and sometimes his English was a little tricky. He spoke great English, but he pronounced things with French vowels, leaving Ashleigh and I bewildered. We were part of an eight person tour, with the other 6 people being a family with 4 small kids. It was fun. You know.. this summer I’ve been noticing how cute European kids are, but I decided this weekend that I think they’re really cute because you can’t understand what they’re saying when they speak other languages. Kidding…kidding…
I’m not a WWII expert, so I’m not going to explain alot, just a few things I felt while on the tour. First, it’s no secret who the enemy was, and the many, many German bodies left in France had to be buried somewheres. It seems such a shame they weren’t moved, being it wasn’t that far away, but here they remain. Out of the 21,000 souls in the German cemetery, only about 2,000 have proper graves, the remaining thousands were left unidentified, and all the unclaimed dogtags/their owners are buried in a mound in the middle. There was a monument to the fallen, but it wasn’t as moving as the one in the American cemetery. There, the normal white crosses and Star of David’s mark each grave, even the unknown ones. Many more people were there walking around, and it was overlooking the ocean. The atmosphere was definitely different. Just…different.
German cemetary
American Cemetery
Pont du Hoc was where the Americans surprise attacked the Germans. When their ships came in, they climbed up the huge cliffs and bombed the German bunkers. The bunkers remain, along with metal, and barbed wire. There are also holes left, 2 types. One type, is a huge round hole that caves in, left from shells dropped from the sky, the other are flatter, less deep holes left from the navy ships’ shells.
My final pictures are from Omaha beach. Of course… it doesn’t really look like a battlefield anymore. But the pictures we were shown on the tour were of make shift ports, ships lining the beach, helicopters and blimps flying over, and soldiers laying dead on the sand. It was horrific and incredible all at the same time. Before this trip, I asked Ashleigh if we would need a swim suit, and we decided that where we were going, surely there wouldn’t be people just frolicking about… the funny thing is, there were. Tons of people were on the huge beach probably celebrating their Bastille weekend. The beach is perfect for this, because when the tide is out, the beach is really quite huge. The mother in our tour group commented to our tour guide, “how would the soldiers that fought here feel if they came back and saw people playing,” and perfectly he said, “I’m sure they would have been proud, because this is what they were fighting for… freedom.”
and yes my shoes got a little wet while taking this picture.
