Normandy

Étretat

Our recent holiday in France was so short that I didn't have a chance to blog. 7 days with short daylight in the winter, lots of driving and much to experience. I got back to work the day after the holiday so that I could quickly get over the jetlag and have been trying to finish up the photobook of the holiday. Unfortunately I did not realise that Apple had stopped the Photos printing services until I finished compiling the photobook. At first I thought that I had chosen an outdated template so I painstakingly transferred the photos to another template. I realised later that I had to update my Mac OS and use the Mimeo photo app extension to convert my template. I thought I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when I realised that the photos loaded onto Mimeo were blurry. I have been trying to find other alternatives for the last 2 days - extremely frustrating, and completely disappointed with Apple. When frustrated with Apple, Keep Calm and Blog. 

We flew Airfrance to avoid CDG Terminal 1; I don't mind iconic, so long as it is updated. It took more than an hour to get out of the airport and another hour to sought out the car rental - they couldn't tell me where the hand break was. The kids prefer nature so we didn't plan for any time in Paris, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We did see gilet jaune protestors during our trip but they are mostly at roundabouts slowing down the traffic. Our first stop was Étretat. It was raining heavily most of the morning, so the chances of seeing the white cliffs weren't good. Everyone was hungry so we had to find a place for lunch. By the time we finished lunch, the rain had cleared and we were treated to a beautiful view of the limestone cliffs. The kids played on the pebble beached for awhile. To my surprise, the family was adventurous enough to take the hike up the cliffs that inspired some of Monet's paintings. 

Bayeux

It started to rain again when we got back into the car. We decided to head to our hotel in Bayeux and defer the visit to the D-Day sites until the next day. Château de Bellefountaine was an excellent hotel. There were even black and white swans on the grounds and a river running through it. It was unfortunate that the hotel dinner was fully booked because the menu looked amazing. We had a light dinner in Bayeux instead and managed to take in the beautiful Christmas lights in the city. There were no takers for the Tapisserie de Bayeux, which depicts the Norman conquest of England. 

We had an early start the next morning. After breakfast, we checked out and headed to Arromanches-les-Bains. This is the historic location where an artificial harbour was built by the Allied forces to unload heavy equipments on D-Day in June 1944. You can still see remnants of the floating structure along the beach. After that we drove to the Normandy American Cemetery &

Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial,
Colleville-sur-Mer

Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer. More than 9,000 American soldiers were buried here. Many died as soon as they got off their battleship. A sea of white crosses and Star of David across the cemetery was a solemn reminder of the sacrifices of so many to free Western Europe from the grasp of tyranny. There were balsam veteran's wreath place at the foot of each headstone. The American flag was flown at half mast to remember President Bush Snr who passed away the day before. At the centre of the memorial is a bronze sculpture named "The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves" with inscriptions that bring great hope to the families of the fallen soldiers: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord".

Mont-Saint Michel

Our final stop in Normandy was Mont-Saint Michel. I've had wanted to see this place for a very long time. And 2 years ago, when we visited the Loire Valley, I did consider driving here but was dissuaded by the hotel owner. I am glad I took his advice, because our eldest son wasn't with us for that trip.  Now we got to see this amazing place for the first time together. We could have joint the free English speaking tour at 3pm, but we were far too hungry, so we started off with a wonderful lunch at La Mère Poulard. I am glad we filled our stomachs first because the walk up to the monastery required quite a bit of energy. But the climb was well worth it because the monastery and the view of the top was astounding. It's unbelievable how hundreds of years ago, people managed to build such an huge structure so high up.

Nightfall at Mont-Saint Michel

The one advantage of travelling in winter is that you don't have to wait too long for the evening lights to come on to illuminate the buildings. We decide to go for crêpe de banane and wait for the sky to darken. And what a sight we were rewarded with - it was like a picture perfect postcard. We stood there in the dark for at least 1/2 hour taking many photos. After that, I was thinking of taking the 2km walk back to the hotel, but it was getting cold so we decided to hop onto the free shuttle bus instead. It didn't feel like I got enough of the place. Definitely worth another visit in the future.

Despite the rain and change of plans, we managed to do quite a lot in Normandy on the first 2 days of our vacation. Next, we were off to Dordogne.