Our Last Week Away

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Our last destination in France before heading home was to Bayeux and the Normandy beach landings. The day we travelled to Bayeux was going to be a very interesting day on the Tour de France where Voeckler was going to be tested for the yellow jersey. We were hoping to make it to our hotel in time to see the end. Although at the train station there weren't any taxis so we decided to walk to our hotel which wasn't that far away. We walked passed a bar that was showing the Tour de France just along from the train station. We decided to stop and watch the very intense ending at the bar. Voeckler managed to keep the yellow jersey but only by 15 seconds which is good. The french people in the bar were also very happy as Voeckler is french. While watching we discovered there were a few taxi men at the bar watching the Tour as well so they ended up taking us to our hotel.

The next day we did a tour of the remains at Point Du'oc as well as Omaha Beach and the American Cemetry. There was only us and another family on the tour which was good. The first place we went to was Point Du'oc and it was incredible. The land was covered in craters created from bombs, some craters were absolutly huge. There were also some destroyed and some rooms built underground for the Germans to stay in while they waited for the Americans. It was really interesting to hear what actually happened on that day and to also see it.

The next place we went to was Omaha Beach. Omaha beach is probably more famous than the Point Du'oc but Point Du'oc was much better because Omaha beach just looked like a normal beach. The only remains were the few built into the hills. Luckily we had watched Saving Private Ryan the night before and the guide had some photos otherwise i wouldn't have been able to imagine what happened when the Americans arrived on the beach.

We then went to the American cemetery which was just above Omaha Beach. The cemetery was huge. 10,000 soldiers were burried there. It was also well looked after, the whole place was immaculate. At the front of the cemetery just before all the graves was a wall and a garden for all the missing soldiers which was 1000 of them. While in Bayeux we also visited the war museum, the British Cemetery and the memorial for all the reporters that died in war which surprisingly was quite alot.

Our second day trip was to Mont St Michel - aparently Frances second most visited monument. Mont St Michel is a little village on an island. It took us an hour and a half to get out there and we also had a very talkitive guide that told us heaps about it. There was a road that went out to the island so there was no need for a boat. The tides around Mont St Michel where aparently really fast and could come in and out in a matter of minutes. On the island there were heaps of touristy shops as well as a church. We walked up to the church which was called the Abbey then walked down and around all the little paths on the island looking in some of the shops.

We left France a few days early to spend a few more days in London as I still had quite a bit of money left. For our plane trip back we decided not to stop anywhere and do the whole thing in one go which was a whole twenty-four hours on a plane. It wasn't actually as bad as i thought it would be and the time went quite fast. When we got home it took me a few days to adapt to the weather as it was still absolutly freezing in New Plymouth although I didn't get jetlag at all which was great. I diffenatly loved France and experiencing a different culture and all the new experiences we did although I think three and a half months was a bit too long for me. I would deffinatly like to go back when I am older espically London because I loved it so much. I also wouldn't mind going back to Spain and the Aquitaine region which is sort of where Adele lives.

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