The Past Two Weeks (Part 2: Bayeux and D-Day Beaches)

Ok, so I guess when I said tomorrow I really meant a couple of weeks. Sorry, guys.

Bayeux

A lot has happened since Toussaint break, all of which I will write about, I swear. But, going back a few weeks. . .

My second half of Toussaint break was spent in the company of two wonderful Americans, Mary from Michigan and Bridget from Kansas. Mary lives in Bayeux, which is farther north, about an hour and 15 minutes from Flers. It is a gorgeous town, a bit bigger than Flers, and much more quaint and adorable. I think it made Olivier a little depressed to see how nice it was, the jealousy bug can be rough.  Bayeux is famous for its tapestry, (which we unfortunately didn't have time to see, but it gave us a good excuse to go back!) and its cathedral. We did visit the cathedral because it was free and absolutely gorgeous. It even had a crypt! It was my first crypt! (Nerd alert!) I felt like Buffy could have been around any corner!

Anyways. We got to Bayeux around 5pm and walked around town with Mary. It is a much more tourist friendly place, and a lot of tourists use it as a starting point before seeing the D-Day beaches because it is only about 10 min from the Channel. We had a lovely dinner of spaghetti with Mary's Norwegian  housemate and then went out for a beer at a local Irish pub. It was a great night, and it was fun to speak in rapid girly English. We talked boys and all other things we were starved for while the boys bonded over who-knows-what. It was wonderful.

View from afar, the cathedral.

Better view. B-E-A-utiful! 

The next morning we picked Bridget up from the train station and packed up a picnic lunch and were on our way to the beach!

  We kind of started randomly, directly north of Bayeux and saw a bunch of D-Day sights just following the coast. We started in Arromanches and went along all the way to Point du Hoc in the West.

We visited Gold and Omaha beaches and the American cemetery and museum which  were really amazing. I had been there before but we didn't have a ton of time and I remember running out of the museum to catch a peak of the cemetery before I had to get back on a bus. This time we had until the place closed and time flew by. We stayed there for almost 3 hours and we didn't even notice. The American cemetery was really interesting because it has pictures and stories of people who fought and pieces of their lives like good luck charms or letters or playing cards that the kept with them. Every new picture or story brought a new bit of reality to the past. It was crazy to think about the fact that every soldier had a story and about how many soldiers died on the beaches there, but ultimately were able to push through and push back the Germans. Crazy. The beaches we visited were very peaceful and had scattered memorial sites with markers or information. Mostly though it was just beautiful. The day was perfect and it was hard to imagine everything that had happened on the beaches before.

Mary and I took a picture of each other at our first stop. 

We drove home exhausted but satisfied by the amount of beach that we had seen. It was only after that I realized that the 11th was Veterans day and that we went right before. That probably explains why it was so crowded in some places. Luckily there is lots of space on the beach, and it was beautiful.

American Cemetery

Next up is the story of my visit to Caen for my Social Security card!

Teaser: I am now the proud  owner of an x-ray of my chest.

Thanks for reading!

Shoshana