France Part 2

"There's Paris and then there's the rest of France" - Rick Steves'.  After spending the first of our trip in Paris we headed off to see "the rest of France".  Upon picking up our car in Caen we made a stop at the WWII memorial museum. It was a fascinating museum starting with the time period a little before WWII and going all the way through the cold war.  By this time I was already a little tired of the museum scene but I still enjoyed it and did my best to soak up some information. Once we finished the museum we continued driving to Bayeaux which is a cute little town close to all the D-Day sights.

The next morning we left Bayeaux and headed to the abbey of Mont St. Michel. This abbey is on a rock island surrounded by water with some of the highest tide changes in the world.  When the tide is out you can walk around it but when the tide comes in there is only water.  We arrived when the tide was out so we decided to be adventurous and walk a little ways around the outside. Now, this area is also known for quick sand so we were careful to only walk where others had walked before us. Looking at the island itself with the small town and abbey is stunning.

Since it is basically a rock island there are a ton of steps and very cobble stoned streets so I decided to tough it out and spend the whole time there with Jake in the carrier. I just kept telling myself it was my work-out for the day.

Basically everything about Mont St. Michel is beautiful.

Micah and I decided we wanted to see Mont St. Michel at night but probably couldn't kill that much time just hanging out there so we took a quick drive to parts of Brittany.  There was a pretty look at point that we stopped at and took a brief hike and then headed back.

Although we were able to see Mont St Michel at night, we weren't able to get as close as we wanted to get a good picture without repaying.  So we parked on the road and did our best.

For our second morning in Bayeaux we did and half day D-day tour with Overlord tours. Our first stop was at a place where there were old German bunkers with the guns still in place. It is called the Batteries of Longues-sur-mer.

Then we headed on to Omaha beach. It was hard to imagine the horrors our service men experienced that day on that beach. I kept having flashes of "Saving Private Ryan" in my head.

After Omaha beach we went to the American military cemetery. It is such a humbling experience to walk through the graves of all those who died to defend freedom. Micah and I even found the graves of brothers from Oklahoma.

Our last stop was Pointe du hoc. This is where the army rangers climbed up some crazy cliffs to take over the area. This area was also heavily bombed so it had craters everywhere like the surface of the moon.  The cliffs these guys climbed were insanely steep and rough. 

When our tour was over we regrouped, ate some lunch and headed on our own to do some more D-day sights. First we headed to Utah beach and did the Utah landing museum. This museum was more to my liking with short and to the point presentation and facts that I found interesting. Micah and I decided we could tell it was done by Americans because it appealed to us more. After the museum we took a brief walk on Utah beach.

Besides Utah beach we made a couple more stops with D-day significance including the town of St. mere Eglysee, Dead Mans Corner, and the artificial harbor.

Our hotel in Bayeaux was in the center of town, quaint and had a great restaurant. We ended up eating most of our meals out on their terrace. They also had the BEST crepes which we ordered several times. I was actually surprised with how much I enjoyed French food. I don't think I had a meal I did not like and I love gallettes (savory crepes). I ate several ham, cheese, sausage, sour cream gallettes.

On our last day to actually be in France we started driving our way back to Paris with scenic stops along our route. First we stopped in the cute harbor town of Honfleur. This town was the quintessential French town with the sidewalk cafes and colorful umbrellas. We didn't have anything we wanted to actually do in the town besides see it so we walked around, took pictures, and had an excellent water front lunch.

The final stop we had on our list was in a beach town called Etretat. This area has some of the infamous white cliffs in paintings and such of France. It was also a very popular place to be so we had to fight for a parking spot but once we found one we suited up and started hiking.  The hike was actually relatively short (compared to Petra) but offered some great views of the cliffs, the town, and the beach.

This was our last touristy stop and now it was time to head to our airport hotel and prepare for the trip back to Saudi. Thanks for the wonderful memories France! Au revoir!