Normandy

My parents came for a visit at the end of May. We spent a lot of time here around the house, just hanging out as family. Our major trip that we planned was to go to Normandy, France, for Memorial Day weekend. Nick and I had not been there yet, and wanted to go, and figured Memorial Day was a perfect time to go, especially since my Dad, a military history buff, would be able to come as well. He had never been there, and has numerous friends who fought and stormed the beaches.


I found a great B&B near St Lo, called Arts in the Garden. It was amazing driving on one lane roads through the Norman countryside to find this place. We were all very thankful that our GPS knew the roads, even though the teeny town the B&B was in was not in the GPS's list of cities. We found it after driving in a circle for about 20 minutes. The drive was worth it, as the countryside is GORGEOUS, with quaint little stone barns and outbuildings everywhere. I could live there, no problem. (Plus you'd get baguettes and French pastries ALL THE TIME!) The owners of the B&B, Krishna and Brian were lovely hosts. The B&B features a well-groomed garden, with lots of Japanese maples. We opted to have dinner at the B&B, cooked by Krishna, for two nights, and it was well worth it. So relaxing, just sitting out in the garden with our apertifs, Stella playing in the grass, Ezra hanging out with Gammy and Papa, ahhh... Their website is www.artsinthegarden.net. Great place, highly recommended. I found out while we were there that they had just opened this summer, and had only been up and running for 3 weeks! I had no idea, since the website and correspondence with them was so professional. It was fantastic.


The first day we were there (Stella's birthday) we went to Mont St. Michel, on the coast. Apparently it's the 2nd most touristed site in France after Paris. It's amazing. It's an island (or was, until they built a peninsula out to it so it can be accessed all year round) out on the bay that is a church. There are monks and nuns who live there and run the place, in addition to some restaurants, hotels, and touristy shops. The church itself is incredible, and it boggles my mind how they built it. At one point it was used as a prison. They do still have mass there, and we watched as they prepared, and listened as they rang the bell and played the organ a bit. The view from the top is really cool, because the bay and the land up to it is completely flat. It was very cloudy and rainy (pouring by the time we left!), so you couldn't see really far, but it was still beautiful. By the time it started raining heavily, we were ready to go, so headed back to the B&B for some rest. There's nothing like a nice nap when it's pouring rain!


We then had raclette for Stella's birthday dinner. Krishna decorated (Stella helped!) the living room for the celebration while we ate apertifs. She then brought out the dinner as Stella opened presents. She loved all the clothes from Grandma Sue and Gammy, and immediately wanted to play with her new toys. We had a lovely dinner, then celebrated with a delicious French cake. I think it was white chocolate with white chocolate mousse and raspberry or strawberry filling. De-ca-dent!



Sunday was the day the American cemetery at the DDay beaches had Memorial Day events, so we headed there to participate. There were representatives from both the American and French military, and government officials as well. The cemetery itself is beautiful, and we were amazed at the precision of the grave layout. At any angle the crossed are perfectly aligned. The cemetery is located just off Omaha beach, so we walked down to the beach and spent some time down there. Our friends were there with us at the same time, so their girls played with Stella in the sand, and Nick and my Dad picked up a couple of rocks as souvenirs. Afterwards, we drove up the beach a little ways to visit Pont Du Hoc. This was my favorite place, as the terrain is in incredible shape after 50 years. The bomb blasted holes are still in the ground, ruins of bunkers and gunner spots, etc. AND, you get to walk around in it all, no barricades. The only place you couldn't go, of course, was out on the cliffs. This was amazing to see, to know that a lot of men came up, scaled the cliffs, then went fighting the Germans, is incredible. It's great to see history up close and be able to touch it. The weather was gorgeous, too, so it was wonderful to be outside and see these places in the sunshine.





After the beaches, our friends were going to see the Bayeux Tapestry, which I had never heard of. It tells the story of William the Conqueror in embroidered pictures. Nick and my dad opted to go to a "tap" of their own and had a beer while my Mom and I went to see it. It was quite amazing--70 meters in length, and almost 1000 years old. The condition was amazing considering how old it is, and how many times it had been moved in its lifetime.

Then, we went out for dinner with our friends to celebrate Julie's birthday. Julie is a great friend, their family is wonderful. She was diagnosed with breast cancer this past fall, underwent and masectomy and chemo, and is now cancer-free, to my knowledge. I knit her a bunch of hats when her hair fell out, and now she's got about 1.5 inches of hair and it came back curly! We are so thankful to know them, and thankful that God has blessed her with good health, not to mention her husband and girls with her presence.

Monday, we drove home, with a short trip into Paris. The autobahn goes about 10 km north, so we decided to go right through downtown instead, so my parents could see the Eifel tower and Notre Dame. I couldn't drive so close by, and not stop! While they looked at Notre Dame, Stella and I went and picked up some yummy pastries for the trip home. Well worth it!



The next day my Aunt Linda and Uncle Steve arrived. My Aunt just took a job with a Dutch company, and they were there getting oriented to the company and wined and dined, as well. It was great to have them here for a visit! We walked down to the Bike-In for some brats one evening, went shopping downtown, and had a lovely dinner at their hotel. We hope they get to come visit again soon!