Spring Break 2009 and the Beaches of Normandy

Spring break 2009 started out with a round of planes, trains and automobiles. Andy and I caught a bus to the airport Friday, April 3 in the afternoon. We flew into the Beauvais airport in France and took a bus to the city. We ended up landing during rush hour so the bus ride was a little taxing, but it was nice to see some of the French countryside. When we got to the city we grabbed the metro to our hostel in the Latin Quarter. The first night we were tired from traveling so we grabbed dinner near the hostel. I got a croque monsieur, which I had learned about in French class so it was awesome to actually order one, and in French nonetheless! My French actually came back to me surprisingly well, which was good because less people than I thought are proficient in English -- at least the older generation is.

The next morning we woke up early and caught a train to Bayeux, Normandy. When we got there we were accosted by a guy from a bus tour company. He showed us all the places the tour would go featured around the events of D-Day. It was a good price so we put down a deposit for that. We then decided to grab some lunch in the town -- after the bus tour guy, who spoke very fast broken English, told us to "make sure be back at one. Back at one, OK?" about a dozen or so times. The town was really nice so we walked around that for a bit snapping pictures and grabbed crepes in a little restaurant for lunch. Mine had syrup, apples and ice cream on it. Delicious.

Then we got back to the tour station (before one) and after waiting for the other passengers to finish their lunch (guess they didn't get the one o'clock memo) we set out on the bus for the beaches. Our tour guide was named Samuel and has lived in Bayeux his whole life. He was very nice and spoke English really well. And the tour took us everywhere. We went to a museum that told the history of the battle of Normandy, we saw the makeshift dock the Americans built in America and tugged across the sea to Normandy. We stopped at Omaha beach where the American troops disembarked. The tour also took us to the cliffs that the 2nd Battalion American Rangers had to climb. One of the most amazing parts was the tops of those cliffs because the holes where bombs had fallen and the bunkers were all still there. It was fascinating to see. The holes the bombs left were huge!





We also went to The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. It was a perfect, beautiful and sunny day but the cemetery was very sobering. But also beautiful itself. It was very well kept and nicely laid out. A long path led down the middle with monuments to the American soldiers on each side. Along the path on both sides was a grassy area covered with thousands of white crosses and stars of David. The more than 10,500 crosses and stars are the graves and representations of those who lost their lives in battle in Europe during WWII. Most of the graves had the names and states of the soldiers, but many were dedicated to the unknown soldiers.

It was an amazing place to visit and a very powerful place to see.