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Published: February 20th 2013
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Room with a View
The good news about the Hotel Normandie was that not only was the price excellent, the WiFi exceptional, parking plentiful, the rooms clean and quiet, and the location excellent, but we also had great views of the sea from our rooms. The bad news was it was a rather ugly day for viewing. We gave ourselves a Christmas present this morning: we slept in an extra hour. Once I got up and looked out our hotel room window I was tempted to crawl back into bed. It was absolutely ugly out there: dark, rainy and depressingly deserted. There were only three other cars in the whole vast parking lot. But since Gail and her mother were in a different room on a different floor and since this once grand old hotel did not have room phones, I had to get up and shower first.
In our bathroom was an overhead electric coil heater. Pulling on a thin string cord turned it off and on through three different heat intensities. It was a bit chilly so I yanked the cord two times to get to the medium warmth setting. After finishing my shower in the clean comfortable bathroom and getting dressed there, I summoned my ever-drowsy roomie, Cassie, to get out of bed and get ready. After her usual half hour of prep we prepared to go down to the second floor to meet up with Gail and her mother for breakfast. Knowing we'd return to the room after breakfast to get our coats
Our First Impressions of Arromanches-les-Bains
Seeing how yucky it was outside had me considering sleeping in all morning. But brekfast awaited us and we didn't want to make the poor hotel staff come in on Christmas Day to make our breakfast then not show up.
Out in the distance those concrete and metal forms are what is left of the immense artificial harbor the Allies built shortly after invading Europe. By choosing Arromanches as the base for our own exploration of the region we had put ourselves smack dab in the center of the 5 D-Day invasion beaches. and supplies ready for the day's activities, I left the door keycard in the power slot while we headed downstairs.
The night before at dinner the hotel clerk/waiter/cook/bellboy asked us if we wanted to take breakfast. It was an additional charge of €8 which as any of you reading this will know is considered very expensive by Cheapo Dougo. However, we all agreed that it was going to be difficult to find a restaurant open on Christmas Day out here in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. At worst we could stuff our bellies with some bread and butter until we put together our LeClerc picnic fixings.
The breakfast room of the Hotel Normandie was in a greenhouse type of affair adjoining the old building. The room was comfortably heated (or at least I thought so - Grandma disagreed). Through the glass roof and sides we watched the heavens pouring down a cascade of unrelenting rain the entire time we ate. Those lakes in the farmers' fields would be doubling in size today. Merry Christmas Normandy.
We were rather happily surprised by the bounty of foods available to us at the breakfast buffet. Considering we
It Must've Been Incredible to Behold
Even in this crappy weather I could make out enough of the artificial port to realize what a gargantuan task building it must've been. After the British, Canadian and American troops had finally gotten off the invasion beaches an Allied fleet towed old derelict ships into this area and sunk them to create breakwaters. Then more ships towed huge concrete caissons and steel bridgeworks that were deployed to create a humongous manmade harbor for unloading supplies and men. Another artificail port was built farther West near Omaha Beach, but it was destroyed by a storm shortly after being deployed. These two artificial ports were codenamed "Mulberries". The port whose remains we are looking at here was Port Winston. were probably the only guests except for one other room, there was much to delight us. I was impressed by the plate of cold cuts, Gail found a wealth of cereals to chose, Grandma got her OJ and hot chocolate and Cassie grabbed her buns. Best of all, after piling up all that food on our plates, the man behind the bar adjoining the buffet asked if we wanted eggs. Cassie and I took advantage of that bonus. In the words of the hotel itself we had our choice of:
"Pain, croissants de notre boulanger, céréales, confiture maison, beurre, yaourt, salade de fruits.
• Fromage de notre région, jambon blanc, oeuf.
• Boisson chaude : café, thé, chocolat, infusion.
• Boisson fraiche : jus d'orange et multi fruit, jus de pomme. "
While gobbling all that down we were also able to take advantage of the internet and check the weather prediction for that day. "Increasingly clear skies with intermittent periods of rain". Yeah right, we thought as le Deluge pelted the windowed roof above us. We were in no hurry to explore the Normandy beaches in that storm all around us.
When we went back to
Museum Halftrack
At the far end of our parking lot was Le Musée du débarquement (Museum of the debarment) dedicated to the story of this spectacular undertaking. It is considered the best of the D-Day museums. We stayed in Arromanches for 4 days and never made it to the museum. Its opening times were long after we would leave to explore the other things in the area. our rooms we did our last minute potty stops and gathered our stuff. When I finished in the WC I turned off the light and yanked the overhead heater cord. Not hard enough. I yanked much harder the second time and pulled the string right out of the back of the heater. Unfortunately I succeeding in moving the heat setting up to high. Examining the back of the heater I saw that I ripped the string right out of the machine itself. To re-attach it I would need to take the back off the heater. I might have been able to do that with my trusty Swiss Army knife except that now the heater was too hot to touch. I decided that I'd fix it when we came back after the day's explorations. I pulled my key out of the electrical slot and assumed that the heater would go off, cool and be ready for my repairs later that night.
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