Day 2 in Normandy

After determining that Juliette was feeling better we continued our driving tour.  We arrived at Pointe du Hoc, a prominent cliff overlooking the English Channel.  During World War II, it was the highest point between Utah Beach and Omaha Beach and the Germans had fortified the area.  On D-Day, American Army Rangers scaled the cliffs and assaulted the area.

Large pits covered the ground from bombs that were dropped in April 1944

 

 We had a small picnic lunch then set off for Omaha Beach.  What do you eat for a picnic lunch?  A variety of cheeses, bread, and fruit... yummy!

 

 It was striking how wide the space was from the water to the cliffs.  I wonder what kind of thoughts ran through the soldier's minds when they saw how far they would have to go.  Such bravery was shown and as Greg put it "A lot of American treasure was lost here that day."

 

Appropriately, the final stop on our tour was the cemetery.  It was an honor to visit the final resting place for many of the soldiers.  Brady was asking if the families of these men came to visit.  At moments like that it becomes very real how blessed we are to visit these places that many dream of visiting.  We do our best to explain the importance of what we were seeing and although our children are young, I pray that experiences like this will remain in their minds.

 Greg explaining what Brady was looking at

They aren't just crosses... 

Our final adventure for the day was to visit Mont Saint Michel.  You can read the history here.  This was one of the times I was very sad my good camera was broken because taking a picture from a distance was very poor quality.

 

This one is a little better!

 

We wandered up the main street and on recommendation from a shop owner, found a restaurant for dinner.  As we were waiting for them to open, another American family showed up!  They were on vacation and were stationed in Germany.  They had a daughter Brady's age and it was fun watching them play!  The restaurant opened and we were surprised to find that the "bar" area wasn't the restaurant.  Instead, it was a white table clothed fancy kind of place in the upstairs area.  We generally try to avoid these fancy kind of places because we do our best to not ruin quiet dinner's.  However, this time we decided to stay and the solution was Greg took the kids for a walk while we waited for our meal to arrive.  Towards the end of dinner, Juliette began to not feel good again, so we headed back to the cabin in an attempt to re-coup before we started the trek home.

On to Normandy!

On the road again!  From Paris we made our way to Normandy and ended up in Sainte Mere Eglise around lunchtime.  After eating a wonderful lunch (the kids had pizza... go figure), we ventured into the local museum.

One of the stained glass windows in the church

Paying for a tour of Normandy is very expensive, so Greg bought an audio tour and we set off on a driving adventure through French country roads.  

 

The first major stop was Utah Beach...

And of course, ice cream!

 

As we continued on, we happened upon a cemetery in the middle of nowhere, yet it was beautifully maintained. 

Having been on the road all day, it was time to find the campground where we would be staying.  What an amazing campground it was!  There were some lots with tent or RV campers, but most of it was full of wonderful little trailers.  Ours was a 2 bedroom situation with a great kitchen with an eating area, complete with a front porch and picnic table.  The campground had both an indoor and outdoor pool (which was nice because it was too cold to swim outside), giant bouncy houses, large playground, an activity center with a restaurant, and even a laundry room (Woot!!).

After grilling out some dinner and getting settled in for the night, Juliette woke up screaming that she was cold and ended up getting sick.  Her rash had been clearing up and this was out of the blue.  It certainly left me unsettled and I just prayed that we wouldn't have to find a hospital!  She finally fell back to sleep and it seemed everything was going to be o.k.!