Blogs from Bayeux, Lower Normandy, France, Europe - page 3

Hi all! Sorry it took so long to get out a blog but I sent my computer home for my trip to South Africa and it has been a little busy getting readjusted. But, before I get to that though we have to finish up my trip with my parents around Europe. After leaving the sauna that was Rome, we headed to Paris where everything is wonderful including the weather. It was a comfortable upper sixties to mid-seventies. We didn't spend much time in Paris, though. After we arrived we only enough time to check into our hotel get some amazingly delicious, albeit over-priced, lunch and head to the train station to leave for Bayeux, France. This was the part of our trip that I was most looking forward to. While Mom and I were working ... read more

We headed to Bayeux for the sole purpose of visiting the Dday beaches and getting the full tour. We booked a half day tour ahead of time and were told to wait outside out hotel for 8:30 am.. The driver finally showed up at about 9 due to bad traffic apparently downtown. Our driver looked 19 and fresh out of school but we had a combined age in the van of over 300 due to all the other 4 people on our tour who ended up being all very nice. The weather was apparently very similar to June 6th 1944. Wet, rainy and bleek but we like the invaders mangaed to forge through it and get to see everything we wanted. Point de Hoc, which was bombarded for hours before a group of 200 rangers were ... read more

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 ... read more

On the 22nd July we visited the sights of the D-day beaches through Normandy. Not really knowing too much about the American side of the landings, we decided to take the tour that went to the American sights of Utah and Omaha beaches. Of course, we were the only non-Americans on the tour though, which was not what we were expecting and took us by surprise suddenly being surrounded by American accents after having become used to European accents. But it was a fantastic tour. The stories of the planning and execution of the landings and efforts through the country side to re-claim the towns and region from the Germans were really inspiring. There were stories of paratroopers getting stuck on a church steeple and having to "play dead" for two hours to avoid being ... read more

So today was a day I had been pretty excited about for a while. Going on a tour of the D-Day beaches out in Normandy. For whatever reason I have kind of turned into a bit of a history buff/nerd on this subject and wanted to go out to the area to check it out and pay my respects at the American cemetary to all the soldiers we lost that day. Unfortunately it's a two hour train ride out to the town of Bayeux where the tour starts but it's a pretty nice ride. The countryside out in Normandy is beautiful and the architectural style reminds you of rural Britain for the obvious geographical reasons. I wish I could spend more than just an afternoon out here exploring some of the small towns. The tour consisted ... read more