We just completed yet another amazing road trip, which was the perfect way to conclude another summer here in Europe. And I think I can join all of Germany in saying "BYE SUMMER." This summer was by far the worst we have had since being here. One day it got up to a blistering, sweaty, and downright awful 98 degrees. These are summer temperatures that I am used to in Oklahoma, but at least there I could retreat to the comforts of an air conditioned house. Highs in the 90's with no AC for weeks on end....there is just nothing cool about that. Really. I took TJ to the grocery store daily because that is the only place I could think of that had guaranteed air conditioning. So in the heat of the day when it was too miserable to be in our house or outside, we went and walked the aisles of the grocery store. Needless to say, I am beyond happy to say that the temps have finally dropped and fall is on its way. And I'll be blissfully enjoying this change of weather until dismal winter hits and I am crying to see the sun again. But let's not think about that now. Back to the fun stuff--our amazing road trip through France! I told Thomas on the first long leg of the journey, as I am trying to entertain and pacify an almost nine month old baby who does not want to be in a carseat anymore, "No more road trips after this!!" Ha. I doubt that will be our last road trip while we are in Europe because most of the time it really is the best way to see a country. High speed trains are great, but they only connect large cities, and they are actually more expensive than flying. For a destination like Normandy, driving just makes the most sense. We got to set our own schedule each day, there was plenty of available parking everywhere we went, and I just loved driving through all the small seaside towns in between each site. TJ handled it pretty well for the majority of the time, although, as any parent knows, even just five minutes of inconsolable crying in a confined space feels a lot more like five hours. But the sights and experiences we had were completely worth the few episodes of mayhem. Best of all, I got to share all of this with my dad too, who had never been to Europe up until this point. Visiting Normandy is a humbling, powerful, and beautiful experience. And I was so fortunate to share this with my three favorite men in the world.
Day 1: Arriving in Normandy
Our Airbnb was just outside of Bayeux, about a six hour drive from our house in Germany. So we set out early, only leaving about 15 minutes after our goal of an 8 am departure this time--a huge progress! I am getting much more efficient at packing for a baby. I now have a permanent packing list that I can re-use for each trip. All I really need to do is adjust the number of outfits to bring per length of the trip, and all else pretty much stays the same! So the first day was spent mainly on the road, with a stop for lunch at a gas station (gas station restaurants are actually pretty impressive in France) and another stop to check out the cute port town of Honfluer. The Seine river, which runs through Paris, feeds into the English Channel at Honfluer, so of course it was historically a very important town for trade and maritime exploration. It is definitely adorably quaint, but intensely jam-packed with tourists. We were also here on a Saturday, so it might be a little better during the week.
When we made it to our Airbnb, I fell immediately in love with this place. It was a family-owned farm located right outside of the town of Bayeux. They had redone the inside of a farmhouse with the most charming decor, and there was no shortage of cozy places to bask in the beauty of the countryside with a glass of wine in hand (or cider in this part of France, as I learned). Unwinding here at the end of our busy days of sightseeing was just surreal.
Oh, and we had an unexpectedly lovely view of the Bayeux cathedral from here as well. I couldn't have asked for more!
Day 2: Sainte-Mere-Eglise, Crisbecq Battery, and Utah Beach
Our first full day in Normandy started off with a visit to the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, which is the town in which American paratroopers landed in just before the D-Day beach invasions, and was the first town in France to be liberated. John Steele landed here on the church tower and dangled for two hours, pretending to be dead to avoid being shot down by the Germans below. They still keep a parachute on their church in memory of Steele and the other paratroopers who landed here.
Inside the church, they even have paratroopers beside Virgin Mary in their stained glass.
We visited the Airborne Museum here too, where we got to see one of the gliders that carried the paratroopers. TJ was pretty impressed.
After we finished touring the museum, we had a delicious lunch of savory crepes, cider, and of course a dessert crepe--salted butter caramel! The first bite was like eating a piece of heaven, and each subsequent bite was just bringing us closer and closer to an outright sugar coma. (Obviously, it vanished before I even thought about taking a picture.)
