Normandy

We decided that Caen would be a good place to base our World War II explorations.

We were right. Caen was 75% demolished during WWII air raids. Can you imagine?

The city has been rebuilt and educates and promotes peace through its fantastic museum:

The Memorial of Caen: A Museum of Peace. It was the most comprehensive explanation I have

ever seen of the war, its causes and effects. It is a massive complex with separate museums. The WWII museum used all sorts of artifacts including original audio and video to detail the war. Another museum explained all sides of the Cold War. They also had a theater which showed footage from the battlefront. Fascinating. Finally, the day ended in the 'World of Peace' area which talked about how to reach peaceful agreements. In this section they included modern conflicts and had videotaped interviews with Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors about how to reach agreement. Very educational.

On a lighter side, we stayed with another Servas family and, again, had a terrific expereince. They picked us up at the train station and drove us to their refurbished barn house. It was gorgeous! The man-made canal flowing through their backyard was originally built to supply the nearby castle! They fed us wonderful food and regailed all sorts of amazing travel tales of their own. On Saturday they also chauffered us around to the D-Day beaches the American Military Cemetary, and the German Military Cemetary.

Before leaving Caen, we checked out William the Conqueror,s castle remains and the Bayaux

Tapestry. This amazing 70 meters of embroidered canvas recounts the Norman victory over

England in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

We loved our visit to Caens. After a few days, our heads were 'ready to explode with

information' as my students would say. We relaxed for a couple days outside of the Mont

St. Michel before leaving France.

Love-Tera and Jim