Hotel de Paris Courseulles-sur-Mer

This last weekend my program's group traveled to Normandy and Brittany. It was a very cool trip! On Saturday we drove from Paris to Caen, Normandy. We visited the Memorial de Caen, which is a museum/memorial from WWII. Caen was a city during WWII that was occupied by the Germans, and it was a major victory when the Allies were able to seize it. After Caen, we drove on to Omaha Beach to the American ...

Next stop were we stepping back in time even further...to 1066 to be exact and the battle of Hastings which is deplicated on a 70 m piece of embroidded cloth known as the Bayeux taperstry. On entry to the tapestry you are given an audio guide which provides a running commentry on what is ...

We had a busy day ahead so we set our alarm for 7am as its still dark at that time and so getting out of bed early has not been easy. I woke to the smell of coffee brewing and scrambled eggs in bed. The deal is I drive and Kim cooks.

After breakfast we walked over to the beach and on this beautiful sunny morning we found it hard to imagine the blood shed that occurred in 1944. From ...

Arrived at Ouistreham just before dark and found an Aire de Service right on the beach and this time it was free! The downside was it was right next to the ferry terminal and the 6am ferry to Portmouth the next day was kill the tranquilo the next morning. Kim's Maison du Scooby cooked up a storm. Pork fajitas on rice - delicious. I gave it 5 stars.

The trip to Normandy was a lot to absorb. It's hard to believe, that my grandfather Kelly was there on D-Day over 60 years ago.I certainly do not think I would have survived. I am thankful he did, I wouldn't be here. Nor my mother and her siblings, my sisters, or my nieces. His sacrifice has not only affected the existence of my own life, but the daily lives ...

Courseulles sur Mer is the town that the Canadians arrived on Juno beach. We got into the town in the afternoon and didn´t have much time so we found a hotel in the harbour area, dropped the bags and headed to the Canadian centre- museum. It was created by veterans as there was nothing in the area that commemorated our accomplishments on D-day. The tour which took us down into a German ...

June 29, Monday

This morning we head back to Juno Beach.. As we drove along the street Len noticed a monument for the Winnipeg Rifles. We stopped to read the inscriptions. Then back to the square where we sat for dinner and we looked at the Canadian tank with all the different regiment plaques on it from Canada. It was in the centre of a little flower bed with the maple leaf made in grass and plants. We ...

... years ago? I finally made it to the town of Courseulle-sur-mer at 5 PM. This is where the Canadian Troops landed on the beach code named Juno. There is a fairly new information center built here about Canada and its involvement in the war and what Canada was like in the 30's. There's also a temporary exhibit on the 400 year anniversary of Quebec and they've documented the story of a dozen French Canadians who came back to the shores of Normandy to fight in the war to ...

... We felt a bit better prepared as we arrived in Normandy. We were staying near to Sword beach, in the middle of the landing beaches in a small hotel within sight of the shoreline. As we arrived we were able to pick up brouchures about surrounding sights and plan out the next couple of days.

The wind and rain were present again the next morning, as we headed out towards Arromanches-les-Bains. The weather was befitting our travels -- sad, mournful. Sunny days might have seemed a little disrespectful somehow... We were headed to Arromanches, then Courseulles-sur-Mer and Juno Beach, and finally, Bény-sur-Mer, the final resting place of over 6,000 Canadians who lost their lives in Normandy. On this day, we would be honouring our Canadian heroes. Driving along the ...