Friday, October 14 - Sunday, October 16 2011
Just a week after our
Alabama friends left us, it was Dave’s family’s turn for a visit. Dave’s dad (Roger) has been to Europe before,
but this was the first trip over for his mom (Linda) and brother (Jon). While there was much anxiety (mostly by Mom)
:), they made it in one piece and appeared in good shape when Dave picked them
up at the airport on Thursday. Right
away they experienced a little taste of European travel as we boarded the train
to head into town. It’s hard to read
people’s minds, but Dave could tell that the initial uncertainty was starting to fade
and they were ready to start enjoying Europe!
We dropped the bags off at
home and headed toward work to meet up with Ang for lunch (she had an important
meeting that morning and couldn’t make it to the airport). We decided to hit up Mister Panini for a quick bite (Jon later asked, “Why isn’t it Monsieur Panini”? Great question. We were glad to see that his French mind was
working already). :) We enjoyed our
Panini’s on the waterfront and heard all the details about their journey over
the Atlantic.
After lunch, the two of us
went back to work for the day while the family worked off a little jet lag with
some naps at home. We all enjoyed a nice
dinner that evening before calling it a night— as we had to leave the apartment
the next morning at 4:30am to catch the early flight to Paris!
Have we ever mentioned that
the early Easyjet flights are a killer?? :)
Just as always though, it was nice as it allowed us to be in Paris before
8am and were on the road to Normandy
by 9:00. For those unfamiliar with
French geography, Normandy is not just the beaches from WWII, it’s an entire
region in France with many different sites.
Which of these sites would we tackle first? How about Mont
Saint Michel!
Ang has been raving about
Mont Saint Michel since her first visit, back in high school. You may know it as “that island in Europe
with a castle on it, surrounded by ocean water.” (Well, that’s how Dave has thought
about it to this point). As simple as
that description is, it doesn’t do the real thing justice. The island couldn’t be in a more unassuming
place, off the coast of rural Normandy.
One minute you’re driving through quaint farmland and small villages
when all of a sudden you look out toward the water (even though you can’t see
the water because it’s so flat) and sticking out like a sore thumb is a large
island with a castle on it.
To be accurate, it’s not
actually a castle, even though it looks that way at first glance. It’s served several purposes over its long
history, which started back in 708 as a sanctuary built on the top of the
island, and over the course of hundreds of years, evolved into what we see
today. It has some military history, too
- it was an impenetrable stronghold during the Hundred Years War (between England and France) and became a symbol
of national French identity. It also had
a short stint as a prison until 1863 and it was finally declared a historic
monument in 1874.
We spent several hours
exploring this incredible site, touring through the narrow streets of the village at the base and making
our way up to the abbey on peak of the island.
The architectural achievements of this place were stunning as well. We learned how the stones were brought in on
boats during the high tides and how this material was used to build layers upon
layers of foundation to support the main abbey.
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| Statue of Joan of Arc |
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| Giant wheel that was used to hoist goods up to the abbey |
Undoubtedly the coolest
thing about Mont Saint Michel was staring out over the surrounding bay and
imagining how much water it takes to fill in the miles of exposed ocean floor each time the tide comes in. We looked closely and saw a group of tourists
that had walked out to a neighboring island, something we would have loved to
do given the time and an extra pair of shoes.
(Next time for sure!)
Shortly before sunset we
said goodbye to Mont Saint Michel and headed toward our hotel in Bayeux.
The drive in the late afternoon light, winding through small French
towns, was a treat for Mom and Dad (the only ones still awake with Dave during
the drive). :)
A quick side note about driving
in this part of France: once we got an
hour or so outside of Paris we started to notice these large painted road signs
with French names on the bottom. As we
started to recognize the names we realized these were advertisements,
highlighting a town’s most recognizable feature in an artistic rendition. There weren’t quite 100 of them, but over the
4-hour drive to Normandy we did see close to that many. Dad was quick with the camera and snapped a
few shots, below. What a great idea to
spark curiosity about some towns that most tourists have probably never heard
of!
By the time we reached
Bayeux, it was already dark. We checked
into the hotel and quickly raced to have dinner before Dad, Mom, and Jon fell
asleep from the jet lag. They later
admitted that this first full day was the roughest, but it got much better from
there. :) We ended the evening with a
stroll around the beautifully illuminated Bayeux
Cathedral in the center of town.
