What was coolest about the weekend was that we saw so many places, we stayed in one city, but then traveled to 4 other cities to explore. On Friday we left Paris bright and early and drove 5 hours to Mont Saint Michel!!!! Mont St Michel is something all french students learn about in school because it's such a famous monument in France. It's a huge medieval castle basically on an island.
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| amazing |
One of the coolest parts of Mont St. Michel (and all of Normandy) were the tides!!! At Mont St Michel specifically, the tides come in and out every 6 hours. When we arrived the castle was surrounded by sand, and when we left it was covered in water like in the picture.
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| before the tide |
That night we arrived at our stunning hotel in the city of Saint-Malo, France, about an hour from Mont St Michel. Saint-Malo, home to a seaport, is surrounded by water also and adorable and quaint. Full of narrow roads and cobblestone streets. Another great part of Saint-Malo is the wall. There's basically a mini great wall of china surrounding the city, which was built during the 100 Years War and is the only "original" part of Saint-Malo, the rest was destroyed during the war. You could walk on the wall, around the whole city in probably 30 minutes.
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| wall on left, city on right |
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| view from on top the wall! |
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| another view |
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| this was the busiest part of the city; also where our hotel was |
Friday night we were released to do our own exploring, after being given tons of suggestions of where to go and eat. Since we were right on the Atlantic Ocean, everything was seafood of course. I went out to dinner with the other Wisconsinites and half of us ordered mussels ( not me ). After dinner we hung out at the bar on the first floor of our hotel, trying the spiked apple cider that Saint-Malo is famous for!
Saturday morning we had a brief walking tour of Saint-Malo and we caught all the beautiful ocean views. Afterward, we took our tour bus about an hour to another adorable city called Dinan for the day! We had a brief group tour then were given a couple hours for lunch and exploration. This was one of my favorite parts because this city was also very charming and along a river.
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| aw! |
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| just soaking up the sun and the cuteness |
For lunch, we were instructed to try une gallette, an unsweetened crepe and of more substance than a crepe with nutella or something. We chose a restaurant right along the river and dove in (to the gallettes, not the river).
Yum! After lunch we did more exploring.
When we returned to Saint-Malo, it was about 3:30 PM and we had the rest of our day to explore! We went to the beach! Like Saint Michel, we got to experience the tides at Saint-Malo, the beach was massive because the tide hadn't come in yet, but at around 5:30 PM we were told the beach would be closing since all the water was approaching. Before the tide came, all these huuuuge rocks were visible, and you could walk to this little castle house thingy, but after the tide came the pathway to the castle was covered. So before we climbed all over the rocks and had a really great time!
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| view of Saint-Malo from little castle…where the sand is gets completely covered by water! |
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| cool rocks |
Later that night we went out for pizza and then walked along the wall and the beach. Then stopped along to ocean to take in the sounds of the waves. Here's a pic of the gang!
The next day was basically why I signed up for this whole trip: the Normandy landing beaches. Saturday night was finally when we had to set our clocks ahead and then we had to meet up for breakfast at 7:00, so really 6:00.. everyone looked pretty rough that morning. We drove two hours to Omaha Beach, which is also where the American military cemetery and memorial are. Apparently, some of the Normandy beaches still have small canyons from bombings and trenches, but the beaches we saw looked like normal beaches. Very peaceful. The land around the beach, which was covered in grass, was, however, super rough and canyon-like.
What came next was completely unreal. I had mentally prepared for a moving and emotional visit, but I didn't expect how heavy and strong the power of the sights would take over me when I saw the cemetery and memorial. Seeing over 9,000 graves of the young americans who died. Especially when the dates on the graves are mostly all within the same week. Something interesting that I didn't know prior to the visit was that this land is considered U.S. soil. There are American flags and "United States of America" engraved on the walls.
This last picture is part of a wall listing all the names of soldiers who were never found. Between this wall and the gravestones in the cemetery, a couple people in my group saw their last names. I can't even imagine what that felt like for them. It was crazy to me to even see "Wisconsin" next to someone's name. After Omaha beach, we made our way to another beach part of the Normandy beaches in Arromanches, France. Another normal-looking beach, but there are still pieces in the water from a man-made bay created around 1940. We had an hour here for lunch then we were on our way back to Paris.
On a happier note, this weekend was amazing!! I love the little cities of France just as much as I love Paris and I can't wait to see more of it!
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