Bonjour - it is time to catch up a bit. Emilee has just left on the RER for the airport and returns to DC. It has been a busy and quick week. On Monday, we picked up a rental car in La Defense from Avis (and a Tom-Tom GPS) and headed for Normandy. We took the "motorway" (can't call it a freeway, as overall we paid about 20 euros in tolls), and then some back roads all the way to the far side of Normandy to Le Mont St Michel (above). Our pilgrimage to this ancient 8th century abbey took us along a causeway, surrounded on all sides by mud flats at low tide. We were instructed that our parking space would be under water by 20:00 (8pm) - tide rises 50 ft in this area! Good thing we arrived by 2pm. There is a town below the abbey with hotels, restaurants and tourist traps. After a quick lunch, we headed to the abbey, built in 708A.D. and dedicated the Archangel Michael. It is quite an extensive abbey with spectacular views. It's hard to imagine it being a working abbey for over 1000 years, even to this day. After the revolution, it was converted into a prison (mostly for religious authorities that wouldn't renounce their religion - doesn't that seem a bit ironic to put clergy in a place like Mont St Michel?). And today, I didn't see any monks, just tourists like us.
While the town and abbey were extremely cool, it was probably cooler to be outside and just looking at it. Debbie and Emilee pulled their shoes off and hiked out into the mud. As I had brought only my one pair of shoes, I didn't (but probably should have). Em got some fine pictures - stay tuned for the monthly web upload. We left as the shadows extended in the evening, and enjoyed the affects on the abbey. The ideal situation would be to actually spend the night on the island to see it at sunrise and set. But our hotel room was about an hour or so back east in the small town of Bayeux. We arrived before dark and spent the night in the centrally
located Hotel le Bayeux. We walked for a late dinner to l'assiette Normande (a sample of Normandy). The next morning, we took a couple hours to visit the Bayeux Cathedral and the famous Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry was created to depict the story of William conquering the English under Harold at Hastings in 1066. It is an 11th century newsreel! It was in very good condition, and again hard to comprehend how something can be so old and survive.
We didn't want to spend too much time in Bayeux 
as our real objective for the day was to take Omaha Beach. We piled into our black Opel Corsa (which I liked quite a bit - rode smoothly on the motorway, handled well on small roads, diesel fuel, 5-speed stick shift, and not too uncomfortably small - for the driver at least). We headed for Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument. This is a point on a cliff that 300 Rangers assaulted on D-Day. Less than a third survived only to find that the big guns they were attacking had been moved and replaced with decoys. The area has the remains of bunkers and a monument to the Rangers.
We continued on to Vierville-Sur-Mer. Had lunch at Hotel du Casino overlooking some of the Omaha beachhead and then on to the American Cemetery and Memorial. The Cemetery overlooks Omaha Beach - it's what you see at the end of Saving Private Ryan with all the white marble crosses and Stars of David. It is a beautiful and peaceful place. But it marks the final resting place of almost 10,000 Americans. On the hour, there are chimes that play military anthems and American anthems. The beach itself is wide and sandy - a perfect resort-type beach. There was a fly by of a couple British jets, perhaps on their way over to Gold or Sword Beach. And finally, at 6pm the Flag is lowered as taps were chimed. It was all quite moving - hard to relate to a time when people pulled together and sacrificed so much (at least that's how it seems to me). After seeing things that are thousands of years old, this is only 65 years removed.
Stay with me now... We left the Memorial as it closed and made another long drive east across 
Normandy to Honfluer - a picturesque seaside town at the mouth of the Siene across from Le Harve. Along the way, we got some bum information from Tom-Tom - he kept trying to direct us onto a motorway using an entrance that didn't exist! No worries though, we made it to our Hotel Monet once again before dark. We had dinner in a cafe next to the Vieux Bassin (old harbor), were attacked by mosquitoes, and walked around the town as the moon rose. Quite pretty. The next morning, we explored just a bit and checked out Ste. Catherine's (an unusual church made entirely of wood - only one I've seen like it). When you walk inside, it looks like a couple of large overturned wooden ships.
We didn't spend much time there as our goal for the last day was Monet's Gardens in Giverny. This was our shortest driving day - only about an hour to Giverny, and less than an hour back to Le Defense. We got to Giverny at lunch time. Skies were grey, but not dark, and the gardens were fantastic. While the flowers were a bit past their prime, it was still impressive. And the Japanese Garden, willow and water lilies look a lot like his paintings! Imagine that! We spent about 3 hours strolling and taking pictures before returning to Paris, worn out and trying to digest all we had seen during the 3 days!
In retrospect, this week of September was a perfect week to see Normandy. We didn't hit any crowds (not even at Monet's or Mont St Michel). The weather was fine. Traffic was light. Hotel rooms were available at good rates. It was all excellent. I think it would have been good to have one more day for D-Day beaches and museums. We only saw a small part of this. But certainly no complaints! Au revoir.
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