We clearly didn’t get enough
of the cathedral because the next morning we came back for a quick stop to go
inside. The most interesting thing to
note is that this cathedral is similar in size to Notre Dame in Paris, which is impressive considering the small size
of Bayeux in comparison. We were
particularly impressed with the detailed stonework in the interior. 
Bayeux is just a short drive
from the coastline, which was one of the central purposes of our visit to
Normandy – to visit the historic beaches made famous in the D-Day invasion by
the U.S., British, and (lesser known) Canadian troops. For those that don’t know the story well, or
just need a refresher, here is a brief version.
WWII started in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, and continued it’s rapid
invasions and occupations of nearly the entire European continent over the next
few years. While allied forces slowly
gained strongholds in Italy and Russia by 1943, France was still seen as a
critical piece of the puzzle to defeat the Nazis. On June 6, 1944 the largest fleet-led
invasion in history stormed across the English Channel and onto the beaches of
Normandy. Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword
beaches are lesser known than Omaha for one reason: because the pre-battle supporting
airstrikes were successful (they took out the German shoreline defenses and enabled
the allied troops to land with little resistance). Omaha was different, however, because the bad
weather caused uncertainty for the bombing fleet, resulting in missed targets
(and the unfortunate bombing of nearby French civilian towns). Because of this error the US troops that
landed on Omaha were met with heavy resistance and suffered serious casualties –
a couple thousand troops dying in mere hours.
Still, the Germans were defeated and the allied troops took the beach by
day’s end.
Our day started in Arromanches, just west of Gold Beach
(one of the British landings). Those
masses you see in the water were brought here on purpose to create a temporary
harbor for the mooring Battleships (put into place directly after the invasion). These
structures were supposed to eventually wash away (the ones in Omaha did in 12
days) but these stubbornly remain.
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| If you look closely, you can see Jon standing on the cliff |
It was surreal to walk on
the sand of Omaha beach, trying to picture the horrors of that day that so many
of our American heroes faced (which was a little hard to do considering the
blue sky and such beautiful scenery). While
it was difficult to imagine what took place on the beach, it was easier to imagine
the troops storming the hills to gain the high ground because there were still
German bunkers remaining, open for visiting.
Pretty crazy.
The most moving experience
was, of course, the American cemetery resting high above Omaha beach. We stumbled upon a free walking tour from an
extremely engaging and passionate tour guide, who told us the entire story of
Omaha and the layout of the cemetery.
Behind the famous monument is a wall with names of soldiers whose bodies
were never recovered. That being said,
out of the thousands of names listed, 14 bodies have since been found and are marked
on the wall with a stone like you can see in the picture below.
As for the gravesites, the
symmetry of the crosses is mind blowing.
We’d like to think the purpose of this is to show the strength,
diligence, and solidity of our American forces, an appropriate symbol of
respect that’s paid to each of our soldiers after they’ve made the ultimate
sacrifice for our freedom.
If you’ve seen Saving Private Ryan, you might recognize
the name on this first cross (bottom left).
This soldier was the character Tom Hank played… if you haven’t seen it,
sorry for that spoiler! :) We also saw
the gravesites of two of the “Ryan” brothers (their real name was “Niland”). The story is in fact true that three out of
four brothers were killed or presumed dead in a short period of time so the
fourth brother was ordered to return home.
Unlike the movie however, no dramatic search and rescue operation was
needed, he was returned home in ordinary fashion.
After the cemetery, we
visited Pointe du Hoc, the site of a
remarkable story of American military achievement. Pointe du Hoc was essentially the anchor in
Germany’s coastal defenses. It was
geographically located to where its long-range cannons could hit targets with
remarkable accuracy as far as Omaha and Utah beaches. Top this off with its elevation – perched on
steep cliffs above the sea below – the Germans thought they had an
indestructible defense system. As part
of the American siege on Point du Hoc, the U.S. heavily bombed the German base
(you can still see the incredibly deep craters today, shown below). Additionally, 210 Special Force Rangers,
under heavy fire, scaled the steep cliffs with special climbing gear and
destroyed the remaining guns, which happened to be pointing directly at Utah
beach. How amazing is that? Unfortunately almost 2/3 of the Rangers were
killed, but their actions that day saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives
and prevented what could have been disastrous consequences for the invasion on
Utah beach.
