Exploring Normandy
Trip Start
May 02, 2007
1
20
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Mont st-michel,
France
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
We just finished with our Normandy excursions and are camped right outside of Mont St-Michel, a small rock island with a gigantic abbey jutting into the sky. It used to be completely disconnected from the mainland and worshippers would make pilgrimages across the sea at low tide, often at the risk of death (many died drowning or in quicksand). They've since built a causeway and the small island is now accessible by car and foot
01.Lily flower at Monet's garden
. In July and August they keep the abbey open until 11:30 PM (usually 7 PM) for after-dusk tours, and also offer some things that aren't available to the daytime visitors. Not only that, but the numbers of tourists are much lower than in the daytime - we actually had room to move around and have a thought to ourselves! Our trip here was most impressive - as we've said before, we are not church buffs at all, and usually avoid cathedrals and abbeys (seen one, seen 'em all), but this turned out to be another highlight of our trip so far. The abbey is massive and you're free to wander around the cavernous rooms and twisting corridors. To make it a little more interesting for the nighttime visitors, they added some features like: special lighting, sound effects (for example, a heartbeat and mystical chimes in one room, chanting in another), projections on the wall of moving silhouettes, and live music. In one room they had a live cellist (the acoustics were amazing, of the make-the-hair-on-your-neck-stand-up variety) and another a harpsichordist. Anyway, we won't give it all away, but if you make your way here sometime and it's in July-August, make sure to come in the night!As for the rest of our time in Normandy, after Paris we made a stop in Gaverny to visit Claude Monet's house and gardens (way too many tourists here) and also in Les Andelys to check out King Richard the Lionheart's castle, looming high above the Seine river
02.Monet's house
. It's in ruins now, but there is some pretty interesting history here. We headed up to the coast to a small seaside town called Fecamp, and visited the Benedictine museum, home to a still-functioning distillery of Benedictine liqueur. Our ticket included a tasting of it and it is very good - made of twenty-seven plants and spices, it is complex in taste and really smooth. We bought a half-liter bottle to sip on after our dinners. A short drive along the coast brought us to Etreat, another pretty seaside town that has a beach flanked by sheer white cliffs that drop right into the ocean, and which are topped by windswept green grass. These cliffs are quite delicate and are receding fast. They are so soft we were able to dig our fingernails into them - everywhere are warnings not to get too close to the cliff edge or to walk directly underneath them.We crossed the Pont du Normandie, which crosses over the mouth of the Seine as it empties into the sea, and stopped in Honfleur. It is an ancient fishing village that still has lots of charm, even though it swarms with tourists and is lined with bars, cafes and restaurants. In the main square there is something of a marina that is surrounded on three sides by sidewalks and old buildings that are built side-by-side with no space in between. After Honfleur it was time to get serious and reflective and dip into some very recent Normandy history: World War II
03.Richard the Lionheart's castle
. Normandy is the scene of the turning point of the war, first with the D-Day landings on the beach, followed by the Battle of Normandy. To start with, we visited "Le Memorial" in Caen - a huge museum dedicated to mostly WWII, but which also touches on WWI and even takes you to present time, including September 11, and has exhibits on peace and music ("the answer my friend, is blowin in the wind..."). We spent 4.5 hours in the museum, reading historical facts, first-hand accounts from witnesses and soldiers, and letters to loved ones. We viewed tons of displays of memorabilia and watched a movie about D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. There was no dialog, but the original footage and sounds required no talking at all. We were sad that we didn't get to spend more time there as it was so engrossing and interesting, but they closed on us. We could easily have spent another two hours. The beaches themselves were up next for us and we started on the eastern end and made our way west. On day one of the beaches we cycled starting at Juno beach (the site of the Canadian landing) and made frequent stops to view restored war artifacts (tanks, bunkers, artillery) and read historical boards. At one of the boards we met an older British man. When he learned that I was Canadian and Yvonne German, he told us that his wife is German and that they have a daughter who married a Canadian, and who now lives in Courtney
04.Carlo and the white cliffs
! Small world. Near Arromanche, we looked out into the water at the remains of Mulberry Harbour - an artificial concrete harbour that the Allies built in England and dragged over piece-by-piece so they could unload their heavy equipment and supplies. We also biked inland a bit passing through several small villages that witnessed some fierce battles and read about their roles in the war. Our last stop of the day was at the Canadian war cemetery in Beny-Sur-Mer. We got there quite late so it was just us for most of the time, which made it very peaceful and serene. The rain returned on day two of our visit so we were forced to complete it by van. We stopped to check out some still intact German batteries, complete with huge long-range guns (of course, non-operational!). It is so surreal to actually see these places - to put what we've read about and watched in movies and documentaries into a very real and immediate context. We also drove to Coleville-Sur-Mer, home to the biggest American war cemetery in France. Their visitor centre is very well-done, almost like a museum with lots of informative facts, relics and even some short films. We walked from the cemetery down to Omaha beach, the bloodiest of all the landing beaches, but which the Americans miraculously claimed. It's impossible to imagine what it must have been like on that day, but it doesn't stop you from trying. Next we went to a German cemetery near La Cambe, with over 21,000 buried (in contrast, the Canadian one has just over 2000 and the American one around 10,000)
05.Fecamp
. It is a very somber place - no headstones mark the graves, just little plaques with two names per. Rows of five black stone crosses are also intermittently placed throughout the site. It's horrific to think what the buried here represent, but at the same time you have to remember that many of them had no choice, and so they also deserve their respect and peace. The info center here was also well done - one of the things that isn't so published elsewhere is the Germans' soldiers point of view of the events during the battle, and were well covered here. Our last war stop was Point du Hoc, where a long battle took place for an important defensive position on the coast. The site has a few demolished German bunkers and it is pockmarked with massive bomb craters, now covered in green grass.Three straight days of exhaustive immersion in WWII left us mentally drained. After Mont St-Michel we are heading back inland through the Loire valley to check out some chateaus, visit Disneyland Paris, and finally head into Germany. But on the way we will make sure to stop and celebrate Bastille Day on July 14. We hear they put on a hell of a party!
Comments
Juno Beach
Hi Carlo and Yvonne. I too was at Juno Beach. From my understanding, for a long time there was no Candian Museum there until the Vetrans complained and raised money to have it built themselves.
I saw the same bunker half in the sand called 'Cosy's Pillbox.' I took a picture of the inscription that said: Named after Sgt. Cosy. On June 6 1944, 'This Canadian Soldier was entrusted with the mission of capturing the fortification with 15 men from B company from the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.A first assault by machine gun and grenade enabled them to capture the position, but Sgt. cosy was hit in the lungs.' Engineer reinforcements arrived, around 150, but only 27 survived this valiant and difficult battle in the dunes. I found Juno beach very errie.
In Caen, I wanted to go into the museum you spent all day in, but it was closing as I arrived. Bummer. I had to move on with the two others I was travelling with as we had a tight schedule.