Storm the beaches !

On the night of Thursday, April 1st, Randi and I took on the monumental task of trying to complete our journey and see every inch of France...and we almost did it. Our goal was to drive to the top of France, see the beaches of Normandy and the incredible abbey on top of Mont Saint Michel. This would prove to be our third pilgrimage site in a row, after Rocamadour and Lourdes. On Thursday night we drove for almost 5 hours and made it as far as the Hôtel Ibis in Châtellerault.

On Friday, we drove another 4 hours, directly to the the WWII Memorial - Centre for History Museum in Caen, for a reserved WWII tour that started at 2pm. It was a driving tour of the beaches. Maybe not the best planning, to be back on the road but at least I wasn't driving. Our guide Sandrine, was extremely knowledgeable about WWII and the area. She talked about the war for most of the 5 hour long tour. She took us through a couple small towns on the way to the beaches...most notably was seeing the old farm where General Montgomery temporarily headquartered in Cully and seeing an old 13th century hotel in Crepon (Ferme de la Ranconniere) that looked like it would have been an incredible place to stay and very close to the beaches. We spent an hour at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer. It's located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach where so many Americans died. We walked through the cemetery and saw grave markers for Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., son of President Theodore Roosevelt and two of the Niland brothers, who the movie 'Saving Private Ryan' was based on. It was incredibly moving, to see all those markers, in this beautifully serene setting, while thinking what it must have been like there back then. It started to rain as we made it to the beaches and it seemed appropriate for the mood. What a sacrifice all these people made for the world as we know it. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many, to so few."
- Prime Minister Winston Churchill

That night we stayed at the Le Lion d'or hotel in Bayeux. We had no plans for dinner but we happened upon a French restaurant with a cute sign and a wonderful aroma coming from the kitchen. It was a classic 6 course French experience...and it was very good. It started with a tiny crème brûlée foie gras combo thing, that everyone was served. Who knows what it really was but it was wonderful. As it turned out the entire meal will live in infamy.

On Saturday, April 3rd we decided to sleep in a little late, then see the town of Bayeux. What a wonderful little town. It turned out to be the best stop on this long weekend. First we saw their cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux), which we couldn't believe it but it probably belongs in our 'top 10 churches' list we've been talking about, since we've been in France. It was consecrated in 1077. It was here that William, Duke of Normandy and King of England forced Harold Godwinson to take the oath, the breaking of which led to the Norman conquest of England. This was a monumental pivotal event in history. We would see a film later in the day, at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum, which suggested that had William not been motivated to forcibly take the crown, England could have been speaking French today. Blimey!! The 230 foot long tapestry shown there, whose earliest known written reference is from 1476, is thought to maybe be as old as the 11th century...possibly commissioned for the cathedral's dedication. It depicts events related to the Norman conquest of England. It was all very interesting and the town of Bayeux has retained all it's charm of the past, having been spared of WWII destruction because a priest at the time, who convinced the Allied Forces not to bomb the town, as there were no Germans there.

We had a short car ride that day, just 1 1/2 hrs, to Mont St. Michel. What an incredible site. It can be seen for miles. We went directly to the Abbey that afternoon and climbed up through the town and into the Abbey in a driving rain at times...note Randi's inverted umbrella and electric hairdo in the picture. It's a good one :) We enjoyed touring the Abbey and the one-street town. We stopped in a small bar and had an aperitif before leaving. We stayed at the basic Hôtel Vert that night. We went out for dinner across the street and both had mussels. That night I became terribly ill with food poisoning. It wasn't good. I tried to think of it as a start of a healthy cleansing process.

On Sunday we had to keep moving back towards Toulouse and I drove for 4 hours to La Rochelle. I did this on little sleep and all the while mumbling and moaning. It wasn't pretty but we got to our next stop without incident or embarrassment of any kind. We stayed at Hôtel Les Brises, in a room with a balcony right on the water. It was a nice place for me to recover a little...and for us both to listen to the ocean from our room.

On Monday we stopped in Bordeaux to take a look around. We found they had an open market in the main square which was interesting but it really felt like the Great French Experiment was coming to an end. I think we both just wanted to get back to Toulouse and start making some of the final preparations before going home home.