Next we stopped at Crisbecq Battery. So batteries aren't just things that power a remote control and accumulate in your house because you don't know how to responsibly dispose of them. Or is that just me? Anyway, this artillery battery formed a part of the Nazi's defense of the Atlantic Wall during World War II. Soldiers lived in these heavily fortified barracks for months on end without seeing civilization. On June 11, 1944 the battery finally ran out of ammunition and Germans were forced to flee and surrender the battery to Allied forces.
I couldn't decide which picture was the best out of the ones below, so I just decided to include all three. I love how they happen to be making the same faces. Like father, like son!
Finally, we finished off the day at Utah Beach and the Utah Beach Museum. The beach itself was incredible to see, but the museum was especially informative. I learned so much about complexities of the D-Day landings here. It was truly fascinating and I developed a whole new appreciation for the incredible amount of planning it took to ensure that "Operation Overlord" was a success. Before the landings even began, paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines to secure bridges and bombers were needed to weaken the defense of the Atlantic Wall. Also there needed to be a full moon and a low tide at dawn in order to expose underwater defenses and obstacles on the beaches. The Allied troops needed poor visibility in order to maintain the element of surprise, but thick clouds and stormy weather meant many paratroopers and bombs landed off-target. Thankfully, as we all know, they succeeded. And D-Day continues to be the largest amphibious war operation ever conducted. There were tons of other facts that I learned, and this little snippet of a summary doesn't even do it justice really.
Day 3: Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, and the American Cemetery
We started the day at Pointe du Hoc, the site where the rangers scaled perilous cliffs against enemy fire to disable a gun battery that could have caused even more catastrophic loss of life to the troops on the beaches. They overtook it and maintained sole possession of the battery for two days of fighting before they were finally relieved, but over half of them had been killed at this point. The picture below shows a replica of a grappling hook that they shot up into the rocks to begin their ascent.
Simply climbing these 100 foot cliffs would be a serious physical endeavor, and the rangers had to do it all while being shot at. I am truly in awe of what these men were able to accomplish here.
Next we walked Omaha Beach.
And we visited the American Cemetery, where 9,385 soldiers are laid to rest.
The grounds of the cemetery are pristinely landscaped, emanating the peace and tranquility that these men gave up their lives to bring to the world. I know we can all appreciate the significance of the casualties of war, but there is nothing that makes it more tangible than seeing rows upon rows of white crosses and stars, each representing a life that ended too quickly.
To finish off a very meaningful day of experiences, Thomas planned a surprise stop en route to our Airbnb. He drove us through this field and brought us to a stop in a small parking lot overlooking the sea. Here we marveled in both the natural beauty of the cliffs and the remains of the manmade engineering of Mulberry harbour.
These massive floating pieces of concrete are what is left of the temporary harbor that the Allied forces constructed in order to move supplies off of ships after the D-Day landings.
Day 4: Mont-Saint-Michel
I saw pictures of Mont-Saint-Michel when I was doing research about places to visit in France when we first moved here and immediately moved it to my "Must See" list. While our main objective of our Normandy visit was to see the World War II sights, if we were going to drive all the way to Normandy, I was not going to miss seeing this too. We decided to spend a night nearby, since it was about an hour and a half's drive from Bayeux. I was pretty sad to be leaving our awesome farmhouse, but onward we went.
We stopped in Avranches for lunch, where we discovered a pretty cool medieval fortress, built in the year 950!
Then finally we made it to the parking lot to begin our trek toward Mont-Sainte-Michel.
Pretty amazing, right? It is an abbey built on a mountain surrounded by mudflats so that during high tide, the place is completely surrounded by water. The abbey dates all the way back to 708, and the village beneath it was established in the 10th century. Ramparts and fortifications surround the mountain, which prevented the English from ever seizing it during the Hundred Years War. We opted to make the 40 minute walk instead of take the shuttle bus on the way there, so we could really take it all in.
Well, as you can see below, there was no shortage of tourists here. It was a madhouse. We quickly found a place to make our ascent toward the abbey and escape the crowds.
