French countryside (Giéville near Normandy)

For a larger selection of photos goto: https://goo.gl/photos/7sLVqK4vFrr8otQy7

Josh says:
Normandy was wet and cold. The place we were staying at was really really nice, it was a horse farm it also had chickens, pony's, baby lamb and a pet dog. Unfortunately they did't have any Wifi so we couldn't do the blog.

We didn't really try the food much but the food we did was good. The restaurants open at 7pm. We explored Saint-Lo on the first night we were in Normandy the only thing we saw was a church that was bombed by the Allies as the Germans had a strong hold in Saint-Lo. There is still the hole in the wall, on the side of the church there is a shell that didn't go off.

The next day we when to a Museum based on D Day :) but it wasn't the biggest but big enough. It had a big collection of vehicles and clothes, I knew most of it so was a bit boring but not complaining. Then we went to the American war cemetery which was very big, knowing how many died it looked like so much more died with the amount of graves of 10,000 was sad. We couldn't go to the Omaha beach as it was raining and windy.

The next thing we saw was some German battery guns which were all almost in tact, the guns were huge. After we went to one of the Day beaches it had the remains of the port the Allies built.

When we had tea I had a huge baguette and I only ate half of it, the rest was for lunch. Finally we went to Mont Saint Michel, which was a small island connected by a road. When we got there it was freezing, almost night and the tide was rising. Luckily it was only going to rise a bit so it didn't cover the road and stop us going in and out.

Alicia says:
In the Normandy area it is very cold.

The place we are staying at is very nice it has horses, sheep, chickens, a dog and ponies. In the little farm house we had 2 bedrooms with double beds. There was a separate toilet from the bathroom. In the bathroom it had a bath with stairs to get up to it.

One of the days we went to an army museum. After that we went to an American army museum. I liked the little place that we stayed at because of the bath, I also liked the army museum. I didn't like how Josh (brother) and me shared the same bed.  

Dad says:
More dramas. Once in Paris, we were told a bus to catch to from our train station to the next that we needed, but it was the wrong bus! So we got off and walked for 30 minutes. Only then when we arrived at the train station and bought our tickets to Caen (pronounced quo - go figure??) we were informed that it was the wrong train station and so we had to catch the metro to another station. If it were not for the continual array of stairs we had to climb up and down it would have been bearable. There was just no elevators or lifts in the metro (where we were).

Finally after a very comfortable train ride from Paris (approx 2 hours) we arrived in Caen and got our hire car. We drove straight to Giéville and just had time for quick walk around the farm. Driving on the right hand side is not too bad, but I did skimp out and got a manual car. I didn't think of it at the time of booking, but it was definitely different performing right hand gear shifts. I mixed up the wipers and indicators most of the journey. Unlike Rome, the drivers here are fortunately fairly good, however on the free-ways they still tailgate and park extraordinary close. The freeways go up to 130 km/h when dry and 110 when wet. Side roads seem to be mainly 50 km/h. I would have to say that without the cars Sat-nav we would have got lost more than we did.

The farm is a working equestrian farm and as Alicia pointed out it had "too many horses to count". Alicia got to pat a few, but unfortunately we didn't get time for a ride. It was always going to be interesting with the hosts as they do not speak much English and our French is still next to none.

That night we headed into Saint-Lo for dinner (Subway) and a gander. Saint-Lo was a strong-hold for the Nazi's and was heavily bombed by the allies when moving inland after D-Day. The church was struck, however there was one shell that didn't go off. Pictures we saw the next day from the museums show that the town was pretty well flattened.

Minor problem - no working wi-fi (or wiffie as the French say)....bloody annoying as I couldn't get the Crows scores and something else about researching the next days activities.

Our second day was always going to be busy. We started very early and headed back to Caen to go to the tourism office, see the large château and head off to the museum. It was a drizzly and cold day.

We changed our minds on the museum and instead of the one in Caen, we went to the Overlord museum at Utah beach in Normandy. For those who don't know (and I was one) Overload is the name of the operation to land at Normandy and Utah is the beach where the Americans first landed. The museum was really good, however Josh noted "I knew most of it anyhow".

Next was the American war cemetery. You know the numbers of deaths (well you think you do), but still seeing the 10,000 gravestones is a bit surreal.

We then headed off see some remaining battery guns in Longues-sur-Mer. It was surprising that any are remaining in one piece as this area was very heavily bombed during the D-Day landings.

Next stop was another D-Day landing site at Arromanches. Again the enormity of it all is just amazing. This is where the coalition made one of two temporary ports. One of the reasons the Germans didn't think Normandy was a target was the lack of ports (the one that was near was heavily guarded). As most materials were shipped over from England, without a port it would have been too hard to supply the forces. A fair bit of the port remains and luckily for us the tide was out so we could track out there.

Finally we decided to head off to Mont Saint Michel. On the way we stopped off at Avranches as I was tiring and decided to have dinner and a bit of a look around. We found out that the Tour De-France is starting here and is going through some of the towns we visited (Utah beach etc). The locals are really exited by that and it will be good to watch to see it on TV.

Mon and the kids got baguettes for dinner. I did'nt take a photo, but these were not quite the size I thought with each being approximately 50cm. Lets just say they supplied dinner for Mon and the kids and a plentiful lunch for all of us the next day. I had a weird French hamburger type meal, not that I thought it was going to be that, however it was very nice and again too much.

Mont Saint Michel is a bit of a fairyland looking island. Just off the coast it is mainly connected via a bridge and driveway, but when the tide is up you could be isolated for up to 2 hours. The tide was not that high when we were there, so we were not stuck. It is dominated by a cathedral, for which was closed when we got there, but it still is a functioning town open 24/7. There were again lots of shops, restaurants and a few hotels on the island. There were additional hotels and restaurants on the mainland. To get to the island you can take the free shuttle bus, which runs until 2am.

The drive back to our accommodation was a bit interesting. As we discovered the freeways have no lights, cats-eyes or any lit up signs. Since it was very foggy, raining and dark, this did not help matters. I basically tried to follow the vehicle ahead so they lit the way and took it a bit easy when I could'nt keep up. We would have got home around 11pm.

Hidden figures

Bunny: 0
Crowie: 0