Normandie 2019 Day Two

Ann arranged for a guided tour of the Normandie D-Day beaches and we traveled with Marianne and Guy. He was the driver, and she was the guide and a font of information and stories. I longed for headsets and a mic for her so we could move along. When I move slowly, I become exhausted. We stopped for lunch at a cafe that caters to busloads of Americans, so that was disappointing. Otherwise it was a great day.

 Nice breakfast at the Churchill Hotel

 Delicious

 View from the hotel

 Pointe du Hoc where the rangers landed on D-Day

 Craters still visible

 Gun emplacement

Marianne, Kris, and Opa

 Gun emplacement with barracks

 The commemorative monument and the Point beyond

 The wooden beams were turned to charcoal by the

intense heat of the explosion that took out the emplacement

 Barbed wire greeted the Rangers as they scaled the cliff to take

out the German guns

 Marianne had stories

When the hospital was destroyed, the explosion threw these huge

precast concrete stones hundreds of feet

 SKT reading at Omaha Beach

 The beautiful American Cemetery above Omaha Beach

View toward the English Channel

Omaha Beach

It is sobering to understand that each cross represents 

the life of a human being

 

Chapel

 Memorial

 Enormous bronze vase in the memorial

 Memorial and gate as we left

 A beautiful park-like setting

 Huge floating steel barges formed a breakwater and harbor 

at Arromanche that were a little-know, but extremely critical

in the success of Operation Overlord

 Hotel Churchill back in Bayeux

 Supper at Le Garde Manager

 Nice meal

 Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux

 Evening light on the cathedral

 Baroque pulpit canopy, Romanesque arches, Gothic windows

 Cathedral facade

 Bayeux

 Lots of Medieval architecture

Aure River flows through the center of town

Tomorrow we head north to Calais to catch our train to London. There will be more, but this is all for now.

OXO

D.

Normandie 2019 Day One

Sunday 31 March, we said goodbye to our wonderful neighborhood and excellent flat, and took a taxi to Charles de Gaulle airport where we were to pick up our car. The size we ordered was not available, so they had to bring another car from a different lot. It took two bloody hours for it to arrive, so we lost our visit to Rouen, at least for now. With Annie at the wheel, we whizzed up into Normandie with our first stop at Giverny. Even in late March it is slammed, maybe because it was Sunday. The house is charming and the gardens are lovely, even if overrun with tourists like us. For some reason, I feel entitled and don't want anyone else where we are. We arrived in Bayeux in time to settle into the Churchill Hotel and walk out for dinner.

 We loved Anthony Bosson

 The people were wonderful and the fresh baguettes or croissants

every morning were otherworldly

 Our comfortable and attractive flat: kitchen

 Kris and Ann figured out the washer/dryer

 When we first walked in last week, Ann thought

this might be the sitting room

 Bathroom -- toilet up a small set of stairs in a 

separate room

You can see "the bog" up the stairs in the left rear

 Comfortable sitting room

 Dining table was our work surface

 Stephen and Ann's room

 David and Kris's room

 Up the A 13 with Annie at the wheel

 Quick and easy...

But no better than at home

 The Autoroute gave way to country roads

 Beautiful forests and fields

 And interesting villages and buildings all along the way

 Monet's garden at Giverny

 Monet's house

 His studio

 Lesser-known Monet portraits

 Monet's buddy Cézanne

 The splendid view of the garden from his bedroom

 Another bedroom

 Dining room

 He liked blue and white porcelain with his yellow wall, too

 Copper in the kitchen

Kitchen stove and fireplace

 Brass and tile

 This stream feeds the Japanese Lily Pond

 The stream 

 Lily pond with the Japanese Bridge (double enlarge to see)

 Selfies have ruined so many sites

 Not sure what this is, but it's beaux

 The Churchill Hotel is old, but charming

 Dinner at the La Table du Terroire, which doesn't

mean terror, but roots -- whew

 I took the plunge and had snails, which were the texture

of clams and the flavor of butter and garlic

A local chicken recipe

Hake (fish)

 Back to the hotel

A prettyish little alley leads to reception

Tomorrow we are headed to the Normandie beaches. This is all for now.

OXO

D.