Paris and Normandy - May 28 - June 1, 2009

We promised ourselves that before we left Germany we would visit Normandy so I think it is fitting that it was our last major trip. We headed out on Thursday morning around 8am and our first stop along the way was Paris (about 5.5 hour drive). In planning this trip we thought it would be best to stop over in between Frankfurt and Normandy to break the trip up a bit for Morgan. We had a great stay in Paris and enjoyed walking around and seeing the familiar sites and stayed in a hotel on the West Bank. That evening we had a phenomenal dinner at a restaurant in the Saint Germain section of Paris: Fish - la Boissonerie - we highly recommend. Unfortunately, Morgan was beyond overtired at that point and was inconsolable - so we had to speed-eat our dinners (of course...that didn't stop us from ordering dessert...). As we were leaving a man having dinner with his wife and daughter stopped Shaun and said, "You have a beautiful daughter. I hope that in 19 years you can come back here and enjoy dinner with her as I am with mine." It was so sweet. And shocking..since Morgan had been fussing up a storm! Friday, after grabbing some chocolate croissants for the road, we headed out for Normandy. We enjoyed amazing weather during this entire trip and the drive through Northern France was gorgeous. Along the way we stopped in the beautiful harbor town of Honfleur where we enjoyed a delicious lunch along the water.

Our next stop was Mont Saint-Michel. The Mont is a beautiful commune topped with an abbey. We strapped Morgan in the Bjorn and toured around the town at the base of the Mont..but by the time we reached the top we were too exhausted to tour the abbey and Morgan was having her evening melt down (I swear, dinner time is the witching hour). Finally, we arrived at our destination for the day - Hotel Churchill in Bayeux. I truly can not say enough wonderful things about this hotel! They were nice, accommodating, and centrally located to everything we wanted to see. One morning, the woman working the front desk even walked Morgan around so that I could eat my breakfast..what a treat!

First thing on Saturday morning, we headed to the Omaha beach museum. I should say, that in preparation for this trip we both read "The Longest Day" by Cornelius Ryan and we listened to the "D-Day" audiobook by Stephen Ambrose in the car on the drive up to Normandy. I really believe that having some of this background information made it a more enjoyable visit. The Omaha museum was great - it had TONS of uniforms, equipment, weapons and artillery. It was fascinating to see these things after having read about them. From the museum we headed down to the beach and I have to admit it was a truly sobering experience. The beach was harder than I thought it would be and also far less commercialized. I was afraid it was going to be a tourist circus and it wasn't. And as I'd heard from others who had visited....it really is amazing how little that beach is. We were practically the only people on the beach and it was really nice having Omaha to ourselves.

Next we were off to Point du Hoc. Point du Hoc had a beautiful view. There were tons of craters in the grass from the bombings and several bunkers built by the Nazis as they prepared to defend their "impregnable Atlantic wall." The US 2nd Army Ranger Battalion was charged with storming this pointe during the war and destroying a gun emplacment that was at the top. Over half of their unit died trying to complete this mission...only to find out that the guns the Allies thought were in the emplacement at the top - had not yet been put into service. Omaha beach lies to the West of this point, Utah to the East.

Utah beach was next and this was more commercialized and much busier than Omaha beach. We opted out of the museum as we had seen the Omaha museum and headed straight for the beach. There was barbed wire everywhere!

We ended our day by visiting the American Cemetery. It is such a gorgeous cemetery overlooking Omaha beach and the water. There was a lot of construction going on as the cemetery was preparing for the 65th anniversary of D-Day on June 6th. By then we were all beat - especially Morgan. We headed back to the hotel to rest for an hour before meeting up with our friend Brian for dinner at The Frangole in Bayeux. It was fabulous.

Sunday morning we woke up and headed out to Arromanches which is on the Gold Beach coastline (one of the British invasion beaches). Out to sea and on the beach you can see remains of the temporary harbors (or "mulberries") used during WWII. We strolled around the town and ended up buying a piece of artwork and a baguette and then decided it was time to hit the road. After a 3.5 hour drive we were back in Paris where we stayed for one more night. We enjoyed a great dinner not far from the Arc de Triumph and settled in for an early night - we were SO exhausted. We had such a great trip - but the car and stroller time was definitely taking its toll on Morgan and us.

I think the most touching moment of our trip came on Saturday morning just after breakfast and before heading to the beaches. As we left the dining room we met two men, a father and son, from California. The father was a D-Day vet and had come ashore on the morning of D-Day on the Canadian beach, Juno and had returned for the 65th anniversary. We shook his hand. We said thank you. I felt pretty speechless. He just smiled and said, "I'm glad I'm here to talk about it." *sigh*

Here are all of our pictures. I know there are a lot! I pared it down from 320 to about 150....I did my best. I know Shaun is in a LOT of them...but that is because he was the designated Bjorn wearer for this trip!

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