Normandy and Brittany

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October 29, 2004\r \r Scott: Just finished traveling through Normandy and Brittany and are enroute to Dakar Senegal. Our travels in Northern France focused first on the war monuments of the Normandy invasion of World War II. We began our explorations at the Peace Museum in Caen, built on the site of the German defense command bunker for that area. We really only scratched the surface of this museum, taking in the first several parts which outlined the conditions leading up to the War, the events of the conflict itself, and the landing of the Allied forces on the beaches on June 6, 1945. We watched a film which showed the invasion on a split screen reflecting both the Allied and the German perspective of that day. It was very moving, and although we left after the film the museum structure continued on exploring the Cold War, current conflicts, successes in conflict resolution, the impact of the Nobel Peace Prize, and ended with a film entitled "Hope."\r

\r In the days after the museum we visited several of the landing beaches, including the infamous Omaha Beach that saw so many American casualties. Although it is a cliché, I can understand when people say they can almost feel the "ghosts of the past." After seeing so many photos, film clips, and displays about that day it was easy for me to close my eyes and imagine the horror, fear, determination and bravery that took place here 60 years ago. Finally, the American cemetery right above the beaches, with its neat rows of thousands of crosses and simple memorial set in immaculately manicured lawns and gardens, served as a peaceful and sacred visual reminder of the terrible cost.\r

\r As an interesting juxtaposition we visited the Bayeax Tapestry, a 70 meter embroidered length of cloth made shortly after the Norman invasion of England led by William the Conquerer which told the story of that event (as seen from the Norman perspective only; no split screens here.) I was fascinated by the tapestry and recognized several images from it, including a famous one of a medieval sighting of Haley's comet. I was particularly struck by the comparison with the Normandy beach memorials -- it seemed that it really boiled down to the same kind of event, separated by almost a millennium. Unfortunately the only significant change seemed to be the destructive capability of the weapons. Seeing the Tapestry for me was a more effective history lesson about this time period than any text or lecture I have encountered!\r

\r Continuing on our journey back into the past, we visited Mt. St. Michel, the Abbey built on the small island surrounded by tidal flats. (Interestingly, guidebooks all pointed out that the Abbey was one piece of French soil that never fell to a foreign invading army, a point that I took as somewhat self-conscious given its relative proximity to other less fortunate areas.) The Abbey was impressive in its structure and size, perched as it was on such a small island. We were also stuck by its simplicity and lack of ornamentation, probably reflecting its use by monks rather than as a public cathedral.\r

\r We then explored some of Brittany's wild shoreline near Cap Frehel on the north coast, finally finishing our visit by driving down to the southern shore and seeing the prehistoric sites around Carnac. This was quite interesting and very mysterious -- several sets of hundreds of stones set up in lines sometimes more than a kilometer long. No one knows their origin or purpose; they had a different feel from the ones in Stonehenge or Scotland whose design at least was more clearly related to astronomy.\r

\r We are continuing to do well traveling together as a family. Schoolwork remains the biggest challenge to fit in but we are progressing well there too, as we do math lessons in hotel rooms and on airplanes and papers are written and maps drawn when we have free moments. Of course we are learning our most significant lessons from the things we see and the people we meet, and the trip has been incredibly rich in that sense. We wish you all well, and shall update in Senegal!\r

\r \r Below is a rainbow we were lucky enough to see over the Brittany coast.\r