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So I haven't updated in a while. I'll start with the weekend and then write other entry that covers what I've been doing in paris. Anyway, Friday afternoon three other students in my program and I decided to rent a car and go to Normandy over the weekend. We got up on Saturday morning and headed to Rouen, a smaller city about an hour from Paris. It was FINALLY sunny for the first time in looong time and it felt wonderful to get out the city. We stopped at a market in Paris before we left and stocked up on honey, bread, cheese, and fruit for the trip.
Because Rouen is so small, we saw most of the city in the 2 or 3 hours we were there. There is a beautiful abbey (really awesome on the inside, not very well taken care of on the outside. beautiful stained glass) and lots of churches (the cathedrale notre dame is amazing on the outside, and similar to the abbey but not as neat inside). Rouen is also the city where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake (I THINK, this is what I gathered from the French guidebook I was using). There's a church dedicated to her but it's super ugly (so says the guidebook and I agree). We ate a picnic lunch near the abbey and enjoyed the sunshine and then headed out towards Trouville.
Trouville is a small town on the northwest coast of Paris. We ended up there because one of our program administrators recommended a restaurant called les Vapeurs, which is in Trouville. We got a hotel close to the beach, explored the beach, and watched an amazing sunset. We also ate moules-frites (mussels and fries), drank wine, and walked around the town (which is really just one main street and then some streets coming off of that). The night was also really clear and one of the guys I went with (Ben) showed us the different constellations when we were walking back from dinner.
After only a few hours of sleep, we headed to Caen, where we saw William the Conquerer's chateau (or what's left of it, which is mostly just the outer walls and the chapel). We wanted to stop at the Musee de la Paix which commemorates WWII but just didn't have time, because we wanted to make it to all the beaches. So after a lunch (crepes...much cheaper than in Paris!) we headed further west to the beaches where the Allied troops landed on D-Day. We stopped at spots where the Canadians landed, the British landed, and at Omaha beach which was one of the American beaches.
The highlight of the trip for me was seeing the American cemetary at Omaha beach. It's incredible to see, almost 10,000 graves that are all marked with perfectly uniform white crosses, lined up in an exact pattern. It's hard to explain but it's very moving...it was also nice to be there in February before the tourist season starts. Another very interesting place to see was Point du Hoc, a cliff where American troops landed and scaled a cliff to take over a German weapons stronghold. There are HUGE craters in the ground and the area has been preserved more or less exactly as it was after the battle ended. After the beaches, we turned east and headed back to Paris. We got back just in time for the Super Bowl, which I stayed up til almost 4 in the morning to watch! (More details when I get a chance). The trip was a wonderful chance to see the French countryside and enjoy the first sunshine I've seen in a long time.
previous travel blog entry
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