Blogs from Bayeux, Lower Normandy, France, Europe - page 6

France - Bayeux..... One Pizza with Pepperoni, Hold the Snails....! Saturday 26th April 2008 Ah the extremes between typical Aussie vs. typical French cuisine were definitely highlighted to us today when we were checking out the menu at the local pizzeria ... After a lovely French breakfast of fresh bread and preserves, and yakking to Will and a couple from Tampa, Florida while we ate, we spent the day exploring Bayeux, wandering to the tourist office and through the town, the markets etc. But we shall come back to that.... On the way home we checked out a few places for dinner, and came across this little pizza shop about 2 minutes walk from our hotel. Some of the pizzas sounded great, albeit pretty standard ...although after all, you might ask, how bizarre could a pizza ... read more

Apparently our wine cupboard was getting a little low so we hooked up with a few fellow Kiwis to do something incredibly tacky... a booze cruise. For those not in the know, a booze cruise involves sailing over the channel to France, filling your car boot with cut price wine and coming home the same day. Hmm ... this of course wasn't how the trip was proposed to me a drink over the Poterhouse a few months ago. The boys threw in a few factors such as visiting the D-Day landing beaches and staying overnight in Normandy so the girls were convinced. Okay, this is NOT going to be a booze cruise - more like a 'cultural trip' with a few wine purchases thrown in... An early morning start saw us heading out of London towards ... read more

A lifetime of waiting has finally brought Jason to Normandy, the region in France where the D-day landings, codenamed Operation Overlord, took place and the subsequent Battle of Normandy. Without a doubt this has been one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had. Not just because Tracey's grandfather was among those soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach and bravely fought through Normandy, Belgium and Germany. And not just because this whole real life conflict of good vs. evil has fascinated Jason since he can remember. It's because when you are here, the stories you hear, the battle fields you walk, and monuments you see involve every human emotion there is and capture the imagination like nothing else. While here we visited the two American beaches, Utah and Omaha. These are open beaches that you ... read more

After saying goodbye to half of our California friends in Lisbon, Lindsay and I left for Paris. It was my first time in Paris and Lindsay hadn’t been there since her freshman year of college (before we even started dating, 8 years ago, wow). We stayed at a nice hotel called Grand Hotel Leveque about a 20 minute walk away from the Eiffel Tower, which was nice because we were right in the center of all of the major sights. The street our hotel was on was pedestrian only and made up of a mix of small grocery stores, restaurants, and cafes, so it was perfect for us. I think next time we go back we’ll probably stay there again. During our last trip to France in February, one of the highlights was food. I ... read more

Well, with my first (and only) trip into western France, my wife Erin and her parents (Pops and Mama Gundersen) and myself drove the 6.5 hours (for some reason, our return trip took almost double this) from western Germany to the French town of Bayeux in Normandy. The town was a beautiful, quaint little town that had plenty of good eateries where one could get tripes (among other things) and raw goat cheese (Pops would later experience its full wrafth the morning after eating it). Pops and I had a wonderful time passing the bottle of local Calvados back and forth. It was a wonderful few days, and Normandy is very beautiful. I apologize for not really expanding in depth on all of the WWII sights that we saw...it basically would take me a few pages ... read more