Sometimes we all just need a little break from sightseeing. And some snuggle time!
The abbey was enchanting, and the views were not too bad either.
After tons of stairs and hours of walking, there was no doubt about the fact that we were definitely taking the shuttle back this time. So that concludes our trip to Mont-Saint-Michel! It was a long and tiresome day, but it was also pretty amazing.
Day 5
Day 5 consisted of another long day of driving. After two hours, we landed in Le Mans to visit the museum about this famous 24 hour car race that I had literally never heard of until I met Thomas. So for him this was an obligatory stop. He really doesn't ask for much on these trips, and I am usually the one dictating where we stop and what we see along the way. So I figured I'd let him have this one. ;)
Since the route back to our house in Germany with this stop in Le Mans was pretty long, we made another stopover for the night in the city of Reims, in the Champagne region of France. "Well, this highly necessary stop is working out quite nicely," I thought to myself, as I proceeded to book us a tour and tasting at Taittinger Champagne House. But more on that later. First, a surprise light show. I did a teeny bit of research on Reims before coming here, so I knew there was a massive cathedral. But so what? There is a cathedral in every city in France. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. Right? Well, not quite. We found out there was a light show projected onto the cathedral at Reims every night in the summer. So at about 9 pm, Thomas and I headed that way to check it out.
I actually found myself completely awestruck at first sight of this architectural gem. We were walking through dark, and somewhat grimy streets, when all of a sudden BOOM. This luminous, colossal beauty suddenly emerged out of the darkness, towering over the city skyline in all its glory.
After taking a ton of pictures before the light show began, we decided, per my insistence, to sit outside one of the restaurants in the square to sip a glass of champagne as the light show began. Well, this was no ordinary light show. And it soon became apparent that we needed to swiftly down our drinks in order to get a full-on view of the show. It was absolutely spectacular to watch, and completely exceeded my expectations. We had plenty of amazing pictures to choose from, but this one was my favorite. The lighting makes it look more like a colorful artistic sketch than an actual picture of the cathedral.
We didn't get to bed until around midnight that night, but it was worth it. So I thought, until 2 am rolled around and TJ woke up. And stayed awake. The entire rest of the night. So I was one tired momma the next day. I even wanted to skip the champagne tour, but Thomas wouldn't let me. With his encouragement, I rallied. I'm so glad I did, because it was yet another amazing experience. Taittinger was about a ten minute walk from us, and it was a very pretty one at that.
Our guide took us down into the underground cavernous cellars, which are actually old chalk mines dating back to Roman days. Then, during the 13th century, an abbey was built here, and the monks utilized the Roman mines to make their own wines. According to our guide, the caves were also used during both world wars to hide people and supplies. Now Taittinger uses this sprawling 3 km cave system to age their champagne. TJ thoroughly enjoyed the tour. I was front-wearing him in the carrier, and he enetertained himself by touching the cave walls and anything else that we got too close to (including fellow tour-goers and a bottle or two of champagne). Luckily those bottles were pretty well-secured. He also took it upon himself to interject his own commentary whenever the tour guide was talking. I'm not sure the fellow travelers enjoyed the adorable babbling and screeches as much as I did. I got a few dirty looks, but what could I do? The kid apparently has a lot of opinions about champagne already.
And finally the best part, the tasting! Mom of the Year pictured below.
TJ's face says it all, ha!
I told you the kid is fascinated by champagne!
Last, to top off the trip, we hit up one more famous World War II sight--Bastogne. We had lunch here and visited the monument dedicated to the heroic efforts of the Americans at the Battle of the Bulge.
We've actually been to Bastogne once already, but gladly stopped here again to show my dad, as it was a beautiful day for a short detour. Here's a throw back from our last visit to the monument, when TJ was just a little bun in the oven!
Well, that concludes another fantastic trip, full of once-in-a-time experiences and wonderful memories made with my best guys. I had to try to get this entry done quickly, because we are already off for another action-packed trip tomorrow. This time, we are going way up north! Stay tuned for more adventures with Theodore the Traveling Baby!