Touring France, Day 6

Thursday is almost over, and we are so tired!  But, it’s been a wonderful trip so far.  Wednesday was a day full of remembrance.  We accidentally hit up three beaches in Normandy and two museums.  It was a mix up of the GPS and two museums having the exact same name, but they were at different beaches.  However, we saw Juno Beach, Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, visited two great museums, and, of course, visited the grand American Cemetery at Omaha.

We heard nearly a dozen languages at the cemetery, but my favorite highlight of people watching (because staring at the crosses is too intense for long periods of time) came when a group of US servicemen and their wives came through on a tour.  I stood close enough to hear their guide, an American military man, and they were having quite the good time – talking about the different medals and artillery used in specific battles.  It was a very cool sight (and I totally snagged a picture…for a later picture dump).

After dinner, back at our wonderful airbnb house, Matthew and I snuck away for our 9 year wedding anniversary.  We saw on the map a road that led to the water near our house, so we tried walking it, weaving through stone houses and little farms.  It was only about a mile away, and sure enough, the road ended at the English Channel.  We enjoyed the sunset on the rocks on the beach.  Matthew even brought enough materials to have a small fire, despite the glaring lack of beach wood (we found some random sticks). It was really romantic and quite quiet!

This morning, we got up and said goodbye to our lovely, quiet home in the country and drove to Bayeux to see a very cool tapestry (230 feet long!) that depicts the story of the Battle of Hastings and was made in the 12th century.  It was really fun and Levi especially loved it.  We then enjoyed lunch at a nearby café before hitting the road for a couple of hours.

We arrived at the beautiful gardens planted by Claude Monet at this home.  He used these gardens for many of his paintings.  Almost everything was in full bloom, so it was an ideal time to come.  The kids LOVED the flowers, even Axel ooohhed and aaahhed at the colors, mimicking the people around him.

Finally, we hopped in the car to head to our little place for the night.  And so, I say goodnight here to head to bed and begin our last few days on tour tomorrow…because we are finally in Paris!