Sunday, June 30

We left Honfleur and drove towards the Normandy beaches.  We decided to take the scenic route and ended up on narrow roads and driving through small villages.  The area is farmland and beautiful.  You can see for miles.  The weather warmed to clear skies and perfect temperatures.

We spent most of the day in Arromanches, which is the western most site of the British point of invasion.  Churchill came up with the idea of building a floating harbor to bring troops and supplies to the beaches.  Planning began in January of 1943 and was ready for D-Day, June 6, 1944.  It was An amazing engineering feat.  

Most of the original floating docks have been destroyed by storms.  What you can see seems really small, but is actually about 2 kilometers off shore.  The major piece weighed 7,000 tons!  Fifteen old ships were brought in to the area and purposely sunk to help with create the barricade.

The front part of this picture is the part of the harbor that the vehicles and supplies traveled over.  The small dark, oblong shapes toward the horizon are about 2 kms away.

This is Dale in front of a WW2 howitzer.

 

We will be two nights in Bayeaux.  Our rooms have all been large and comfortable.  It is nice to be here more than one night.

We haven't had a bad meal yet.  Nothing has been rich, which one might think of when thinking of French food.  Tonight, three of us had duck confit (yum!).

Below is what our breakfast table looked like on the farm this morning.

Giverny and Honfleur

The Winters'  family is joyously back together!  Glen had to wait several extra minutes for us to clear customs in Paris due to someone having left their luggage.  But it was a sweet reunion once we were through the exit gates.

We have been the beneficiaries of Glen's command of the French language, especially when it comes to eating.  It has been enjoyable to just listen to his voice.  He was also able to help us with directions to our second B and B and no one here appears to speak English (not sure how I was able to make the reservations).  

We've rented a car and the hardest thing to get used to is the standard transmission when I go to start it . . . That and steep inclines.

Day one was driving through small country villages to get to Giverny, home to Monet's house and gardens.  We visited the local impressionist museum, which had paintings by Signac.  Then Saturday morning we toured the house and gardens.  Thankfully I never cease to be amazed at standing in historic places.  It was amazing to see the lily pads, bridge, and flowers that Monet used for his inspiration.

Driving on the auto route has not caused me any fear--slow drivers stay to the right and no one honks at you.  :). But cities, steep inclines, and re-entering the car cause me a bit of consternation.  I have more than once caused the car to bunny hop, or killed the engine for lack of applying enough gas!

Bob bought a gps for us to use on the trip and named her Michelle.  She has been a great help, with the exception of bringing us to our farm b and b.  She took us down a very narrow, one lane dirt road and about 5 miles away from where we needed to be.  We did arrive at a delightful, middle ages working farm, complete with chickens, geese, rabbits, cows, and one very old horse.  After breakfast we are headed to the beaches of Normandy.