Normandy

Tuesday, October 9th was a road trip day.  We took a 7:00 am train to a town called Caen to visit the Caen War Memorial and take a tour of the D Day beaches.

Jay and I both enjoy history and were really interested in taking this little side trip. It was so interesting to go through the museum - which was really well done although we didn't have quite as much time as we wanted to really look at all the exhibits since we were on a schedule and with a tour group. We went through the museum in the morning, had lunch at the restaurant in the museum and then spent the afternoon driving to five different spots on the Normandy coast to see first hand the area where the D Day invasion occurred.

The Memorial de Caen:

The view of the Normandy coast from inside a German bunker:

 Pont du Hoc, where Rangers landed on June 6, 1944. 

 The view towards Omaha Beach from Pont du Hoc - as you can see, it was another drizzly day:

 

Omaha Beach:

 The American Cemetary on the Normandy coast:

 

Our tour guide, Sandrine, was wonderful.  She knew so much about the landings and history of the area.  The town of Caen was mostly destroyed during the battle for the Normandy cost in 1944 and it is amazing to see how it was rebuilt and restored over the years.  We were happy to have made the effort to see such an important part of the world's history.

 

We took a 7 pm train back to Paris and were back at our hotel by 10 pm.  We ate dinner at the train station in Caen and the food was surprisingly good.  I think every town in France must have a number of bakeries because everywhere we went the bread and pastries were just wonderful and so fresh - even at a random train station in northern France.

 

We had one more day trip planned for Wednesday - Versaille!  Picture the same 9 billion tourists from our day at the Louvre and that will give you an idea of Versaille.   The grounds made it worth the effort, however.