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| Bomb crater |
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| View looking out from inside a bunker |
Our final stop of the day
was a visit to Utah beach. It’s easy to
overlook Utah beach because of the operation’s great success that day (and that
only 197, out of the roughly 23,000 troops that landed, were killed in action). Regardless, Utah was just as important in the
overall scheme of the invasion.
Thus ended our time on the
Normandy beaches. We wouldn’t say it was
a fun time, but more of an enlightening
time. It was good to have the firsthand
experience and to be reminded of the sacrifices that have brought both the U.S.
and the world to where we are today.
History could have gone a lot differently if it weren’t for the actions
here, and for that we a very thankful.
Our hotel was in Rouen that night, a couple hours drive
from the Normandy beaches. We all felt
bad that Ang had her birthday fall on such a sobering day (although she didn’t
seem to mind), but we still tried to make up for it by celebrating at
dinner that night. We weren’t quite sure if European restaurants
understood the concept of the birthday celebration/public embarrassment that
you might find at Red Robin, for example.
Mom and Dad tried to tell the waiter that it was her birthday but
judging from his reaction we didn’t think he understood (after all, in France they
call it “Joyeux Anniversaire”). Toward the
end of the meal, however, all doubts were erased as suddenly the speakers
blared an unfamiliar birthday song and a flaming sundae appeared in front of
Ang. It was just like home after all! ;)
Rouen is a beautiful city,
architecturally speaking. Our hotel was
parked right between two of the city’s biggest cathedrals, and better yet we
had balconies that gave us primetime seats to view them both in all sorts of
light. Here are a few shots throughout our
quick stay.
Our tour of Rouen consisted
of walking the city to find a few key landmarks, but we found ourselves just as
enamored in the very Bavarian-esque building exteriors.
Our first stop was Rouen’s Notre Dame (the largest cathedral seen
from our balcony). Claude Monet (more on him later) put this cathedral on the map by
creating over 30 impressionist paintings of the exterior, all differing by
changing angles and light of day. The
interior was also quite impressive. On a
side note, it was great to see Jon so engaged with each cathedral we
visited. His interests were mainly
around the structural support that the arches gave these massive buildings. He was quick to point out when there was a
crack or shift in the arches, which he predicted would cause them to fall… in
about 200 years. :)
We continued our walk,
passing the immaculate Palais de Justice,
which was completely destroyed during allied bombings. Don’t fret, the building was completely
rebuilt and, as you can see, shows the same “immaculate-ness” that it did
before WWII.
We walked under the 16th
century Gros Horloge (aka Big Clock),
which reminds visitors of a slower-paced era where the minute hand wasn’t
necessary. The hour hand is there,
however, and it is in the form of a sheep, a reminder of Rouen’s previous
wealth, grown from the wool industry.
We reached the Place du Vieux Marché, a market square with
a very recognizable historical event – this is the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431 (see
the photo with the sign in the middle of the flowers/bushes, which marks the
spot). The square also has the funky
looking Joan of Arc Church which looks
like something straight out of East Bellevue.
When we learned that it was built in the 70s, that answered a lot of
questions. :)
As we left the square we
walked by a building that still had WWII damage, which you’d think we’d be used
to by now, but it is still always bizarre to see. We rounded out our visit with a couple more
impressive, but non-historically interesting churches and were on the road
again.
Remember our earlier note
about Claude Monet? We mentioned that he
painted many images of the Notre Dame in Rouen, but he also painted a ton of
different scenery across all of Normandy.
He made his home base in the town of Giverny, which was our next stop
for the day. We realize non-art lovers
(which the two of us primarily consider ourselves) may not find Monet’s Garden as the ideal tourist
stop, but it was pretty neat to walk through the gardens that inspired so many
of his famous works. 
Even if you’re not a Monet
fan, at a minimum we’re sure you’ve heard of his Water Lilies (we visited these in Paris last year). Well, at his garden you can actually walk
around the same pond full of lilies and surrounded by willow trees that he
painted! This was especially a treat for
Dad, who is easily the biggest art lover in the family and who is quite
familiar with Monet’s works.
Our final stop of the trip was to drop off Mom,
Dad, and brother in Paris at their hotel.
The two of us had to go back to work but they would stay here until
Wednesday and take the train back to Geneva.
Before we headed for the airport we had time for a quick visit to the
always-magnificent Eifel Tower. We caught some pictures right before daylight
was completely gone, said our goodbyes, and headed off. But this was only part 1 of our Visser
family European adventure…
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