Normandy

With the big event of New Year's over and classes at the University not starting again until the 17th, it was hard to establish a daily routine and avoid boredom here in Strasbourg, I was glad to be able to visit Normany in the northwest of France this week.  Because the history chanel is one of the few channels my dad won't randomly change away from in the middle of a show, World War II has always been an interesting subjet and I knew during my time in France I wanted to get to the D-Day beaches.

I started my visit with a 630am train to Rouen and after a rather confusing Paris "gare" change met up with Claire and Veronica who had already spent a day in Caen.  Although January in France is nothing special and rain and fog greeted us in Rouen, we were still excited by the 50 degree weather, about 20 degrees warmer than what we left in Strasbourg.  On Thursday we visited the cathedral, painted by Monet several times, and St. Ouen's Abbey, both of which were freezing inside!  St. Ouen was especially impressive.  All white and with only one mass inside every year, St. Ouen held none of the modern benches that are usually added to old cathedrals and was a huge open space.   After the cathedrals we headed across town to the museum of medicine which was the same building as the Gustave Flaubert museum.  Apparently Gustave grew up in the hospital his surgeon father worked in, and their dining was seperate from the cholera patients by only a screen...ew.  In all the museum was a littel bizarre, especially the part describing how you could leave your unwanted baby in a sort of mailbox but definetely brought back some good memorials of AP Lit senior year.

In Normandy the influence of American and British troops is defietely still in evidence, particularly through the food!  For lunch we found a pub called the Big Ben and for dinner, despite searching for other options, we ended trying a self proclaimed American restaurant and passing by several others.  Complete with pictures of American presidents and deep dish pizza (which the menu, in a historical section of the delicacy, informed us is apparently correctly pronounced "dip dich"...okay then France), the restaurant even served Ben and Jerry's Ice cream, which after much debate he obviously indulged in.  Eating at this restaurant was definetely a bizarre experience however, as no one seemed certain whether we actually had a seat, a women who may or may not have worked there tried to speak to us in three different languages, and Brasilian jazz called Bossa Nova was blaring from the live band next to us.

On Friday we headed to the museum of fine arts and then to the train station for a Monoprix lunch and the train for Bayeux.  By the time we got to Bayeux it was too late to see anything so we rested in the hotel room for Sarah to get here and go to dinner.  It was then we started watching True Blood.  I don't know whether to say I'm proud or ashamed but we sucesffully finished the entire first season within the next two days. 

On Saturday we discovered that apparently no one else visits Normandy in the middle of winter.  Unfortuantely this meant that no museums, tour buses, and hardly any restaurants were open in Bayeux.  At first we thought this lack of people was great, especially when we visited the Bayeux Tapestry because we had the entire things to ourselves.  An ENORMOUS tapestry depicting William's invasion of England, the Bayeux Tapestry spenned a long hallway and then turned around and kept going!  The detail was amazing and the fact that is was so old just made it so much cooler.  After the tapestry we headed back the train station for our own self guided tour of the American cemetary and Omaha beach.  Things to note: when bus schedules publicize lines that run all year in France this means they only run in July and August.  Despite our troubles we found a guide in Wikipedia via Sarah's blackberry because, of course, the museums nearby were closed in January.  The American cemetary was very impressive.  Seeing all the crosses and reading names from all over the country definetely gave me a concrete idea of the sacrifice that generation made to fight a war a continent away.  It was especially to see how young many of the soliders were and to think about how far their families have to travel to visit their grave.  It was also very impressive to walk down the beaches and look up at the hills the Americans had to climb all the while being shot at.  The cemetary was absolutely huge and I am glad we were able to see at least one thing that luckily remains open all year!  On the way home from the beaches we visited Bayeux's cathedral which was the first multilayered church I have seen here in Europe.

On Sunday Claire and I had high hopes to visit the Battle for Normandy museum in Bayeux, one of the few that our tour books said was still open in January.  However, after 20 minute walk along the highway we saw the high written signs on the door annoncing that this too was closed.  Again we wondered how anything in this country is economically feasible.  This is France so you know those people are still being paid, how they afford to shut down their museum for four months!  Luckily the British cemetary was across the street so we could justify our trip along the highway.  It was very intersting the see the British cemetary after the American one.  The graves in the British cemetary has personalized messages from families engraved upon them along with the labels of their particular regiment.  Besides British soliders, there were also Polish, Czech, Soviet, French, Canadian, and North African soliders buried there, with each country having a different shaped grave.  The most suprising thing in the cemetary however, was the graves for German soldiers.  These had the same shape as the British graves and were not seperated like the other ones.  Without Wikipedia handy I guess we'll never figure out this mystery.

After a brief stroll through Reporter's Without Borders memorial to reporters who have been killed since World War II, all we made a friend in Bayeux.  Trying to find anything touristy to visit we followed the signs to a local monastary.  Although we never made it to the actual monastary we did stumble upon the gift shop where the charm of the old nun made it impossible for us to leave without purchasing something.  Between giving us a history lesson on veils and declaring that she was the nun in my postcard, she definetely won the award for cutest nun ever.

A final picnic in front of the cathedral made up for the fact that all restaurants, including the grocery store, are closed on Sundays in Bayeux and we made it back to Strasbourg Sunday night.  Museum visits with Malou around Strasbourg are in store for this weekend.