Gail Takes Europe : A Weekend in Normandy

Bonjour!

It's been a bit since I last posted, so I figured I would fill you in on my lovely weekend in Normandy! Departing early Saturday morning, I didn't really know what to expect. I knew about the famous graveyard with the iconic white crosses, and also that I had self loathing because I have never seen Saving Private Ryan... I still need to see it!! However, I didn't know too much about the history and what it would be like. After a three hour bus ride, we arrived at the D-Day Museum, dedicated to peace in Normandy. It was nestled in the French countryside, which was refreshing to see after being in the city for two weeks.

Outside of the museum was a massive statue of the famous black and white poster:

These two people actually didn't know each other... it was the end of the war and he was so thankful for the nurses & their help, that he kissed her! Aw :)

We then went in the museum where we watched a thirty minute clip of the storming of D Day, that isn't accessible to the public, which was super cool! We also walked around the massive museum and viewed artifacts from the war, videos, and timelines that were fascinating and powerful to read. I particularly found the people's clothes and belongings from the Holocaust to be the most powerful - you read about this horrific, historic event growing up, and then to witness real artifacts from it was very surreal for me. We then ventured on to the Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial. Most of the graves had names on them, but there still remains a group of unknown soldiers in which they built a memorial for. Interesting fact: Out of the 9,400 soldiers buried, 4 of them are women.

Iconic white head stones

Beautiful memorial for unknown soldiers

After the cemetery, we then traveled to Omaha Beach - the beach where the storming of D Day occurred. After viewing the video from the museum, it was hard to stand on such a serene and peaceful beach, imagining that something so dark had happened there.

When I thought it could't get any more beautiful, we went to the cliffs overlooking the beaches, where the American soldiers scaled the rocks to seek coverage from the Germans. The view was breath taking, and made you step back and appreciate life, and those that fight for our freedom.

A hole from bombs that were shot from American naval ships off shore.. they were everywhere!

Me hangin' in a hole.. kind of inappropriate but hey, it was comfortable!

We spent the night in the small town of St. Malo in Britanny. It's a tiny, old pirate town right on the coast that is protected by a massive wall - the bus had to drop us off outside of the town because the roads were too narrow! I immediately fell in love with the cobble stone streets, small boutiques and wonderful smell of seafood that floated throughout.

View from our hotel room!

We went to a bar that night, that instead of bar stools had swings, and instead of regular bar tap handles, had babies arms and legs.. The bar was covered in dolls. It was extremely creepy, yet really cool and different at the same time! Although, it was definitely awk to watch the bartender hold the babies leg while pouring me a drink...

Our last stop consisted of my favorite place I have been in Europe thus far - Mont St. Michel! I remember dozing off in my high school French class staring at a poster of this place that looked too cool and magical to be real. I was like, "does this place actually exist...?"

Now you can see why I thought that... I feel like unicorns should be parading around this place.

View from the top... It was super foggy but all of those black dots are people! They are walking from and island four hours away... You have to walk with someone who knows what they're doing though, because of the tides and "quick sand."