Weekend in Normandy

Ok, the big trip to Normandy. This was a great weekend, punctuated by a ton of picture-taking. See Picasa for more details.

Friday morning, at the ungodly hour of 7 AM (if the boulangerie hasn’t opened yet, I should not be going anywhere), we gathered in front of the train station to meet up with our wonderful Saïd and the bus. We discovered we had a tiny little thing of barely 20 seats. This wouldn’t have been a problem, except our luggage had to go in the seats as well – no storage. So we were a bit cramped.

Having snuck off to the boulangerie for breakfast, we made for Rouen and got there in just under 2 ½ hours. We had an adorable tour guide to take us through the old city. Rouen is the city that Joan of Arc was tried and burned in, so that’s a large part of the history. The tour included the cathedral (gorgeous stained glass windows), and the medieval section of the city. We also learned the origin of the phrase “taking the high road.” In the Middle Age, the people had to throw their waste out into the street – no sewage yet. So the middle of the road was really disgusting because of all the grossness out there. If you were rich, however, you had the privilege of walking under the eaves, where nothing could get on you. So you got to “take the high road.”

In addition to the medieval city, we got to see Pierre Corneille’s house, the actual site of Joan of Arc’s burning at the stake, and one really cool clock. In the Middle Ages, most people couldn’t read, so the clock with the day on it couldn’t just say “Thursday.” Instead, they took the Roman god for each day and made a picture with them on it. Each day at noon, the clock changes pictures. We were lucky enough to be there right at noon and saw it change from Thursday to Friday. Apparently, a lot of people in Rouen don’t even know it does this. Sad for them.

After lunch, we headed off to Bayeux, small town near the northern coast of France, and home to the famous tapestry, “The Lady and the Unicorn.” This thing is literally a thousand years old and depicts the story of William the Conqueror. Our favorite part was the battle scene, where instead of embroidery, you suddenly find beheaded men’s bodies in the border. How odd. We couldn’t take pictures, since the tapestry is so old it could probably disintegrate just by being touched, but Google it. It’s very cool.

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast before heading off to the beaches of Normandy. Incidentally, we had the most amazing coffee ever at this hotel’s breakfast. Should you desire the name in order to stay there sometime, I can hook you up.

First, we went to one of the beaches where the British came ashore. From the cliffs above, you can see the temporary ports they built and then left there. This enabled them to bring in about 700 (ish) ships a day once they had established a line in France. From there we went to the American cemetery. Trivia fact: the cemetery is actually American land and is maintained by Americans. It was given to the U.S. by France after the war and is literally ours forever. The cemetery is gorgeous, but of course it’s really sad and somber, since it’s a graveyard. There are over 9,000 graves, and the only criteria to be buried there is to have died at some point in the Normandy invasion (which was a 3-month long enterprise). The cemetery itself overlooks another beach where soldiers landed, and you have the opportunity to see what the German soldiers would have seen the morning of the invasion.

Once we left the cemetery, we headed back to Bayeux for lunch. We then packed up our stuff and headed out to make our way to Mont St. Michel. Everyone working at the hotel was so friendly, and as we drove away, the concierge stood on the road waving an American flag. How sweet is that?

Getting to Mont. St. Michel took a good few hours, so the rest of the afternoon was spent on the bus. We finally got there, and marched off to our hotel through the annoying throngs of tourists.  Our hotel was actually within the boundaries of Mont St. Michel, which meant lots of stairs. We had a considerable amount of free time before dinner, so the girls decided to go mudding. So off we go, marching back out of the city, taking off our shoes, and jumping into the mud. There were signs all around warning of quicksand, so naturally we couldn’t resist playing and seeing if we sunk or not. I don’t think there was any actual quicksand there, but if there had been, we had a resident expert in Emily (whose main qualification comes from having been stuck in quicksand earlier this summer). We frolicked for a good hour, getting disgustingly muddy and poking jellyfish with our shoes.

Dinner that night was in the hotel’s restaurant, and was absurdly good – like most food in France. I got to have a dozen oysters for an appetizer, which came with a really good sauce. I think it might have been raspberry vinaigrette of some kind. The main course was a plate of lamb, and dessert was crème brulée. Mmmm…

The next morning was the tour of the city proper. Surprisingly, for all the tourists they have, there are only about 70 actual residents, and not all of them are full-time. There’s not even a boulangerie or charcuterie within the walls, so it’s not surprising that people don’t stay – there’s no way to get food on a regular basis. We climbed all the way to the top and got to see the church and amazing view of the surrounding area.

After the tour, we grabbed our stuff from the hotel and meandered to St. Malo. It was completely out of our way, so I’m not sure why we went there, but after eating lunch at a little pizzeria, we did find an awesome fort to play at. By fort, of course I mean a medieval fortress from sometime in the 13th (ish century). It was really cool. Emily and I spent a good half an hour climbing all over the rocks right next to it and attempting to not die in the English Channel. All in all, a good visit.

From St. Malo, we headed back to Versailles/Paris. Naturally, everyone else who had gone away for the weekend was heading back at the same time. So what should have been a 3 ½ hour trip turned into 5 hours. We were all really antsy. To make matters more frustrating, we got back to Versailles 1 minute after the last bus of the night. Normally not a big deal, it turned into one when we realized that we had our luggage to carry in the drizzling rain for 15 minutes. Growl. Needless to say, I was very glad to get home.

That about sums up Normandy, I do believe. See pictures on Picasa for more detail, since I’m sure I’ve forgotten parts of it by now. It really is gorgeous there. If you need hotel suggestions, I can definitely help out there. 

Now all I need to do is update on Toussaint so far. Sigh.