So Maresa is still with me and this week we took a long weekend to make a little trip up to Normandy. Katie and Maresa and I left Dijon in Tiziana's car to pick her up at CDG and head north, it felt like a long ride and for this reason, I think I've been in France too long. Once we arrived in Noramandy, we realized that every Parisian had the same idea we did (everyone was in Normandy) and made it a little more difficult to navigate the tourist sites as well as find a decent hotels. We actually had nice weather there, which was weird, and Maresa was a little disappointed since it made the setting less authentic and somber for her. We did all of the cool things such as Mont St Michel (the picture to the right is of the 4 of us walking around the Mont during low tide).So the first night we drove to Caen, which was probably a really beautiful city until it was bombed a lot in WWII and now there is still the castle, a few churches and then tons of modern cement buidlings; it looks really weird in contrast. We saw Mont St Michel, which was truly tourist central and took a nice walk around the Mont to avoid tourists after a few hours in the city. In case you don't know Mont St Michel is not an Abby but it is almost literally a city in the ocean (well during high-tide), during low tide it is like the beach of a bay all around. It really is incredible how long Mont St Michel has lasted. Here is a video to capture a part of our day there...
That night, we went to Arromanches-les-Bains, which is one of the D-Day beaches. It is Gold beach, where the Brits disembarked and it was pretty cool. It looks like ruins, with all of the concrete installations that were brought to set up these crazy bridges to bring all of the tanks and soldiers on shore after the initial offense. Here is a video of us picnicing there as well:
The next day, we went to the Peace Museum, which is a memorial to WWII and D-Day although they barely talk about D-Day or Jour "J" as they call it here. From there we drove along the shore roads to a few really touristy (and by touristy, I mean Parisian) town which were quite pretty but a little bit too overwhelming. That night, we were forced to leave our lovely and inexpensive hotel in Caen for Le Havre (aka the ugliest city in all of France). I feel bad for all of the people on the cruise ships who arrive there. It was probably pretty at one point but was also destroyed during WWII and is not a huge port city. We managed to find a good bar and a good restaurant, which kept us out of our insufferable hotel for awhile. I don't know if Maresa and I have stayed in as uncomfortable a hotel since that fateful time in Vancouver (you who know the story, know what I'm talking about).
The next morning, we blew out of Le Havre as soon as we could and found a super cute small town for a little breakfast and cafe. Then we drove (via the national roads b
ecause the autoroute is so expensive) to Giverny (the gardens Monet created to paint in) where we encountered even more tourists. Due to a huge line to enter the actual gardens, we decided to picnic and look around the rest of the very cute town. It is incredibly picturesque and it is easy to understand why the impressionists all went there to paint. From there, we drove the 4 hours back to Dijon to spend Sasha's last night in France with her and to make a round of Happy Mothers' Day calls from my house. Sadly, Sasha had to leave Monday morning and even though it was technically a French holiday, I worked for most of the day. I tried to get outside a little bit because it was so beautiful this weekend!!!! That can be a rarity in Dijon and you have to profit from the sun. Right now, I'm procrastinating because I don't want to finish my memoir and prepare for some English classes that I have to teach today and tomorrow. Maresa left for Ireland today and will be coming back on Sunday so I have a few days all alone at my house, which should be good. Well, I hope this blog makes sense since I'm writing it at like 1 am, sorry if it does not.
Ciao,
Sarah
