First weekend trip!

So this weekend was "très bousculé!" (very hustle-and-bustle). We woke up SO early on Saturday morning to take a 7h15 bus to the town of Arromanches, to visit the D-Day Museum. It paid a great hommage to the so many soldiers who lost their lives liberating Europe. The French, no matter what my grandfather ever says, are so infinitely grateful for the British, Canadian and American efforts during the war, even 65 years later- it's really moving.

After the museum and some lunch in Arromanches, we boarded the bus again and headed to the American Cemetery at Omaha beach. The cemetery has over 9900 buried soldiers- with mostly crosses, but stars of David all over. It seems to continue forever. The soldiers graves face the direction of the United States, since they gave their lives fighting for their country. It's a beautiful place to "réposer" ("rest") for eternity- the grasses and trees are perfectly maintained, even in February!

The beach of Omaha (not its original name- its code name) is down a long, steep hill. The views from the top are spectacular. We descended to the beach after strolling through the cemetery, enjoying the absolutely perfect weather (see pictures..). The beach was perfectly calm- it's so bizarre to think that so many people lost their lives in the most famous and important battle in modern history- it was eerie and serene at the same time. We strolled around the beach, took some nice pictures and picked some stones to take back. 

After that (yes, all in one day!), we went to a small, very old fishing village called St. Malo. It's old city walls are still there and it's quite impressive. We stayed at this quaint hotel called "Hotel L'Univers." We had this amazing dinner, we drank Kirs to start off (Champagne and peach liqeur- traditional French celebratory drink) and enjoyed salads, amazingly fresh "Moules Provençales" (Provincial style Mussels) with french fries and then had some crème brûlée and "Fruits de Soleil" (Sun fruits- mango, pomegranate and passionfruit) flavored ice cream for like 23€  - great success, gypsie.

We hung out in the hotel that night and enjoyed watching TV after strolling around the small town (since there was basically no night life, unfortunately). The next morning (today) we woke up early, again- thanks Céline- and walked around the city walls and enjoyed the gorgeous views of the "Côte d'Emeraud" (Emerald coast)- the waters are really Emerald colored, it's breathtaking, especially at "l'aube" (dawn). We hoped on the bus and took our 1.5 hour trip to le Mt. St. Michel- this amazing abbey that was originally built in 708! Many additions were made to this abbey and it's really stupendous. It's enormous and can be seen from like 25 km away (we enjoyed it through sunset the night before on the autoroute). We climbed up to the top and again, enjoyed more views. 

The tides here (les marées) are extreme. They rise and fall a few meters, and they're even greater during the winter equinoxes. The gardens and architecture were "jolis" (I can't keep repeating beautiful, etc. in English- I'll just go with the French equivalents). After climbing so many stairs up and down, we went back down to the village area (the abbey is on the very top of the mountain island) for lunch. We had made a reservation at the world famous "La Mère Poulain" for a Mt. St. Michel style omelet- (they whip the batter so it's extremely fluffy), but after a long story, we realized the price of an omelet was 38€ (and that celebrities from Catherine DeNeuve to Eva Longoria to President Sarkozy) had eaten there and it was out of our price range. We went to the next restaurant down and had a three course meal that was just as great for 15€.

We then headed back to the bus for our 4.5 hour bus ride back to Paris. The total trip measured over 1000 km! The ride back home was basically a few naps, 100+ pages of classic French literature (Molière's play, "Le malade imaginaire" [The imaginary sick-person]) which I really enjoyed- and also playing games with Céline's 5-year-old daughter Laetitia, who came on the trip. We all enjoyed reading French children's books and playing with her- we never see kids!! It was a luxury too.

Finally, we arrived back in Paris- which seemed like a dirty, messy, urban jungle in comparison to the quaint, peaceful, simple countryside in lower Normandy and Brittany that we enjoyed this weekend. It was nice and relaxing, though it was so busy! The weather was perfect and it's going to continue to be for the next week- sunny and in the mid-50's (or lower teens lol)

Next weekend we are going to Amsterdam- I'm looking forward to that very much to. Soon, Callie will be visiting- and I'm even more excited for that too!

Check out the 100+ pictures in two photo albums on facebook. The captions are below most of them, explaining what they are. Amusez-vous!

Bisous à tous-

Album One

Album Two