Blogs from Caen, Lower Normandy, France, Europe
March 22nd 2011
Got up and returned to the house for 6am to empty it. The landlord of our house is meeting us at 9am to hand over the keys. Before this we need to get everything packed into the car. Realised by about 8am that it is not all going to fit. Sorted some items out for the neighbours to look after till our next visit home. A lot more of the items got sent to the charity shop than was originally planned, but maybe it was what we needed. A very emotional time. Left the house about 10.00 and headed to Portsmouth for our 2.45 ferry to Caen. Arrived at Caen at about 10pm and headed for our booked hotel on the edge of town. Bedded down for the night 23.15 French time. ... read more
May 17th 2010
Today we left our hotel earlier since it was Sunday thinking that the WWII sites around the beaches of Normandy might be busy. It was a very interesting day today. We first went to Pointe du Hoc where the US Rangers silenced the German gun battery by climbing a 100 ft. high cliff in the face of German machine gun fire. Of the 225 soldiers that assaulted the cliff only 90 were fit to fight after 1 ½ days. They still managed to keep control and push the Germans inland. The landscape was what you might think the moon would look, with big craters caused by bombs from planes and artillery fire from ships. Even with the pictures I took it is hard to imagine the devastation there. There were still bunkers and barbed wire there ... read more
May 15th 2010
This morning we had our usual breakfast of breads, cereal, what we have fondly called egg soup, yogurt, cheeses and meats. I will say the breads with the dark chocolate sticks baked in them have become my favorite. Larry and mom took their stash for lunch. Thank goodness I still have some snacks from home to tide me over. The prices are ridiculous here. A tiny cup of coffee costs 3,00 euros (about 3.99). Lunch for one couple was 28.00 and they just had hamburgers. Today another couple ordered 2 ham & cheese sandwiches, 2 tiny bags of chips, and two coke lights and it was over 18,00 euros. You add 1/3 on to the euro and you get about the amount. We have found if you go to a bakery you can get pastries and ... read more
March 14th 2010
Last weekend, Bucknell took us on an excursion to Normandy. As I’m sure you can tell, I’m getting very behind on my blogging due to me wanting to write down too many memories that I don’t want to forget and also due to the fact that generally when I leave I don’t bring my computer with me. So I’ll just say that Normandy was fabulous, but I’m going to try to not write such a length entry on it. The 7 of us spring only BEFers (BEF=Bucknell en France) left from the university at the ungodly hour of 6am on Friday (March 12) to leave for northern France. So yes, that means start walking a little after 5:30 with all my stuff for the three day weekend. I decided that since it was the huge Bucknell ... read more
Five Days, Five Countries, 2776 km Euro Road Trip
Published: January 25th 2010Europe » France » Lower Normandy » Caen
January 1st 2010
With our bags packed we load everything into the Ford C-max, our rental car for the next five days. The next challenge - to figure out how to use the Sat Nav. We get the hang of it eventually and head away from Rotterdam and towards Lieden where we make a short pit stop to pick up costumes for a New Years fancy dress party later in our trip. Safely avoiding the canals (which are freaky to try and parallel park next to) we leave Leiden heading first west, then south-west along the Dutch border with Germany. As we travel through rural Netherlands we chuckle that instead of using stone walls, hedges or steel wire to fence their sheep, the Dutch make use of their abundant supply of water to surround the paddocks with mini moats. ... read more
July 20th 2009
Omaha And Mont Saint Michel Arriving in Caen earlier than I intended, I couldn’t check in to my hostel that was a bit out of town until 3pm, so to make use of the time I headed back into the centre and visited the Chateau de Caen. Chateau seem to be a very loose word in France. Translated it literally means “Grand House” but from what I’ve seen it doesn’t matter whether the house was built in the 1700’s like Versailles or in the case of the chateau at Caen, a fortified castle built by William the Conqueror in the 10th Century. Now days, the walls of the castle have been repaired along with most of the buildings within, and it has now become the cultural centre for the town with museums and auditoriums housed inside. ... read more
July 5th 2009
Day 14: Sunday, July 5, 2009 CAEN, FRANCE Awoke 7:00 am. Paid the 6 euro (8.40 USD) to have breakfast at my hotel. The breakfast was ok. I thought it pricey for what I got. They offer the following: Cereals (3 kinds), Yogart (fruit or plain), orange juice, coffee / tea / hot chocolate, and 3 kinds of bread (croisant, roll, sliced bread). Maybe I'm just cheap. Today's plan is to tour Normandy. As many will know, Normandy has become synonymous with the WWII Allied D-Day landings that occurred there on June 6, 1944. The allies entered fortress europe by bombing the coast, dropping paratroopers, and assaulting the beaches code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. Many lives were lost, but it gave the allies a foothold in France that ultimately led to victory. Today, ... read more
July 4th 2009
Day 13: Saturday, July 4, 2009 PARIS, FRANCE 4th of July, Independance Day in the United States. Yet, I'm in France. Doesn't mean a thing here. Having completed my research yesterday, I am ready to travel south to Normandy. Aside from it's other attractions, many would know that the Normandy area is where the D-Day landings took place during WWII. After checking out of my hotel, it took about half an hour to travel via metro to St. Lazare train station. Note: Paris is a large city with several train stations. So when you are taking a train from Paris, you must know from which station it is travelling. For today's trip, my train left from St. Lazare station. At St. Lazare train station, I had my 2-month Eurorail Global Pass validated. This is necessary with ... read more
Theater, Normandy and Cinema. Woot.
Published: March 29th 2009Europe » France » Lower Normandy » Caen
March 29th 2009
Hello everyone! I hope all is well and that your semester is not too hectic. I’m doing amazingly. This coming week is our last week of classes before our two weeks off, so my professors decided it’d be a good idea to give me a test in every class but one next week. Not cool. But I’m nonetheless loving every moment here :) Every Saturday afternoon in March, I’ve had an Intercultural Workshop that I chose to participate in. It was lots of fun, and the differences between certain cultures were really interesting… things I had never really thought twice about were problems for students from other countries. Vice versa. Anyway, each Saturday we worked on a couple of skits that showed these differences, and this past Wednesday we acted them out…for the public. Oh joy. ... read more
March 21st 2009
Hello everyone, this is the start of kyles jamies and ethans blog. this last week has been tremendously awesome, from playing with hobos to partying on st pattys day we are ahving a blast. now we are in a small town of Caen just going to see the juno beach where the canadians helped in the war efforts. this is just a small entry but it is just to let everyone know that we are ok and having a great time. check back later for updates Aurevoire! KJE... read more
